The way baseball works, there are always developmental steps to be made, and impactful goals to be accomplished, whether you’re competing in a given season or not. That has certainly been true for the 2023 Yankees, and as they’ve played out the string, the work of Michael King in these past few weeks has been a high note.
This team entered the year with arguably the best rotation on paper in the sport. Gerrit Cole, Calos Rodón, Luis Severino, Nestor Cortes, and Frankie Montas were supposed to lead the Yankees to the promised land. Now, a week or so before year’s end, only Cole has done anything close to meeting his individual expectations.