The 2024 series on team offense continues with the New York Yankees. The Yankees finished twenty fifth in the Majors and eleventh in the American League in 2023 with 4.15 runs scored per game.

This season I am using FanGraphs Roster Resource Depth Charts* as the source of default lineups. That Bret Boone batting order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results (Runs per game):

• Best lineup: 5.32
• Probable lineup: 5.16
• Worst lineup: 4.89
• Regressed lineup: 4.70

The Yankees look to be the most improved offense in the majors in 2024. Adding someone like Juan Soto will do that for a team. He and Alex Verdugo should improve an outfield with a terrible OBP from 2023.

The Yankees should improve in other areas as well. Anthony Volpe has a year of experience under his belt. Austin Wells comes to the majors at the start of his prime, and should better the poor output of the 2023 catchers. Anthony Rizzo appears to be healthy after his 2023 concussion. There is quite a bit of upside here.

The LAT both likes and doesn’t like the lineup construction. It has orders with DJ LeMahieu, Soto, Aaron Judge batting consecutively, but 9-3 rather than 1-4. The LAT and the Yankees agree Volpe should be batting eighth. Despite all that, the default lineup only captures 63% of the optimum lineup.

That is the downside for the Yankees. They have the largest spread between the best and worst lineups studied this season, 0.43 runs. That means getting the right batting order is important. It also means that if the stars go down, there is little on the team to replace them.

Healthy, this is one of the best offenses in the majors. With a couple of injuries, however, they could fall very far once more.

You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.

Previous posts in this series:

• Introduction
• Atlanta Braves
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Texas Rangers
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Houston Astros
• Chicago Cubs
• Baltimore Orioles
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Cincinnati Reds
• Minnesota Twins
• Boston Red Sox
• Seattle Mariners
• San Diego Padres
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Milwaukee Brewers
• Colorado Rockies
• St. Louis Cardinals
• New York Mets
• Washington Nationals
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• Kansas City Royals
• San Francisco Giants

*This is the best source of roster information I’ve seen, with everything on one page.