The New York Yankees announced on Sunday that they had acquired reliever Jake Cousins from the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox will receive cash consideration in return.

Cousins is expected to be on the Yankees’ active roster for the upcoming series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Cousins spent the 2023 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, appearing in nine games and finishing the campaign with a 4.82 ERA, seven strikeouts and 10 hits allowed. He signed a minor league contract with the White Sox in December.

Since making his MLB debut with the Brewers in 2021, Cousins played in 51 games and has a 3-1 record with a 3.08 ERA and 72 strikeouts. He also has six seasons of experience in the minors. 

Acquiring Cousins gives the Yankees another arm that they can rely on in case of emergency. The team has a number of relievers dealing with injuries, including McKinley Moore and Tommy Kahnle, who are on a 15-day injured list, and Scott Effross and Lou Trivino, who are on a 60-day injured list.

The New York Yankees have had a promising start to the season, winning all of their first four games of the 2024 MLB season. However, their true test will be a series with Diamondbacks, who are 3-1 to start the campaign.

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The New York Yankees will be shorthanded when the 2024 MLB season starts. The team confirmed on Monday that their All-Star third baseman DJ LeMahieu will begin the campaign on the Injured List.

LeMahieu is dealing with a bruised foot, an injury he picked up in a spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 16. The veteran underwent MRI and CT scans, which came back negative, but is expected to undergo further tests this week.

“It’s a little bit slow go on the recovery side. He banged it up pretty good,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters on Monday. “The last few days, giving it time, it hasn’t really responded quick enough with the dates coming.”

It is unclear how much time LeMahieu will miss, but the expectation is that he will be sidelined for at least the first seven games, all on the road. He could potentially return for the first home series against the Blue Jays on April 4.

LeMahieu dealt with foot injuries in the past two seasons as well and the issues greatly impacted his production. In 2023, he batted a career-worst .243 while finishing the campaign with 15 home runs and 44 RBIs.

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The New York Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole is dealing with nerve inflammation in his throwing elbow and will have to pause throwing for three to four weeks. Cole confirmed this while talking with reporters on Saturday.

Cole experienced a sore elbow earlier this month, and there was a concern that he might have to undergo Tommy John surgery. This would sideline him for the 2024 season and the better part of the 2025 campaign.

Luckily for Cole and the Yankees, an MRI test revealed that the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner is “only” dealing with a nerve inflammation. He will now need to go through a period of rest and rehab but is expected to get back into action in May or early June. 

“I think we’ve determined that we just got a little too hot a little too quick in the spring,” Cole said via MLB.com. “We progressed through the normal recovery cycle, but at a certain time we didn’t get back to the baseline which was our target. At that point, it was time to see what was going on.”

Gerrit Cole made 33 starts in 2023, going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 222 strikeouts. He was named an All-Star for the sixth time in his career while winning his first Cy Young Award.

With Cole being out for the start of the season, Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman said that the franchise feels good about weathering his absence. However, he didn’t exclude the possibility of strengthening the roster with another quality arm.

“I feel good about our internal options. At the same time, it’s never stopped us from having external conversations,” said Cashman.

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The New York Yankees star slugger Aaron Judge is having a break from batting in the following days after experiencing pain in his abs. Despite this setback, Judge expects to be fully ready for the Opening Day.

After reporting discomfort in his abdominal area to Yankees’ doctors, Judge underwent an MRI. Luckily for him and the Yankees, the test came back clean.

“It’s something I’ve kind of felt for a week, just something slight. I was like, ‘You know what? Instead of pushing through it, we’ve got some time.’ Let’s take some time and make sure we’re right, “Judge told reporters on Tuesday.

Judge missed the batting practice on Tuesday although he performed other drills. He is also expected to miss Wednesday’s spring training game against the Boston Red Sox and possibly a few more before returning to the lineup over the weekend.

“The most important thing is getting ready for Opening Day,” Judge added.

Judge is likely taking a cautious approach, wanting to avoid any long-term consequences that would jeopardize his 2024 campaign. He was limited to 106 games in 2023 due to a toe injury and finished the season with a .267 batting average, 37 home runs, and 75 RBIs.

The Yankees are opening their 2024 season with an away game against the Houston Astros on March 28.

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After striking out on Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the New York Yankees are shoring up their rotation with All-Star right-hander Marcus Stroman.

According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, Stroman will join the Yankees on a two-year, $37 million deal. The agreement between the two sides comes with a vesting player option.

