2008 New York Yankees season

2008 New York Yankees
File:NY Yankees Logo.png
Division	Eastern Division
Ballpark	Yankee Stadium
City	New York, New York
Owners	George Steinbrenner
Managers	Joe Girardi
Television	YES Network WWOR (My 9)
Radio	WCBS (AM) WQBU-FM (Spanish)
Seasons

The 2008 New York Yankees season is the 106th season for the New York Yankees franchise. The Yankees will host the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday July 15, 2008. It is the last season at Yankee Stadium before they move to a more technologically advanced ballpark (also called "Yankee Stadium") just north of the current ballpark.

Offseason summary

The Yankees' 2007/2008 offseason began in a tumultuous manner, with uncertainty as to the status of manager Joe Torre and team stalwarts Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez, all of whom were free agents. While Torre departed after 12 years as the team's manager, all four free agents returned to play for the Yankees in 2008, providing stability and continuity for new manager Joe Girardi.

Comings and goings

Manager Joe Torre left for the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2007 season. After conducting interviews with Don Mattingly, Tony Pena and Joe Girardi, Girardi was signed to be the new Yankees Manager. This prompted Mattingly to leave the team as well and follow Torre to the Dodgers.

On November 29, the Yankees resigned catcher Jorge Posada to a four year contract for $52,400,000. Posada will be earning $13,100,000 per season which is the highest average salary ever for a catcher.

On December 3, the Yankees resigned backup catcher Jose Molina to a 2 year, $4 million contract.

On December 4, the Yankees shipped minor league pitcher and part time MLB starter Tyler Clippard to the Washington Nationals for reliever Jonathan Albaladejo.

On December 9, the Yankees agreed to a contract with relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins.

On December 12, the Yankees resigned pitcher Andy Pettitte to a 1-year, $16 million contract.

Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract in the middle of Game 4 of the 2007 World Series. The Yankees initially stated that they would not negotiate with Rodriguez once he opted out but changed course once Rodriguez announced his desire to return to pinstripes after issuing an apology for the public and the Yankees misunderstanding his desire to stay with the team. On December 13, 2007, Rodgriuez and the Yankees officially agreed to a 10-year, $275 million contract that may rise to above $300 million if certain performance milestones are reached.

On December 17, the Yankees resigned closer Mariano Rivera. Despite his original plan to hold out for a fourth year, Rivera has agreed to a three year contract offer worth $45 million. This contract makes Rivera the highest-paid closer in baseball history.

Relief pitcher Luis Vizcaino turned down an offer of salary arbitration and signed a multi-year deal with the Colorado Rockies on December 21. 1B Andy Phillips departed for the Cincinnati Reds, and Doug Mientkiewicz departed for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Roger Clemens still remains a free agent and will not return to the Yankees in 2008 according to Hank Steinbrenner. On March 10, 2008 the team signed actor/comedian Billy Crystal to a one day contract just before his 60th birthday.

Regular season

April

The Yankees started opening day one day late at Yankee Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays after a rain delay. The Yankees took 2 of 3 games of the series. After that, they faced a new look Devil Rays team. They lost the first two by the scores of 13-4 and 6-3, but would rebound and even up the series 2 games apiece. Following the series, the Yankees had a grueling road trip that had them playing 18 of their next 20 games on the road. During this stretch, rookies Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy struggled mightily and went winless the entire first month. After a rib injury to Hughes, Kennedy was reassigned to the minor league AAA affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as the Yankees called up Darrell Rasner. Fortunately, Rasner has been pitching well this season, going 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA in his first four starts.

Both Shortstop Derek Jeter and Third Baseman Alex Rodriguez had suffered minor quadriceps injuries at different times. Catcher Jorge Posada was also placed on the disabled list for the first time in his career after a slight tear in his rotator cuff and backup infielder Wilson Betemit missed several games due to conjunctivitis.

