TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner took notice. December and January are typically quiet times around the team’s player development facility — a sprawling complex with four full-sized baseball fields, a gym, a clubhouse, classrooms, a cafeteria, offices, a biomechanics lab, a Gas Station and more. But not this offseason.
“We had a large number of guys the entire month of January over at the Himes (Avenue) complex voluntarily working out, getting in shape, ramping it up,” Steinbrenner said earlier in camp. “More so than I ever remember, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. They’re ready to go.”
After a disappointing 82-80 record with a fourth-place finish in the American League East, more than a dozen Yankees — led by captain Aaron Judge — left their home cities earlier than usual and assembled for early workouts.
“Things didn’t go our way,” Judge said. “I can’t sit here and dwell on that. It still eats at me and still bites at me, but we’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Some showed up because it was what they planned. Others saw their friends getting in work and didn’t want to miss out.
And some saw that Judge was there and felt that they needed to be, too.
Starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt had scheduled an early arrival. But one day he was scrolling through his Instagram feed and saw a video of Judge hitting.
Man, Schmidt thought. If the captain is doing it, we’ve got to get down here, too.
“It’s like FOMO (fear of missing out) in a sense,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Damn. Am I behind the eight ball because I’m not there?’ Even if you didn’t have plans to get down early, it’s like, ‘I’ve got to get down there because everyone else is down there.’
“It’s a motivating thing for us to have a leader, a guy who’s on the forefront. He’s not calling everybody and saying, ‘Hey, come to Tampa.’ But it’s like, ‘I’m down here.’ A lead-from-example type of thing. It motivated a lot of guys to get down here early.”
Some felt they personally had something to prove. Lefty starting pitchers Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortes each were major letdowns in 2023, struggling through injuries and ineffectiveness, and the pair showed up early to make sure they would be ready to go on time for Opening Day. Rodón arrived slimmer than he did last year, when a forearm strain, lower back pain and a hamstring strain limited him to a 3-8 record and a 6.85 ERA in his first season of a six-year, $162 million deal. Cortes, a breakout All-Star in 2022, also showed up in better physical condition, hoping to put two left shoulder injuries and a 4.97 ERA behind him.
Cortes said he showed up to the complex on Dec. 17. One day, he called Schmidt, and then catcher Jose Trevino.
“I’m here, guys,” Cortes told them. “When are you going to be down here?”
For DJ LeMahieu, arriving early was part of a process that never really stopped at the end of last season. LeMahieu wasn’t satisfied that he hit just .243 with 15 homers and a .718 OPS.
LeMahieu often found himself in workout groups with Judge, shortstop Anthony Volpe, catcher Austin Wells, infielder Oswald Peraza and utility man Oswaldo Cabrera. Jasson Domínguez also spent the majority of his offseason at the complex, rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery he had in October. First baseman Anthony Rizzo arrived in late January, too. On the pitching side, prospects Will Warren, Clayton Beeter and Chase Hampton were there.
“Everybody says they used to fear (the Yankees) when we would go into stadiums,” Schmidt said. “We want to be that. We want to be that group of guys that kind of puts the league on notice. Getting back to that image, we’re here to show guys what we’re ready to do.”
Yankees legend Andy Pettitte appreciated hearing about the Yankees’ early workouts. He remembered how in 1998, much of the Yankees’ big-league roster, including Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez, showed up to Tampa early. The year prior, the team had aspirations of repeating as World Series champions, only to finish second in the AL East and fall in the Division Series to the Cleveland Indians.
Pettitte remembered the intensity of those workouts and how it helped the Yankees to a historic season — a then-AL-record 114 wins and a World Series victory.
“I see that in a lot of the guys here,” said Pettitte, who appeared in camp as a guest instructor in February. “They’re not coming off winning a championship, but they know the expectations here, and you have to have everybody bought into that expectation, and that’s OK for them. A lot of people don’t want that expectation. It’s hard to deal with. When you look at the odds, it’s not 100 percent we’re going to win a championship this year. But it’s that dream, that’s the focus. It’s that everyday commitment, and part of that is coming in prepared physically and mentally.”
For Wells, who debuted in September but will still be a rookie in 2024, the experience was invaluable.
“It was cool for me as a young player getting to see those guys who have done it for a while and what they’re trying to do to be prepared,” he said.
Manager Aaron Boone pointed to Judge’s influence.
“One of the things you can start with is Aaron living here in the winter,” Boone said. “He started to help create and foster that culture.”
But Judge looked to the bigger picture.
“A lot of guys were embarrassed,” he said. “A lot of guys didn’t have the season they wanted. Kind of a wakeup call. I think just kind of collectively as a group we just kind of looked at each other like, ‘This can’t happen again.’”