Stroman confirmed the move on social media, posting a mockup photo of himself in a Yankees jersey alongside the caption: “There’s no place like home.” The 23-year-old player is a New York native who grew up in Medford, Long Island.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marcus Stroman (@stroman)

Stroman spent the past two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. In 2023, he had a phenomenal start to the campaign, earning his second All-Star nod. However, injury struggles limited him to just six starts in the second half of the season. He ended the season with a 10-9 record, 3.95 ERA, and 119 strikeouts.

Prior to joining the Cubs in 2022, Stroman also played with the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets. He won a Gold Glove Award in 2017 and had an All-Star appearance in 2019. His career stats include a 77-76 record, 3.65 ERA, and 1,091 strikeouts.

The Yankees were on the market for a starting pitcher since the start of the offseason. When their pursuit of Yamamoto failed, the New York team turned to reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell. However, they ended up deciding that Snell’s asking price is too high and settled for an impactful veteran in Stroman.

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The New York Yankees announced that they had traded outfielder Estevan Florial to the Cleveland Guardians. In exchange, the Yankees will land right-hand pitcher Cody Morris.

The move sees the Yankees parting ways with a player that was once considered their top prospect. Florial was ranked the best player in the Yankees’ farming system in 2019 but failed to live up to the expectations since making his MLB debut in 2020.

Florial played only 48 games with the Yankees in the majors. This included 19 games in 2023, during which he had a .230 batting average with eight RBIs and three steals.

The 26-year-old player fared way better with Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Florial played in 101 games with Scranton last season and batted .284 with 28 home runs while adding 79 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.

Morris, on the other hand, has played 13 games with five starts since making his majors debut with the Guardians in 2022. He has a 1-2 record with a 3.41 ERA and 32 strikeouts.

The trade gives the Yankees another arm in their bullpen, while Morris can also be plugged into the team’s rotation if needed. The Guardians, on the other hand, get a talented player in Florial and will hope they can provide him with an environment that will help him live up to his potential.

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The New York Yankees have not given up on pursuing San Diego Padres’ star outfielder Juan Soto. According to MLB Insider Andy Martino of SNY, the Yankees and Padres recently saw a breakthrough in their talks that included “exchanging” names of the players that could be also included in the trade.

Soto will become a free agent after the 2024 MLB season, and the Padres, looking to cut down on their spending, are unlikely to sign him on a long-term contract. This prompted the organization to field calls from interested teams in order to avoid losing the 25-year-old for nothing next offseason.

The Yankees are believed to be one of the most aggressive suitors, opening exploratory talks with the Padres shortly after the 2023 season ended. The San Diego team’s initial price was believed to be significantly higher than the Yankees were looking to give up, but there is hope that the two sides can get closer in the coming weeks.

Martino reports that the Yankees are aware that Soto would be a one-year rental, but that isn’t discouraging them from making a move for the three-time All-Star. The franchise wants to return to the playoffs after a disappointing campaign and believes Soto would help them do so. It doesn’t hurt that his attractive style of play would bring even more fans to the stands.

Soto finished the 2023 season batting .275 with a career-high 35 homers and 109 RBIs. He earned his third All-Star and fourth-consecutive Silver Slugger Award.

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The New York Yankees’ disappointing 2023 campaign came to an end. Sure, they have several more games to play, but they have nothing to play for since they have been eliminated from the postseason contention.

The Yankees suffered a 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday that saw them fall to a 78-76 record. This meant they now had no chance of catching the last wild-card spot in the AL, which is currently in possession of the Toronto Blue Jays (87-69).

Speaking with reporters after the game, the Yankees manager Aaron Boone used several expletives to describe the way missing out on the postseason feels.

“That’s what you work hard toward all year round — the wintertime, spring training, on through the season — for an opportunity to play in October and compete for a championship,” Boone added.

The last time the Yankees missed out on the postseason was in 2016. In the following six years, they never had less than 91 wins (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign) in the regular season and were only once one-and-done in the playoffs while reaching three AL Championship Series.

The New York team will now look to at least finish the season with a winning record. The last time the franchise didn’t have a winning record was in 1992.

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New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced on Tuesday that first baseman Anthony Rizzo will be shut down for the remainder of the 2023 MLB season. Rizzo is dealing with “post-concussion syndrome,” according to Boone.

