Around the Empire: Yankees news - 1/2/23

MLB | Anthony Castrovince: It’s never to early to start prognosticating about the upcoming season, and here Castrovince makes some bold predictions about 2023. He opines that Aaron Judge won’t be able to repeat as home run champ, with fellow stars like Mike Trout, Vlad Guerrero Jr., and Shohei Ohtani coming for the crown. He also calls for a Dodgers/Yankees World Series, a matchup that looks both plausible and mouth-watering.

ESPN: The Carlos Correa saga has continued to loom in the background, and Giants executive Farhan Zaidi spoke this weekend for the first time on the matter. Zaidi said that the team expressed concerns over Correa’s physical with agent Scott Boras immediately once they arose, and denied that it was a last-second ambush. Zaidi also said that the Giants had been contact with Boras as negotiations with the Mets have stalled, though it sounds as the Mets and Correa are still mostly committed to working something out. Don’t rule anything out, but Correa coming fully back on the market again seems unlikely.

MLB Trade Rumors | Mark Polishuk: Here’s a New Year’s MLBTR chat, with Polishuk answering questions ranging from the Padres’ recently putting players like Ha-seong Kim on the trade block, to whether the Diamondbacks will continue dealing from their outfield surplus. He also discusses the Yankees’ left field situation, a topic we’ve obviously discussed deeply round these parts. Polishuk posits that the Yankees could very well both give Oswaldo Cabrera a solid run as a starter, and see if there’s any bounceback from Aaron Hicks, in hopes of building the latter’s trade value, during the first half of the season. The club could then assess at the trade deadline if they wanted to bring in an external option.