3 former Yankees players we'll be glad are gone, and 2 we'll wish stayed

The New York Yankees have started the 2023 season fairly well, considering how much pitching depth (as well as their only center fielder!) they lost during spring training. Their left fielder? Is an infielder. Their worst player? He plays third pretty regularly -- oh, sorry, you meant the other guy. Yeah, he complained about his role on the team and they rewarded him with more playing time. Not going great!

And yet, the team perseveres.

So far -- way, way, way too early -- it seems the team is poised to compete when the full calvary comes back midseason, despite some tough decisions that had to be made this offseason and during camp. Jameson Taillon? Gone to Chicago for the big bucks, and it'll probably work out for both parties. Oswald Peraza? Sorry, man, but this is Anthony Volpe's spot for now.

It's difficult to fully regret moving on from any player the Yankees have left in the dust recently, as their roster continues to perform well, but there are a few faces we're always going to miss, regardless of how much it makes sense.

As for the players we're glad are gone? Those decisions were much easier.

Honorable Mention: Gio Urshela, who would be a perfect complementary piece on the Yankees roster if he were still here because he's a perfect complementary piece on any roster. Sunday evening's extra-innings at-bat in the Angels-Blue Jays thriller was a perfect example. Needing a hit of any kind to keep the line moving in the most desperate way, Urshela took a deep breath, threw the bat out, and shanked a liner into the right-center gap. He was familiarly composed. He simply did his job. He's hitting .364 with a 122 OPS+ in early action with the Angels. However, you and I both know that this infield's overstuffed as is; if Urshela were still around, either Anthony Volpe or Gleyber Torres wouldn't be here.

Second Honorable Mention: Jordan Montgomery. Like a too-kind classmate in a horror movie, there's still something I don't trust about Monty's NL Central stats. He's really doing this with just changeups? Over and over and over? Long-term (or in a playoff series), I'm not sure Montgomery has much of a place in the Yankees' rotation, but right now, when Domingo Germán and Clarke Schmidt are falling all over themselves to fumble a good thing ("You leave the rotation." "No, I insist, you leave the rotation."), it would look silly not to say, "Yeah, I wish he were here."

New York Yankees players we're glad to see gone: Joey Gallo

Ignore the statistics. Don't let anybody egg you on by sharing Joey Gallo's progress in Minnesota with you. You know you want to overreact. You know you want to claw at the walls about the Yankees being unable to maximize another trade target.

This one isn't their fault. If Gallo's comfortable in Minnesota, that's fantastic (yes, he homered three times in the season's opening week, but only piled up two other hits). But he absolutely wasn't in New York and, based on the way he reacted to fan vitriol, he wasn't just a tweak or two away from getting acclimated and accepting reality.

On the way out, Michael Kay blasted him for seemingly deflecting from his poor play with a New York sob story. During his second half with the Dodgers, he talked a big game about finally being in the right place, then proceded to replicate his Yankees numbers almost exactly (.159 average, .339 slugging in New York in 2022, .162 and .393 in LA).

Gallo will always be Gallo. Huge power. Huge strikeout totals. Rare contact. Very unpleasant to watch, even at his peak. Not for New York. Not for LA. Fine for Minnesota (we hope). Zero regrets here, no matter how many people try to goad us into reacting to his 2023 stats.

New York Yankees players we're glad to see gone: Miguel Andújar

Long before Estevan Florial was sent into the DFA waters and returned, there was Miguel Andújar, the last hit-too-forward Yankees prospect who was unable to live up to his considerable hype (and who the Yankees held too long).

Unlike Florial, Andújar did have a big-league resumé, a 2018 season where he finished second in the Rookie of the Year balloting to Shohei Ohtani, but a campaign where many agreed he probably needed to be traded, considering he remained positionless. Remember his Fenway error? Don't.

And so, the Yankees held him and held him and held him as he rehabbed from his 2019 shoulder tear. They didn't give him the big-league chances he believed he'd earned. They gave him a few. He didn't deliver. Finally, they DFA'd him last summer, probably believing deep down they'd devalued him enough that he'd sneak through waivers.

Wrong. Instead, he went to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he'd have free rein to helicopter himself in the batter's box for a losing team.

Except ... he's back in the minors to start 2023, and the Pirates are strangely competitive. He's 5-for-33 with a .388 OPS. Some transactions are better left not revisited.

Former New York Yankees player we'll wish stayed: Andrew Benintendi

Obviously, this transaction is more complex. The Yankees weren't choosing between "Andrew Benintendi in 2023" and "Not That". Any Benintendi contract they signed this offseason would be long-term, and the White Sox decided the number to beat was five years. Rumor had it all offseason long that Benintendi preferred the midwest, and once that number appeared in his inbox. rumor swiftly became fact, even if it hadn't been previously.

Sure, Benintendi would be an improvement on the Yankees' current left field situation, but who would you rather manning the spot in 2025? A 31-year-old Benintendi with an inconsistent track record of power, or Jasson Dominguez/Spencer Jones, with far higher ceilings?

That said ... Benintendi would be an obvious improvement over the Yankees' slapdash solution of placing a utility infielder with an electric bat in left field. Add Benny to the current Yankees roster -- basically what they were trying to do last summer, though it never materialized -- and you have a potent lefty bat with contact skills occupying a current semi-hole. The bench looks better. The lineup looks more diverse. It really could've worked, and we never really got to see it play out.

So far ... Benintendi has just an 80 OPS+ and .263 average without a dinger. If those stats never normalize, the Yankees won't regret losing the outfielder so quickly. But something tells us the 2023 Yankees specifically (though maybe not beyond) work better with Benintendi in left. He's got one more year, at least, as a missing piece.

Former New York Yankees player we'll wish stayed: Matt Carpenter

Yeah ... yeah. The 2023 Yankees' bench just ain't what it used to be. Whether you agreed with paying Carpenter $6.5 million or not (which would've pushed the Yankees past an additional tax threshold and severely limited them at the trade deadline/angered the shareholders [who cares]), the fact remains that the Yankees are a bench bopper short.

Even removing the magic of his 2022 campaign and the redemption narrative, and while acknowledging that he had almost a 0% chance of repeating himself, the Yankees' bench has become a spot for also-rans in 2023, comprised entirely of players who didn't crack the lineup. Isiah Kiner-Falefa? Yeah, he's here by accident. Aaron Hicks? We don't have the stones to get rid of him, no. Kyle Higashioka? Best we can do at backup catcher, and don't you dare challenge that statement.

With Franchy Cordero starting most days and Josh Donaldson on the IL, the intrigue of Willie Calhoun might be the most attractive bench option. Forget playing matchups; there's almost no one to even bring about a baseline of excitement in pinch-hitting opportunities.

The other day, Aaron Boone even admitted he went with Kiner-Falefa off the bench over Hicks because he was looking for a single rather than on-base skills. A single is the current ceiling. Carpenter, even without the sheen of brilliance he carried during that majestic summer, would be a massive upgrade, and would provide the Yankees something they don't currently have.

At least he ended up on another contender. We fully endorse the ring chase. There's got to be a better ending to Carpenter's story than what he authored in last season's sad postseason.