Rizzo has been on the Injured List since early August, but the incident that caused the concussion happened more than two months prior. The 34-year-old collided with San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. back in May but only had a short absence before returning to action. He was only diagnosed with a concussion later on when he reported to the Yankees’ medical staff that he was feeling “foggy.”  

The Yankees initially hoped Rizzo might recover in time to give them a boost for a late playoffs push but decided not to make any risks in rushing him back.

“I would say everything is going well,” said Boone at a press conference. “His most recent checkup was all of the things we’re looking for as far as there’s improvements and where he is, but still hadn’t been cleared yet to play.”

Rizzo played a total of 99 games in 2023, batting .244 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs. He previously signed a new contract with the Yankees during the offseason that pays him $40 million in 2023 and 2024 and has a team option for 2025.

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The New York Yankees placed their outfielder Harrison Bader on waivers on Tuesday but didn’t bother to notify him. Bader ended up learning it through a news report, the same way baseball fans did.

Speaking with YES Network, Bader revealed that he found out about the move watching television in the Yankees’ lunchroom.

“I was in the lunchroom, saw it on ESPN,” Bader shared. “Guess it popped up somehow over there, so that’s how I found out.”

Bader will now have to wait until Thursday to see where he’ll spend the rest of the 2023 campaign. If he is claimed by a team, he will leave the Yankees. If not, he will continue playing baseball in New York.

“Regardless of what happened or may happen, just getting the opportunity to play in this uniform — and I still hopefully do get the opportunity to play in this uniform — just everything that’s happened has just been an absolute blessing, an absolute gift,” Bader added.

Harrison Bader spent the first five-and-a-half years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals before landing with the Yankees midway through the 2022 season. He played 83 games with the Yankees in 2023, batting .239 with seven homers and 37 RBIs. Bader is currently in the final year of his two-year, $10.4 million contract.

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The New York Yankees announced on Sunday that they had acquired reliever Jake Cousins from the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox will receive cash consideration in return.

Cousins is expected to be on the Yankees’ active roster for the upcoming series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Cousins spent the 2023 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, appearing in nine games and finishing the campaign with a 4.82 ERA, seven strikeouts and 10 hits allowed. He signed a minor league contract with the White Sox in December.

Since making his MLB debut with the Brewers in 2021, Cousins played in 51 games and has a 3-1 record with a 3.08 ERA and 72 strikeouts. He also has six seasons of experience in the minors. 

Acquiring Cousins gives the Yankees another arm that they can rely on in case of emergency. The team has a number of relievers dealing with injuries, including McKinley Moore and Tommy Kahnle, who are on a 15-day injured list, and Scott Effross and Lou Trivino, who are on a 60-day injured list.

The New York Yankees have had a promising start to the season, winning all of their first four games of the 2024 MLB season. However, their true test will be a series with Diamondbacks, who are 3-1 to start the campaign.

The post NY Yankees Acquire Reliever Jake Cousins From White Sox appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees will be shorthanded when the 2024 MLB season starts. The team confirmed on Monday that their All-Star third baseman DJ LeMahieu will begin the campaign on the Injured List.

LeMahieu is dealing with a bruised foot, an injury he picked up in a spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 16. The veteran underwent MRI and CT scans, which came back negative, but is expected to undergo further tests this week.

“It’s a little bit slow go on the recovery side. He banged it up pretty good,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters on Monday. “The last few days, giving it time, it hasn’t really responded quick enough with the dates coming.”

It is unclear how much time LeMahieu will miss, but the expectation is that he will be sidelined for at least the first seven games, all on the road. He could potentially return for the first home series against the Blue Jays on April 4.

LeMahieu dealt with foot injuries in the past two seasons as well and the issues greatly impacted his production. In 2023, he batted a career-worst .243 while finishing the campaign with 15 home runs and 44 RBIs.

The post Yankees’ All-Star 3B DJ LeMahieu to Start the 2024 MLB Season on Injured List appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole is dealing with nerve inflammation in his throwing elbow and will have to pause throwing for three to four weeks. Cole confirmed this while talking with reporters on Saturday.

Cole experienced a sore elbow earlier this month, and there was a concern that he might have to undergo Tommy John surgery. This would sideline him for the 2024 season and the better part of the 2025 campaign.

Luckily for Cole and the Yankees, an MRI test revealed that the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner is “only” dealing with a nerve inflammation. He will now need to go through a period of rest and rehab but is expected to get back into action in May or early June. 