May

Their struggles continued in May, They only had one series win in May as of Tuesday, May 20th, and that was a 3-game sweep against the Mariners on May 2-4 at the Stadium. The would lose 3 of 4 against the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg and were swept in 2 games against the Mets in the Subway Series. There was a controversial call where Carlos Delgado appeared to hit it foul against the left field foul pole, when a replay would later show that the ball was actually a home run. The Mets would win go on to win 11-2. The game on Friday May 16th was postponed because of rain. Since then, the Yankees ended the month, winning 8 of their last 10 games, escaping the AL East cellar, and got back over .500 since early May.

June

The Yankees lost three in a row through the first three days of June, dropping the final 2 games of the four-game set against the Twins at the Metrodome. Then they were blitzed 9-3 by the Jays on Joba Chamberlain's first career start in the majors, but the Yankees won the next 2 against them including a wild comeback on June 5th which ended in a two-run, pinch hit homer into the upper deck by Jason Giambi after trailing 7-2 in the 6th inning. Following the series, Yankees split a 4 game weekend series with the Royals 2 games apiece, and the Yankees took 2 out of 3 from the A's highlighted by Hideki Matsui celebrating his his 34th birthday with a Grand Slam home run off of Joe Blanton. The Yankees would then sweep the Astros and are 4 games over .500 for the first time this season, but Chien-Ming Wang hurt his leg rounding the bases in the Yankees 13-0 win. He will be out for six weeks. They would then sweep the Padres to win 7 straight for the first time this season. The winning streak came to a halt on June 20, when they lost to Edinson Vólquez and the Reds 4-2 on the Reds first visit to Yankee Stadium since 1976, the first season of the renovated Yankee Stadium. They would follow with an aweful 6-0 loss where they would leave 12 runners on base.

The Yankees will play a two stadium doubleheader on Friday, June 27 against the Mets to make up a rainout back in May.

Season standings

AL East

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Tampa Bay Rays	97	65	.599	—	57‍–‍24	40‍–‍41
Boston Red Sox	95	67	.586	2	56‍–‍25	39‍–‍42
New York Yankees	89	73	.549	8	48‍–‍33	41‍–‍40
Toronto Blue Jays	86	76	.531	11	47‍–‍34	39‍–‍42
Baltimore Orioles	68	93	.422	28½	37‍–‍43	31‍–‍50

Record vs. Opponents

Team	W-L Record
Baltimore Orioles	4-5
Boston Red Sox	2-3
Chicago White Sox	2-1
Cincinnati Reds	0-1
Cleveland Indians	3-4
Detroit Tigers	1-4
Houston Astros	3-0
Kansas City Royals	3-4
Los Angeles Angels	0-0
Minnesota Twins	2-2
New York Mets	0-2
Oakland Athletics	2-1
San Diego Padres	3-0
Seattle Mariners	6-0
Tampa Bay Rays	5-5
Texas Rangers	0-0
Toronto Blue Jays	4-2

Current roster

New York Yankees 2025 spring training roster
40-man roster				Non-roster invitees		Coaches/Other
Pitchers 85 Clayton Beeter -- JT Brubaker 45 Gerrit Cole 61 Jake Cousins -- Fernando Cruz -- Yerry De Los Santos 59 Scott Effross 54 Max Fried 81 Luis Gil 92 Yoendrys Gómez 71 Ian Hamilton 56 Mark Leiter Jr. 43 Jonathan Loáisiga 55 Carlos Rodón 36 Clarke Schmidt  0 Marcus Stroman 98 Will Warren 30 Luke Weaver 38 Devin Williams		Catchers -- J.C. Escarra -- Alex Jackson -- Jesús Rodríguez 28 Austin Wells Infielders 95 Oswaldo Cabrera 13 Jazz Chisholm Jr. 26 DJ LeMahieu 91 Oswald Peraza 93 Ben Rice 90 Jorbit Vivas 11 Anthony Volpe Outfielders 35 Cody Bellinger 89 Jasson Domínguez 12 Trent Grisham 99 Aaron Judge 80 Everson Pereira Designated hitters 27 Giancarlo Stanton				Manager 17 Aaron Boone Coaches 68 Brad Ausmus (bench) 77 Matt Blake (pitching) 75 Travis Chapman (first base/infield) 78 Casey Dykes (assistant hitting) 60 Mike Harkey (bullpen) 66 Pat Roessler (assistant hitting) 67 Luis Rojas (third base/outfield) 62 James Rowson (hitting) 76 Tanner Swanson (quality control/catching) 36 active, 0 inactive, 0 non-roster invitees 7-, 10-, or 15-day injured list * Not on active roster † Suspended list Roster, coaches, and NRIs updated December 20, 2024 Transactions • Depth chart → All MLB rosters

