Blue Jays vs. Yankees: Who has the upper hand in a position-by-position breakdown?

The Blue Jays spent the entire 2022 season looking up at the formidable “Bronx Bombers” in the AL East.

The New York Yankees were in first place in the division for 170 days last season, giving the Blue Jays a blueprint for what they want to be as a franchise. The Yankees were a team seemingly without a weakness: a powerful lineup, led by home run king Aaron Judge; a deep pitching staff anchored by rising star Nestor Cortes and Gerrit Cole; and a dominant bullpen.

The Blue Jays' front office focused this offseason on trying to close the gap between the two franchises. They got deeper and more balanced at the plate. They added another starting pitcher to an already promising rotation and they added a power arm in the bullpen that can rack up strikeouts when they need to stop a rally.

The Yankees believe they are still the kings of the AL East. The Blue Jays are trying to catch up. Here is how the two clubs match up at each position entering the 2023 season.

Starting pitchers

Gerrit Cole gets the headlines and the $324M contract, but the Yankees’ ace in 2022 was a left-hander with a thin mustache affectionally known as “Nasty Nestor.”

Nestor Cortes used his dizzying array of windups and twirls to confuse batters across the American League last season. A former Rule 5 Draft pick who was cast off by the Orioles, Mariners, and even the Yankees twice, Cortes went 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA, seventh among starting pitchers with at least 150 innings, on his way to earning his first All-Star selection and acclaim across the Bronx.

Having Cole and Cortes at the top of their rotation wasn’t enough for a Yankees club trying to contend for a championship, though. They went out and added Carlos Rodón in free agency, signing the former San Francisco Giant to a six-year, $162M contract. Rodon led all starting pitchers striking out 12 batters per nine innings last season and finished in the top 10 in the National League in both ERA and WHIP. Luis Severino is finally healthy after appearing in just seven games over the previous three seasons, and the Yankees also have Frankie Montas after picking up the former Athletics ace at the deadline last August. The Yankees starting rotation is powerful, formidable and potentially dominant.

The Blue Jays also found their star of the future in 2022. Alek Manoah blossomed into a full-fledged Cy Young candidate in just his second season in the big leagues, finishing third in the AL with a 2.24 ERA. The wear of a long season had no effect on Manoah; he was at his best in September, when he posted the best ERA in any calendar month by a Blue Jays starter.

Kevin Gausman got to show off his incredible splitter in his first season with the Blue Jays. His final record—12-10 with a 3.35 ERA—while good, doesn’t accurately portray how effective he was in 2022. Gausman led the AL in Fielding Independent Pitching, or FIP, suggesting that Gausman has the chance to be even better in 2023. The Blue Jays also made their own big free-agent acquisition with Chris Bassitt. 

It’s the depth of the rotation that gives the edge to the Yankees. José Berríos had a disastrous 2022 season, the first of a seven-year extension he signed with the Blue Jays, as he finished with the worst ERA (5.23) in the AL. The Blue Jays also head into the season uncertain who their fifth starter will be, with both options—Yusei Kikuchi and Mitch White—bringing serious concerns and question marks over whether they’re good enough for a team that has postseason aspirations.

Advantage: Yankees

Bullpen

The Blue Jays 2022 season came to a sudden and crushing end when their bullpen couldn’t protect an 8-1 lead in Game 2 of the ALDS. It was a symptom of a much larger problem: the bullpen could be maddingly inconsistent at times.

The front office spent the offseason trying to remedy that problem. Their biggest acquisition was Erik Swanson, a right-hander who posted a 1.68 ERA in 57 appearances for the Seattle Mariners last season. Swanson’s biggest strength happens to be the biggest weakness of the bullpen: missing bats. Swanson was 23rd in among relievers with at least 30 innings last season in strikeouts per nine innings.

Blue Jays relievers were 23rd in whiff percentage last season. That statistic is an accurate predictor of team success: each club in the top five made the postseason, led by the World Series champion Houston Astros. 

The Yankees, meanwhile, had the seventh-highest whiff rate in the league last season. Clay Holmes takes over from the departed Aroldis Chapman as the club’s regular closer. Holmes used his 97 mph sinker to lead the Yankees bullpen to the third-lowest ERA. He gave up just eight extra-base hits off the pitch all season. Lou Trivino, acquired from the Athletics at the deadline last season, is the primary shutdown man out of the bullpen. He uses his slider to dominate hitters, allowing only a .109 average against the pitch last season.

The Blue Jays' bullpen got deeper with the acquisition of Swanson. But they still aren’t at the same level as the formidable arms the Yankees can summon out of the bullpen.

Advantage: Yankees

Catcher

Jose Trevino got to live his childhood dream last May. Trevino grew up in Texas as a Yankees fan. His father would always ask him to imagine he was in the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium, the game on the line, as he knocked in the game-winning run.

He did just that on May 24 against the Orioles, on what also happened to be his late father’s birthday. It was a reminder of the magic of the sport, how it’s a game that, at its core, is really about fathers passing it on to their son’s in their backyards.

Trevino enters the 2023 season coming off an All-Star season behind the plate with the Yankees. He hit a career-high 11 home runs while also winning a Gold Glove for managing the Yankees’ pitching staff. He’s firmly taken the job away from Kyle Higashioka, who was once considered the Yankees’ catcher of the future, as he gets to continue the journey he began with his father in his backyard as a kid.

The Blue Jays boast such depth behind the plate that they were able to deal top prospect Gabriel Moreno in the trade that brought Daulton Varsho to Toronto. Danny Jansen hit 15 home runs in only 72 games; Alejandro Kirk, still just 24 years old, added 14 splitting time between catcher and designated hitter. Jansen’s .855 OPS was second among catchers with at least 200 at-bats, while Kirk ranked eighth at .786.

