5 Yankees Who Will Make or Break the 2024 Season

The New York Yankees will enter the 2024 season with lofty expectations to win the World Series a year after missing the playoffs. The team went out and added star power in Alex Verdugo, Juan Soto, and Marcus Stroman to help the team return to form.

However, if the Yankees are going to compete, it's going to be due to a few of the players returning to form.

Carlos Rodon

Carlos Rodon was the massive addition of the 2023 offseason when the Yankees inked the southpaw to a 6-year, $162 million contract. Year one with the Yankees was a flop for Rodon, with injuries keeping him out for the first half of the year paired with poor pitching and overblown incidents derailing the year.

In 2023, Carlos Rodon started just 14 games with an 3-8 record and a 6.85 era.

If the Yankees hope to return to the top of the American League East and World Series contention ,they'll need Rodon to return to form. The rotation has its ace in Gerrit Cole while Marcus Stroman, Rodon, and Nestor Cortes have all shown the ability to be elite pitchers.

If Rodon could become a solid second or third pitcher in the rotation, the Yankees could field one of the top groups in the league.

Nestor Cortes

Entering 2023, the Yankees thought they might have one of the best rotations in Major League Baseball in part due to Nestor Cortes' breakout 2022 season. Injuries derailed Cortes' 2023 campaign, holding the lefty to just 12 starts while he struggled with a 4.97 ERA pitching across only 63 innings.

Like Rodon, Cortes will be vital for the Yankees rotation if the team hopes to compete for a World Series in 2024. The group knows what it will get out of Cole but, Stroman, Cortes, Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt all enter the year with massive question marks. The Yankees will need a massive bounce back from Nestor Cortes to help solve some of the questions that linger around the rotation.