“I think we’ve determined that we just got a little too hot a little too quick in the spring,” Cole said via MLB.com. “We progressed through the normal recovery cycle, but at a certain time we didn’t get back to the baseline which was our target. At that point, it was time to see what was going on.”

Gerrit Cole made 33 starts in 2023, going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 222 strikeouts. He was named an All-Star for the sixth time in his career while winning his first Cy Young Award.

With Cole being out for the start of the season, Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman said that the franchise feels good about weathering his absence. However, he didn’t exclude the possibility of strengthening the roster with another quality arm.

“I feel good about our internal options. At the same time, it’s never stopped us from having external conversations,” said Cashman.

The post Yankees’ Ace Gerrit Cole is Dealing With “Nerve Inflammation” in His Throwing Elbow appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees star slugger Aaron Judge is having a break from batting in the following days after experiencing pain in his abs. Despite this setback, Judge expects to be fully ready for the Opening Day.

After reporting discomfort in his abdominal area to Yankees’ doctors, Judge underwent an MRI. Luckily for him and the Yankees, the test came back clean.

“It’s something I’ve kind of felt for a week, just something slight. I was like, ‘You know what? Instead of pushing through it, we’ve got some time.’ Let’s take some time and make sure we’re right, “Judge told reporters on Tuesday.

Judge missed the batting practice on Tuesday although he performed other drills. He is also expected to miss Wednesday’s spring training game against the Boston Red Sox and possibly a few more before returning to the lineup over the weekend.

“The most important thing is getting ready for Opening Day,” Judge added.

Judge is likely taking a cautious approach, wanting to avoid any long-term consequences that would jeopardize his 2024 campaign. He was limited to 106 games in 2023 due to a toe injury and finished the season with a .267 batting average, 37 home runs, and 75 RBIs.

The Yankees are opening their 2024 season with an away game against the Houston Astros on March 28.

The post Aaron Judge is Dealing With an Abdominal Injury, Expects to Be Ready for the Opening Day appeared first on SportzBonanza.

After striking out on Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the New York Yankees are shoring up their rotation with All-Star right-hander Marcus Stroman.

According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, Stroman will join the Yankees on a two-year, $37 million deal. The agreement between the two sides comes with a vesting player option.

Stroman confirmed the move on social media, posting a mockup photo of himself in a Yankees jersey alongside the caption: “There’s no place like home.” The 23-year-old player is a New York native who grew up in Medford, Long Island.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marcus Stroman (@stroman)

Stroman spent the past two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. In 2023, he had a phenomenal start to the campaign, earning his second All-Star nod. However, injury struggles limited him to just six starts in the second half of the season. He ended the season with a 10-9 record, 3.95 ERA, and 119 strikeouts.

Prior to joining the Cubs in 2022, Stroman also played with the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets. He won a Gold Glove Award in 2017 and had an All-Star appearance in 2019. His career stats include a 77-76 record, 3.65 ERA, and 1,091 strikeouts.

The Yankees were on the market for a starting pitcher since the start of the offseason. When their pursuit of Yamamoto failed, the New York team turned to reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell. However, they ended up deciding that Snell’s asking price is too high and settled for an impactful veteran in Stroman.

The post All-Star RHP Marcus Stroman Joins the Yankees on a 2-Year, $37 Million Deal appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees announced that they had traded outfielder Estevan Florial to the Cleveland Guardians. In exchange, the Yankees will land right-hand pitcher Cody Morris.

The move sees the Yankees parting ways with a player that was once considered their top prospect. Florial was ranked the best player in the Yankees’ farming system in 2019 but failed to live up to the expectations since making his MLB debut in 2020.

Florial played only 48 games with the Yankees in the majors. This included 19 games in 2023, during which he had a .230 batting average with eight RBIs and three steals.

The 26-year-old player fared way better with Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Florial played in 101 games with Scranton last season and batted .284 with 28 home runs while adding 79 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.

Morris, on the other hand, has played 13 games with five starts since making his majors debut with the Guardians in 2022. He has a 1-2 record with a 3.41 ERA and 32 strikeouts.

The trade gives the Yankees another arm in their bullpen, while Morris can also be plugged into the team’s rotation if needed. The Guardians, on the other hand, get a talented player in Florial and will hope they can provide him with an environment that will help him live up to his potential.

