Appease & Qs

Yanks have five questions they need to answer this offseason

As a dozen other teams prepared for the 2023 playoffs, Yankee Stadium was quiet Monday with the Yankees preparing for a long offseason.

When the Yankees play in The Bronx again, there could be significant changes, especially following owner Hal Steinbrenner’s statements to the Associated Press last month indicating there would be a “deep dive” into how the team is run, coupled with Aaron Judge’s stark assessment of the organization as the season wound down in Kansas City, when the team’s captain said, “I think there’s some stuff that happened this year that opened some people’s eyes,” while also noting that the way the organization looks at analytics may need improvement.

They were strong statements from two of the most important people in the organization, and both Steinbrenner and Judge will be among the group — along with general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone — that is expected to meet in Tampa to try to find out just what went wrong.

And while there’s still plenty of skepticism throughout the game that sweeping changes are coming, a wildly disappointing season without a playoff appearance in the watered-down version of the postseason might be the motivation needed to make serious alterations.

Here’s a look at what figures to be addressed in the early part of the offseason:

Coaching staff/Front office

Boone has one year left on his contract and was at the Stadium for several hours Monday, which is not out of the ordinary for Boone during the offseason. Cashman already took the unprecedented step — for him — of firing a coach in the middle of a season when he fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson at the All-Star break. Lawson’s replacement, Sean Casey, said he was asked to come back next year, but later clarified that no new contract had been offered. Sources said during the season that Brian Sabean and Omar Minaya — the former longtime GMs that were hired by Cashman last offseason — would be leaned on heavily as the organization assesses what needs to be fixed.

Use of analytics

Yankee fans’ most hated word, but one that’s not going away, regardless of what happens this offseason. Judge questioned the information the team was looking at and how it was being used: “I think it’s just about how we use them and how we value them is an aspect that maybe we need to look at again . ... I think it’s now about funneling those down to the players in the right format.’’

Steinbrenner & Co. have to determine whether they have the best group in place to do that.

Young guns any good?

The Rays have long been lauded for getting the most out of their young players. More recently, the Braves have become one of the top teams in the league because of their homegrown talent and this season, the Yankees saw the Orioles blow by them, largely on the strength of productive newcomers. Anthony Volpe showed promise as a rookie, but the Yankees need to see if any of their other prospects are worth building around.

Offensive approach

The Yankees have been built to hit homers. They finished ninth in the majors, due in part to freak injuries to Judge and Anthony Rizzo, but the offense faltered badly in other areas, including runs scored (25th), as well as doubles and batting average (29th in both). They finished 24th in OPS. As a comparison, the top seven teams in OPS are still playing. Do the Yankees have the wrong hitters or wrong approach?

Fill holes

Incredibly, the Yankees are only set next season offensively at first base (Rizzo, who will hopefully be past the post-concussion symptoms that forced him to be shut down), shortstop (Volpe) and right field (Judge). Who’s the starting catcher? Is Gleyber Torres at second? Where does DJ LeMahieu play? They still don’t have an everyday left fielder or center fielder. And in the rotation, there’s no surefire No. 2 behind Gerrit Cole.