Yankees Legend Will Have Increased Role With Franchise This Year
All hands are on deck for the New York Yankees this year after coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory that saw them finish fourth in the AL East and only two games above .500.
Having players healthy for the majority of the campaign should naturally improve their output in 2024.
Aaron Judge, Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodon and Anthony Rizzo are looking to put their past injury issues behind them and get back to peak performance.
It seems like the Yankees are also calling upon some of their past legends to help the club out this year.
At Spring Training was Andy Pettitte, Ron Guidry and CC Sabathia.
It's not uncommon for franchises to use players from the past to help out their current team, passing along words of wisdom to the younger guys and getting a fresh set of eyes upon the work taking place on the field.
However, Pettitte, who was hired in an advisory role last July, is expected to be much more involved with New York this year.
"Probably less the first month and a half, but I would expect [he will be present for] maybe 40-to-60-plus games," manager Aaron Boone told reporters according to Andy Martino of SNY.
It's unclear what his exact role will be, but his presence will not be a threat to pitching coach Matt Blake, who is highly respected by the entire organization.
Martino said that Yankees players reportedly had expressed their desire to work more with people who had on-field experience.
Pettitte fits that bill perfectly.
During his 18-year career, he put up an ERA of 3.85 across 531 appearances and 521 starts. Even though he never won a Cy Young award, he finished top-six in voting five times.
And he won the World Series with New York five times, bringing a lot of cache to any clubhouse he's entering when giving advice.
The Yankees wanted to get some guidance from players who have performed at the highest level.
They'll be getting and then some from Pettitte this year.
