Aaron Boone appeared on the Foul Territory podcast on Friday, and when asked about the potential lineup construction for 2024, Boone revealed that he has leaned towards taking Aaron Judge out of his usual second spot in the order.
“I think about it all the time,” Boone said of imagining the Yanks’ new-look lineup with the acquisition of Juan Soto. “Right now, probably Juan in the two hole, and Judgie third, but we’ll see. We’ll see how the leadoff spot shakes out.”
As for who could be starting things off for the Yanks in 2024, Boone pointed to DJ LeMahieu, the team’s 35-year-old former batting champion who was a stud leadoff man in his first two seasons in New York, but has fallen off due to injury and age in recent years. But Boone was encouraged by LeMahieu’s second half of last season, where he hit .273 with an .809 OPS and a wRC+ that was more than 50 points higher than the first half of the year.
“I really feel excited about the way DJ finished the season last year and the winter that he’s had,” Boone said. “He’s in Tampa already getting rolling. I’m hopeful he gets back to being the player he was in the second half, where he’s getting on base a ton and can solve that leadoff spot for us and roll everyone from there.”
Boone didn’t mention Anthony Volpe, but there were other options he could consider at leadoff, and while he stressed that the order of Soto and Judge could change, he does see them hitting back to back.
“Bringing [Alex] Verdugo over is a huge deal. He can hit in that [leadoff] spot,” Boone said. “You can move Gleyber [Torres] up there if you wanted to. I feel like we have a lot of really good options.”
