New York Daily News | Gary Phillips ($): The Yankees are finalizing their staff after hiring James Rowson as their new hitting coach, and Pat Roessler is one of the assistants who will work under him. Roessler has a lot of history with the club, working in player development from 2005-2014, but more importantly to the current team, Roessler was the Nationals’ assistant hitting coach from 2020 until this past season, giving him some prior experience with the team’s newest star Juan Soto.
CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson: We’re only halfway through the offseason, and there are still so many free agents available, so new rounds of landing spot predictions will undoubtedly emerge. R.J. takes a shot at it here, predicting Blake Snell to the Bronx among the top remaining names. Given the team’s desire for an upgrade at the position and their interest in the rest of the field, it’s not an unlikely choice — and it wouldn’t be whatever is going on with Marcus Stroman.
NJ.com | Randy Miller: There haven’t been many high-profile signings, but the Yankees are expanding their roster with minor league contracts and invitations to spring training. Kevin Smith is the newest member of the group, and he’ll be in camp to compete for the utilityman position with Oswald(o)s Peraza and Cabrera. Smith was a solid power hitter in 2023, but the majority of his long balls came in Triple-A rather than while playing for Oakland.
Star Tribune | Joel Rippel: Finally, we conclude on a somber note with the death of Billy Gardner. Gardner was 96 years old and won a ring as a member of the 1961 Yankees team that saw the M&M brothers chase history. Our condolences to his family.
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Why New York fans should fully focus on winter sports.
Back in mid-August, about 150 days ago, when the Mets and Yankees were on the verge of major budget disasters, all eyes in the New York sports scene turned their attention to various developments in football training camp, with the Jets and Giants building excitement.
The Giants were coming off a surprise playoff berth under new coach Brian Daboll, and the Jets had just signed Aaron Rodgers after months of speculation. It appeared that both teams would thrive, but what seemed to be the most anticipated football season in a long time turned out to be mostly a dud, with the teams combining for 13 wins and the Jets going through quarterback roulette after Rodgers lasted four plays before suffering a season-ending Achilles tendon injury.
Those seasons ended with some form of satisfaction (depending on your perspective on tanking vs. winning), with the Jets potentially ending Bill Belichick’s 24-year tenure with a snowy 17-3 win and the Giants continuing to cause concern for Philadelphia Eagles fans with a 27-10 victory.
When those seasons ended on Sunday and their focus shifted to various coaching and personnel needs in free agency and the draft, only hockey and basketball remained for segments of New York fans who care more about live games than transaction possibilities such as what the Yankees might do next in terms of starting pitching or who might be the Mets’ 24th player with any semblance of major league experience, according to David Stearns.
In terms of standings, the Rangers lead the four active professional teams in New York. After a disappointing exit in a lopsided seven-game first round series against the New Jersey Devils following their run to the Eastern Conference finals, the Rangers replaced Gerard Gallant with Peter Laviolette behind the bench.
And, like his previous stops, Laviolette is having success in his first year. The Rangers jumped into first place in the Metropolitan Division early on thanks to an 11-game point streak, starting with 18 wins in 23 games.
Since then, they have slowed, and in an unusual trend for a division leader, they have suffered a number of three-goal defeats, indicating that either they overachieved early on and are experiencing a correction, or they are entering a midseason lull. In their last 16 games, the Rangers are 8-8 (8-7-1 by NHL standards), with five losses of at least three goals, including a 6-3 defeat to the improved Canucks.
The Rangers are receiving outstanding individual performances, including Artemi Panarin’s 26 goals and 19 multi-point games, as well as Chris Kreider’s performance.
The Knicks are the next best team still playing and may be on their way to even greater success. At 21-15, they are in a dogfight to avoid the play-ins, which appeared to work for the Miami Heat last season, and are within striking distance of the NBA’s third-best record.
Julius Randle is improving on last year’s 47-win season by increasing his field goal percentage from 45.9 percent to 47.4, averaging 24.1 points and demonstrating his ability to score 30 points consistently.
Jalen Brunson remains one of the best free agent acquisitions in Knicks history, averaging a career-high 26 points per game and capable of scoring 40 points on occasion. And recently, the Knicks have been boosted by the trade for OG Anunoby, just as they were by adding Josh Hart.
The Islanders and Devils are next in the standings, two of five teams in the Metropolitan Division separated by five points. The Islanders’ arrival may appear strange given that they are 18-21, but they are 18-11-10 by NHL standards, with mostly the same group that made two trips to the conference finals and four playoff appearances in the previous five seasons while finally getting their elusive new building on Long Island, albeit very, very close to New York City.
Brock Nelson is the Islanders’ Chris Kreider, with 258 career goals and one of four players with at least 30 points, and despite a career-worst 3.17 goals-against average, Ilya Sorokin is challenging Igor Shesterkin for the best goalie title in the area, though both struggle at times.
The Devils had high expectations after making the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and winning a round for the first time since 2012, but they failed to improve their goaltending and struggled with inconsistency. They went from 6-2-1 to 5-8-0 before rebounding to 11-5-1 after losing to the NHL’s worst team, the San Jose Sharks.
The Devils have a lot of talent, including Jack Hughes, who has 45 points this season after scoring 99 last year. Hughes is currently injured, but he can deliver dynamic multi-point performances like Panarin does for the Rangers.
Finally, the Brooklyn Nets rank last in the standings in terms of performance, having received criticism and a $100,000 fine for their rest strategy of only playing Mikal Bridges in the first quarter against Milwaukee on December 26.
At 16-21, they may be in danger of falling further behind the.500 mark. They were 13-10 on December 13 but are now 3-11, with two of their victories coming by a combined 17 points over the Pistons.
While Bridges is capable of scoring 30 or 40 points on occasion, there are several issues, particularly defensively, and they are in contention for a play-in game as they approach the one-year anniversary of their departure from stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
It is unclear how each of the five teams’ seasons will unfold over the next three months, but it will undoubtedly be interesting in the build-up to a baseball season that no one hopes will be as hideous as the one that occurred last summer.
