Around the Empire: Yankees news - 8/26/23

NJ.com | Bob Klapisch: With the Yankees careening off the track and headed to missing the playoffs and possibly finishing under .500 for the first time in decades, fans want heads to roll. While it’s unclear how big the changes might be with Hal Steinbrenner unlikely to fire GM Brian Cashman in the first year of a new deal, there is still likely to be some amount of big changes made.

Sports Illustrated | Patrick McAvoy: Speaking of offseason changes, on the player front, the Yankees have done their due diligence on one intriguing name. Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to be posted this coming offseason and the Yankees have been among the teams scouting the Orix Buffaloes ace. Yamamoto has a career ERA under 2.00 in over 800 career innings in NPB, including a 1.42 mark this season.

CBS Sports: In one somewhat promising injury update, Anthony Rizzo has progressed to taking batting practice as he continues to recover from a concussion and his post-concussion syndrome that he played through for a couple months.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: In some, uh, “other” injury news, Josh Donaldson also took batting practice on Friday as he apparently works towards a potential rehab assignment. He’s not eligible to actually come back from the 60-day injured list for a couple weeks, and whether or not they would trot him back out for a handful of games remains to be seen.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: After a couple months that have a lot of bummer stories for the Yankees, here’s a pretty cool one. When the Yankees flew down to Florida to open up a series against the Rays, a familiar face was that the helm of their flight: Clarke Schmidt’s dad Dwight. The elder Schmidt is a pilot for Delta Air Lines and was at the controls and apparently got some good reviews from the Yankees.