New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Pitchers and catchers have reported, and in the Yankees’ case, well, it’s largely the same group of pitchers and catchers that were here last season. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman have acknowledged that the team is essentially Running it Back, and the players that came to camp on Wednesday expressed their belief that the club they have is good enough to win it all. “We’re running it back because at the halfway point [last season], we thought we built a team that was going to go to the World Series, and we still believe that wholeheartedly,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “If we play well, it’ll be a good thing,” Paul Goldschmidt said on the subject of running it back. “If we don’t, then it’ll probably be said that’s the reason we didn’t play well”.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: As teams report to camp, inevitably we receive a whole host of surprise injury news as some players arrive at spring training having gotten hurt at some point in the offseason. However, the Yankees appear to be fortunate this time around, as Boone stated yesterday that there were no new injuries to report as camp opened. In fact, we got good injury news coming out of Tampa, as Boone indicated that both Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón could appear in Grapefruit League games, indicating that their respective rehabs are going well and both are on track to return fairly early in the regular season.
New York Post | Mark Suleymanov: Among the Yankees’ goals this offseason was to find right-handed bats to counteract their lineup’s lefty lean, and they’ve done that with the re-signings of Amed Rosario and Paul Goldschmidt. They had also been rumored to be considering a reunion with Austin Slater, whom they traded for at last year’s deadline, but the veteran outfielder has returned to the Tigers, Jon Heyman was first to report. Slater has a strong track record against left-handed pitching, but struggled in a very small sample with the Yankees, going 1-for-16 against lefties.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Though it was paced by veteran horses like Max Fried and Carlos Rodón, the Yankee pitching staff received a big boost from young hurlers last year, with Will Warren leading all rookies in innings and strikeouts, and Cam Schlittler bursting onto the scene over the summer and ultimately pitching the Yankees through to the ALDS. To hear them tell it, the Yankees feel there’s more where that came from. “We have some young pups pushing up the ladder,” Brian Cashman recently told reporters, noting his belief that some of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects will again contribute in the near future. The most obvious candidates are Elmer Rodriguez and Carlos Lagrange, power pitchers who flattened Double-A last year, but there’s also reason for optimism for the likes of Angel Chivilli and Cade Winquest, a pair of live arms the Yankees acquired during the winter that they believe could supplement their bullpen in 2026.
FanGraphs | Dan Szymborksi: We’re in the thick of projection season, and today, Szymborski analyzed the players that saw the biggest boosts in their ZiPS projections year-over-year. One name on the list is Ben Rice, whose 1.8 WAR increase is the sixth largest among all players (though for my money, ZiPS’ 2.2 WAR projection still underrates Rice). Also on the list? None other than Aaron Judge, whose 7.7 WAR projection outpaces his previous forecast by 1.6 WAR. Projections can be slow to react to truly singular players like Judge, and though a player his age is liable to decline at any time, even this projection from ZiPS feels light for Judge.
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