Trevino is a feel-good story, but arguably no other team can field a combo at the position quite like the Blue Jays.

Advantage: Blue Jays

First base

Anthony Rizzo and Yankee Stadium were made for each other. Rizzo made full use of the short porch in right field during his first full season in the Bronx in 2022, tying a career-high with 32 home runs. His .817 OPS ranked seventh among first basemen with at least 400 at-bats.

The Yankees brought back the 33-year-old veteran, signing him to a two-year contract in November. In the middle of a powerful Yankees lineup, Rizzo was behind just reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge in OPS. The Yankees, like the Blue Jays, are predominantly right-handed, with only Rizzo and the departed Joey Gallo getting at least 200 plate appearances from the left side last season. He provides balance and experience for a Yankees club that has firm World Series aspirations.

But he’s not Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero matched Rizzo’s 32 home runs, while also batting .274 with a .818 OPS. He also won his first Gold Glove. And that was in what was considered a down year, at least compared to his 2021 season when he led the league with 48 homers and flirted with the Triple Crown for much of September. Guerrero flashed his prodigious potential and, still just 24 when the 2023 season begins, will be an MVP candidate for years to come.

Advantage: Blue Jays

Second base

Gleyber Torres is still just 26 years old, but he’s the veteran in a deep crop of young Yankees middle infielders that will establish themselves in the lineup in the coming years.

Torres is entering his sixth full season with the Yankees. In his breakout season in 2019, when he was just 22 years old, Torres hit 38 home runs, the second-most ever hit by a Yankees middle infielder. While he hasn’t been able to replicate that performance again, Torres did rebound with 24 homers last season after hitting just 12 combined over the previous two years. He was fifth among qualified second basemen with a .761 OPS, while only Jose Altuve and Marcus Semien hit more homers.

DJ LeMahieu, a two-time batting champ, is a utility player that can fill in at second in Torres’ absence. But the Yankees’ plan going forward is to have their middle infield consisting of prospects Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe. Torres and LeMahieu will split the job, for now, but the Yankees will have an eye on the future and look to get their young stars playing time.

Santiago Espinal got his chance of playing full-time in 2022, and he made the most of the opportunity. He has batting .271 at the break when he was named to the AL All-Star team, joining teammates Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk, George Springer, Alek Manoah, and Jordan Romano in Los Angeles. His second half didn’t go as well, as Espinal hit only .258 with one home run in 44 games. His OPS declined by nearly 70 points after the break.

He’ll form a righty-lefty platoon at second with Cavan Biggio. Whit Merrifield, a regular second baseman with the Royals who was used more often in the outfield after a midseason trade to the Blue Jays, will also get his share of opportunities. Neither of the three options can match the power potential of Torres.

Advantage: Yankees

Third base

A familiar face will be across the diamond at third base when the Blue Jays play the Yankees next season.

Josh Donaldson, who won the MVP Award with the Blue Jays in 2015, is entering his second season with the Yankees. But that MVP-level form is long gone. Donaldson set career worsts in 2022 with a .682 OPS and a .222 batting average. His 15 home runs were the fewest he’s hit since his rookie season a decade earlier.

Donaldson would likely be gone from the Yankees if not for one inconvenient fact: they owe him more than $21M this season, whether he plays or not. The Yankees were pleased with his defense, so the job remains his for now.

Like Donaldson, Matt Chapman goes into his second year in a Blue Jays uniform with a firm grasp on the job as the full-time third baseman. Chapman was expected to be a powerful bat in the middle of the Blue Jays lineup, while also providing Gold Glove-calibre defense, and he played as advertised. He was second on the club with 27 home runs and committed only five errors in the field. Over the last three seasons, Chapman has the third-best Outs Above Average of any player at the hot corner.

Donaldson’s peak years with the Blue Jays are a thing of the past. Chapman’s are still going, to the Blue Jays benefit.

Advantage: Blue Jays

Shortstop

Derek Jeter is long gone, but the Yankees will get a good look at what their future at shortstop looks like in 2023. To signify just how young the Yankees are at the position, the player with the strongest hold on the job going into the season only made his MLB debut last September.

Oswald Peraza appeared in 18 games after being called up late last season. He had five multi-hit games over his last 15 appearances, batting .306 in 49 at-bats. While he hit just one home run, he had 19 at Triple-A, and MLB Pipeline projects he has 20-25 home run potential in the big leagues.

Peraza is the Yankees’ third-ranked prospect. Their top prospect, Anthony Volpe, will get a hard look this season and has a chance to debut for the big-league club before 2023 is done. Volpe was the hitting prospect of the year in 2021, when he had a 1.027 OPS and 27 home runs across two levels of the Yankees minor league system. He struggled at times after being promoted to Triple-A last season, but he still added 21 homers and a .802 OPS in 132 games. Volpe is just 21; Peraza is 22. The future of the Yankees' middle infield looks bright, even as they try to adjust to life in the big leagues this year.

Bo Bichette was once in their situation, a talented, young prospect seeking to crack the club. He’s now entering his fifth season with the Blue Jays, where he’s completely rewritten the record books for franchise shortstops. He’s already second in franchise history for home runs by a shortstop with 69; his .831 OPS is nearly 70 points better than any other Blue Jay at the position.

Bichette hit 24 home runs in 2022, second-most in franchise history. Bichette himself holds the record, with 29 in 2021. He’s the only Blue Jays shortstop to ever collect 100 RBI in a season. Bichette is still just 24 and already a perennial All-Star and a cornerstone of the Blue Jays franchise.

Advantage: Blue Jays