The New York Yankees are off to a strong start to the 2023 MLB season. With a 10-6 record, the Yankees are tied for the second-best record in the American League. Only the Tampa Bay Rays' historic 13-0 start has kept New York out of first place in the AL East.
Tampa Bay's perfect start, of course, was unsustainable. The same isn't true for the Yankees. New York is on pace to win 101 games, which would give the club two more victories than last year. The Yankees spent big in the offseason and are one of the sport's top World Series contenders.
The Yankees are the only team in baseball that has yet to lose a series. What aspects of New York's early success might continue for the rest of the year? Let's take a look at three overreactions to the Yankees' hot start in the 2023 season.
*Stats via Baseball-Reference.
Yankees SP Gerrit Cole will be the unanimous 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner
Through the first few weeks of the season, Gerrit Cole has been MLB's best pitcher. In four starts, Cole leads all pitchers with a 1.5 WAR. Shohei Ohtani's 1.2 WAR ranks second in the AL. Cole is 4-0 with a 0.95 ERA and a 0.74 WHIP. The veteran has struck out 32 hitters in 28.1 innings. Cole hasn't given up more than two runs in any start, and he's coming off a complete-game shutout in his last outing.
It wouldn't be unprecedented for Cole to continue pitching at this level for several months in a row. In the season before he joined the Yankees, Cole surrendered two runs or fewer in 23 starts during a 25-start stretch. Cole had a 2.68 ERA and 13.1 strikeouts per nine innings in two years with the Houston Astros. It's why New York committed to paying Cole $324 million over nine years. It's possible that the 2018-2019 version of Cole has resurfaced in the Bronx in 2023.
Cole was the AL Cy Young favorite in spring training. Justin Verlander and Sandy Alcantara were both unanimous Cy Young winners last year. It might be a bit of an overreaction, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility that Cole will receive every first-place AL Cy Young vote at the end of the 2023 regular season.
Yankees SS Anthony Volpe will steal 50 bases as a rookie
Anthony Volpe has struggled at the plate to start his MLB career. The rookie has managed to make a positive impact on the team while wreaking havoc on the bases. Volpe has seven stolen bases in his first 16 games. The Yankees starting shortstop is on pace to finish his first year with 70 steals. Imagine what kind of pace he could have if he improves his .191 batting average and .319 on-base percentage.
Volpe is highly unlikely to have 70 stolen bases as a rookie. The 21-year-old has played in every game so far. MLB players simply don't play 162 games anymore. Volpe won't continue to be in the lineup every day if he doesn't significantly improve his hitting.
But 50 stolen bases? It's more than doable if Volpe can hold onto his starting job. Volpe's stolen-base technique takes advantage of the pitch clock. Stolen bases are up across the league because of MLB's new rule that limits the amount of pick-off attempts per at-bat. Volpe had 50 stolen bases on 57 attempts in 132 games as a minor-league player in 2022.
Yankees 2B Gleyber Torres will be a top-5 AL MVP candidate
No Yankees position player has gotten off to a more encouraging start than Torres. After spending much of the offseason in trade rumors, Torres looks like a player that New York would be crazy to deal. In 16 games, the second baseman is hitting .286/.435/.490. He also has two home runs, six RBI and five stolen bases.
If Torres becomes a legitimate MVP candidate, it would mark a significant improvement from the last few years. Torres wasn't an All-Star in 2022 or 2021. He certainly wouldn't have been an All-Star in 2020 if the season wasn't shortened. Torres hasn't hit higher than .257 or posted an OPS north of .761 in any of the last three seasons.
Torres' best MVP finish came in 2019. In 144 games, he hit 38 home runs with a .871 OPS for a 17-place finish in the voting. At just 22 years old, Torres appeared ready to contend for multiple MVP awards in his career.
Maybe Torres' hot start is a sign that he's finally ready to fulfill the promise he showed as a young player. Torres has shown much more patience at the plate, on pace to more than triple last year's walk total. He's also striking out at the lowest rate of his career.
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