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
Bobby Abreu	43	164	18	46	9	1	5	25	.280	2
Wilson Betemit	10	26	2	7	2	0	1	3	.269	0
Melky Cabrera	42	145	16	37	5	0	6	19	.255	3
Robinson Cano	43	157	12	32	5	0	4	12	.204	1
Johnny Damon	42	156	28	39	13	1	5	17	.250	5
Shelley Duncan	13	36	4	7	2	0	0	1	.194	0
Morgan Ensberg	23	70	6	15	0	0	1	4	.214	0
Kyle Farnsworth	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
Jason Giambi	36	110	17	21	6	0	8	21	.191	1
Alberto Gonzalez	17	38	4	9	2	0	0	1	.237	0
Derek Jeter	38	156	21	49	6	3	2	21	.314	1
Hideki Matsui	41	148	17	45	7	0	6	20	.304	0
Chad Moeller	11	37	5	9	2	0	1	4	.243	0
Jose Molina	27	82	7	17	9	0	0	3	.207	0
Jorge Posada	18	63	8	19	6	1	1	11	.302	0
Alex Rodriguez	24	91	14	26	7	0	4	11	.286	1
Chris Stewart	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0

Starting Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	R	ER	BB	K
Mike Mussina	10	5	3.93	16	16	0	89.1	48	39	13	50
Dan Giese	1	1	0.64	3	0	0	13	4	1	1	8
Andy Pettitte	7	5	4.29	15	15	0	87.1	49	45	22	70
Darrell Rasner	4	4	3.64	10	10	0	47	17	17	11	31
Joba Chamberlain	1	2	2.48	23	3	0	36.1	12	10	20	40
Chien-Ming Wang~	8	2	4.07	15	15	0	95	44	43	35	54
Ian Kennedy~	0	3	7.41	9	8	0	37.2	31	31	25	26
Phil Hughes~	0	4	9.00	6	6	0	22.0	23	22	13	13
Kei Igawa*	0	1	18.00	1	1	0	3.0	6	6	0	0

Relief Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	R	ER	BB	K
Jonathan Albaladejo~	0	1	3.95	7	0	0	13.2	6	6	6	13
Chris Britton~	0	0	1.93	2	0	0	4.2	1	1	4	0
Brian Bruney~	1	0	1.59	9	1	1	11.1	2	2	6	12
Kyle Farnsworth	1	2	4.18	31	0	0	28.1	34	32	12	28
LaTroy Hawkins	1	1	5.65	24	0	0	28.2	18	18	15	18
Ross Ohlendorf	1	1	5.54	22	0	0	36.2	25	23	18	33
Edwar Ramirez	1	0	2.86	20	0	0	22	7	7	11	25
Mariano Rivera-CL	2	2	0.82	30	0	19	28.0	3	3	3	32
Scott Patterson*	0	0	6.75	1	0	0	1.1	1	1	2	2
Billy Traber	0	0	3.86	13	0	0	8.1	4	4	5	7
Jose Veras	1	0	3.20	18	0	0	19.2	7	7	5	20

~ Disabled List

* Optioned to Minor Leagues

References

• Game Logs:

1st Half: New York Yankees Game Log on ESPN.com

2nd Half: New York Yankees Game Log on ESPN.com

• Batting Statistics: New York Yankees Batting Stats on ESPN.com
• Pitching Statistics: New York Yankees Pitching Stats on ESPN.com

• 2008 New York Yankees season at Baseball Reference
• 2008 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com