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The New York Yankees have not given up on pursuing San Diego Padres’ star outfielder Juan Soto. According to MLB Insider Andy Martino of SNY, the Yankees and Padres recently saw a breakthrough in their talks that included “exchanging” names of the players that could be also included in the trade.

Soto will become a free agent after the 2024 MLB season, and the Padres, looking to cut down on their spending, are unlikely to sign him on a long-term contract. This prompted the organization to field calls from interested teams in order to avoid losing the 25-year-old for nothing next offseason.

The Yankees are believed to be one of the most aggressive suitors, opening exploratory talks with the Padres shortly after the 2023 season ended. The San Diego team’s initial price was believed to be significantly higher than the Yankees were looking to give up, but there is hope that the two sides can get closer in the coming weeks.

Martino reports that the Yankees are aware that Soto would be a one-year rental, but that isn’t discouraging them from making a move for the three-time All-Star. The franchise wants to return to the playoffs after a disappointing campaign and believes Soto would help them do so. It doesn’t hurt that his attractive style of play would bring even more fans to the stands.

Soto finished the 2023 season batting .275 with a career-high 35 homers and 109 RBIs. He earned his third All-Star and fourth-consecutive Silver Slugger Award.

The post Yankees Making Progress in Juan Soto Trade Talks With San Diego Padres appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees’ disappointing 2023 campaign came to an end. Sure, they have several more games to play, but they have nothing to play for since they have been eliminated from the postseason contention.

The Yankees suffered a 7-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday that saw them fall to a 78-76 record. This meant they now had no chance of catching the last wild-card spot in the AL, which is currently in possession of the Toronto Blue Jays (87-69).

Speaking with reporters after the game, the Yankees manager Aaron Boone used several expletives to describe the way missing out on the postseason feels.

“That’s what you work hard toward all year round — the wintertime, spring training, on through the season — for an opportunity to play in October and compete for a championship,” Boone added.

The last time the Yankees missed out on the postseason was in 2016. In the following six years, they never had less than 91 wins (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign) in the regular season and were only once one-and-done in the playoffs while reaching three AL Championship Series.

The New York team will now look to at least finish the season with a winning record. The last time the franchise didn’t have a winning record was in 1992.

The post New York Yankees Will Miss the Postseason for the First Time Since 2016 appeared first on SportzBonanza.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced on Tuesday that first baseman Anthony Rizzo will be shut down for the remainder of the 2023 MLB season. Rizzo is dealing with “post-concussion syndrome,” according to Boone.

Rizzo has been on the Injured List since early August, but the incident that caused the concussion happened more than two months prior. The 34-year-old collided with San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. back in May but only had a short absence before returning to action. He was only diagnosed with a concussion later on when he reported to the Yankees’ medical staff that he was feeling “foggy.”  

The Yankees initially hoped Rizzo might recover in time to give them a boost for a late playoffs push but decided not to make any risks in rushing him back.

“I would say everything is going well,” said Boone at a press conference. “His most recent checkup was all of the things we’re looking for as far as there’s improvements and where he is, but still hadn’t been cleared yet to play.”

Rizzo played a total of 99 games in 2023, batting .244 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs. He previously signed a new contract with the Yankees during the offseason that pays him $40 million in 2023 and 2024 and has a team option for 2025.

The post Yankees Shutting Down Anthony Rizzo for the Remainder of 2023 Season appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The New York Yankees placed their outfielder Harrison Bader on waivers on Tuesday but didn’t bother to notify him. Bader ended up learning it through a news report, the same way baseball fans did.

Speaking with YES Network, Bader revealed that he found out about the move watching television in the Yankees’ lunchroom.

“I was in the lunchroom, saw it on ESPN,” Bader shared. “Guess it popped up somehow over there, so that’s how I found out.”

Bader will now have to wait until Thursday to see where he’ll spend the rest of the 2023 campaign. If he is claimed by a team, he will leave the Yankees. If not, he will continue playing baseball in New York.

“Regardless of what happened or may happen, just getting the opportunity to play in this uniform — and I still hopefully do get the opportunity to play in this uniform — just everything that’s happened has just been an absolute blessing, an absolute gift,” Bader added.

Harrison Bader spent the first five-and-a-half years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals before landing with the Yankees midway through the 2022 season. He played 83 games with the Yankees in 2023, batting .239 with seven homers and 37 RBIs. Bader is currently in the final year of his two-year, $10.4 million contract.

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