MLB announced the nine teams that will receive new City Connect jerseys for the 2024 season, but the Yankees are not among them.
The Yankees’ crosstown rivals, the Mets, will get their first City Connect uniforms in April. They will be joined by the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers (their second), Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, and Toronto Blue Jays.
When MLB teamed with Nike on the City Connect program in 2021, the league clearly stated that all 30 teams will participate. The Yankees and the Oakland Athletics, who are in the midst of relocating to Las Vegas, are the only teams who have not received the City Connect treatment.
Will the Yankees ever get City Connect uniforms?
It’s unclear whether the Yankees will receive their very own City Connect shirts. First, with only ten teams not wearing CC uniforms in 2024, the next season was expected to be its last.
Neither MLB nor Nike have stated intentions for City Connects after 2024, but the Dodgers obtaining their second may indicate that the program’s popularity has prompted MLB to commission a second wave of designs.
It’s also plausible that the Dodgers are simply replacing the Athletics, who can’t really “explore the personality, values, and customs that make each community and their residents unique” when the owner and club leave.
Second, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner has stated publicly that he is opposed to his team changing its home uniforms.
“I’m not having any serious conversations about doing it,” Steinbrenner stated in an interview with The Michael Kay Show last summer. “I believe I understand the motivation [for the CC program] — and, again, I believe it appeals to a large number of fans, particularly younger people, as well as products and so on. However, we have not had any meaningful discussions about implementing it. It doesn’t mean I won’t do it eventually, but I honestly have no idea how it would appear. I’m not even sure what the appearance would be.
Now that the 2024 City Connect jerseys have been unveiled, Steinbrenner or someone from the Yankees may be asked about their participation in the initiative, and we will receive confirmation. However, until then, Yankees fans should not expect a Yankees City Connect uniform.
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The recently acquired lefty might play a crucial role in the bullpen
The Yankees bullpen has been a strength for the team for the past decade or so, and they believe that 2024 will be no different. A few new faces may be found among the club’s core arms. Victor González, a left-handed pitcher, is among the newcomers.
González, 28, was acquired in one of the Yankees’ quieter offseason moves, a December deal with the Dodgers. It’s unlikely that he’ll be the one to push the team to the promised land, but he’s showed glimpses of excellence at the big league level and is expected to play a significant part with the squad to begin the 2024 season.
2023 Stats: 34 G, 33.2 IP, 4.01 ERA, 3.40 FIP, 3.76 xFIP, 1.10 WHIP, 8.02 K/9, 2.67 BB/9, 0.53 HR/9, 0.4 fWAR
2024 ZiPS Projections: 54 G, 54.0 IP, 4.53 ERA, 4.68 FIP, 1.35 WHIP, 8.87 K/9, 3.98 BB/9, 1.27 HR/9, 0.0 fWAR
Victor González has pitched in parts of three Major League seasons, all for the Dodgers. The southpaw, who was born in Tuxpan, Mexico, signed with LA as a teenager in 2012 and worked his way up the system before being promoted in the shorter 2020 season. He pitched even more in 2021, but missed the entire 2022 season after having elbow surgery that spring. 2023 had an opportunity to rebound, and he did it fairly well before being traded to the Yankees along with Jorbit Vivas for previous first-round choice Trey Sweeney.
Unfortunately, the most promising aspect of his resume is also the oldest, dating back to his debut year in 2020. During the shortened season, the lefty threw 20.1 lights-out innings. He had a 1.33 ERA and 1.67 FIP that season, striking out 28.7 percent of opposing batters and walking only 2.5 percent. González had an excellent 69.2 percent ground-ball rate, and when he did let a ball in the air, it worked out nicely because he did not allow a single home run. He also performed well in the postseason, pitching 6.2 innings and allowing only two runs during the Dodgers’ World Series run. Overall, González was fantastic, and while his performance may not be the most repeatable in the world, run prevention is run prevention.
In a larger sample in 2021, his FIP climbed to 4.27, despite a decreased K rate and a significantly higher walk rate. Nonetheless, he was serviceable across 35.1 innings. In some ways, 2022 was even worse because he was sidelined for the whole season following elbow surgery in May. Last season was an opportunity for him to re-prove himself, and he did it admirably. Despite having a career-high ERA, True Blue LA editor Eric Stephen identified a tiny amount of blow-up outings that made him seem worse overall. His FIP was 3.40 over 33.2 innings, with a considerably more manageable walk rate.
González, a prolific wormburner specialist (21st in GB% since 2020), is primarily a two-pitch pitcher, rotating between his sinker (63.7% in ’23) and slider (29.8%), with the occasional unusual changeup. The combination has served him well, and it is the same that has driven new teammate Clay Holmes’ success in recent seasons. The opposing moving pitches have helped González maintain strong chase and whiff rates, prevent hard contact, and, of course, increase his ground ball rate.
It’s also been difficult to land a knockout punch against González. In fact, he has allowed only five home runs in 96 career innings, including the playoffs. That would yield 0.46 HR/9. Oddly enough, now-teammate Oswaldo Cabrera was the last player to take him deep, on June 3, 2023; González did not allow another in his next 18 games (plus 14 dinger-free games in the minors).
With Wandy Peralta on his way to the West Coast with the Padres, González is set to play a legitimate part for the Yankees in 2024. Along with fellow recruit Caleb Ferguson, he will be a valuable left-handed arm for Aaron Boone, with a proclivity for groundballs, which the Yankee bullpen is already well-equipped to handle.
