The New York Yankees are coming off a disappointing 2023 season. But Baseball Prospectus believes great things are ahead for the Yankees in 2024.
The site put together its first PECOTA projected standings for the 2024 season, which are simulations that project a range of victories for each team going into the season. The site uses a simulator and runs more than 1,000 simulations to help create the projections.
PECOTA stands for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, which is Baseball Prospectus’ proprietary system that projects player and team performance.
But BP also creates PECOTA standings based on the simulations. According to those standing the Yankees are in for a big bounce-back in 2024.
The Yankees are projected to win 94.5 games, which is just one-tenth of a win behind the Houston Astros’ 94.6 projection for the best record in the American League.
That would be a big jump for the Yankees, who won just 83 games last season and missed the playoffs.
The projections don’t just yield wins and losses (67.5 losses for the record). BP is also projecting the Yankees will score 827 runs and give up 684 runs.
The standings also project the Yankees with a 59.5% chance of winning the AL East, a division won by Baltimore last season. Their chances of reaching the Wild Card are 32%, and their overall playoff chances are 91.5%.
From there the Yankees have a 76.6% chance of reaching the Division Series and an 11.7% chance to reach the World Series.
The Yankees have added several players that should help them get closer to that projected win total. The Yankees traded for slugger Juan Soto, along with outfielders Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo, to bolster their outfield. The Yankees also signed starter Marcus Stroman to help fill out their rotation.