3 Yankees players we'll be glad are gone in 2024 and 2 we wish stayed

Yankees player fans wish stayed: Michael King

Unlike Germán, King was of the former category of departed Yankees: trading him was necessary to import Juan Soto. And you make that trade 10 times out of 10 -- no insult to King whatsoever.

An important reliever the Yankees converted back to a starter, King was hot down the stretch in 2023 through nine starts, which seemingly built up his trade value to the point where the Padres wanted him as the centerpiece of the Soto deal.

Truthfully, King's success was short-lived. Those were the best nine starts of his career, after he was legitimately unable to start games in his previoius 10 tries. As for his career as a reliever, King was lights out for 34 games in 2022, suffered an elbow injury, admirably worked his way back for 2023, but was then very much hittable. He was very much not great from June-August, so he was already trending downward.

Those final nine starts saved him, but the Yankees pretty much swapped him out for Soto and Marcus Stroman. Yankees fans loved King's stuff, energy and hard-working attitude, but he's been replaced, and no amount of trolling will make us feel otherwise.

Yankees player fans are thrilled to see gone: Luis Severino

This might be an unpopular opinion, but if you were a good Yankee for two years, that doesn't absolve you from doing absolutely nothing for the next five. Luis Severino was supposed to be the next great Yankees pitcher. He ended up being the Yankees' next great disappointment.

Sevy's 2017 and 2018 seasons (well, really just the first half of 2018), truly had Yankees fans believing they had their next homegrown ace. But then shoulder issues limited him to just three starts in 2019, all because he failed to communicate his injuries to the team's medical staff. Then, just weeks before players were reporting to 2020 spring training, Severino needed Tommy John surgery. He pitched in just seven games from 2019-2021.

Everyone thought he was "back" when he logged 19 starts in 2022, but more injuries kept him on the shelf, and he publicly criticized the Yankees for rightfully placing him on the 60-day injured list. Severino then returned in 2023 to be, legitimately, the worst full-time starter in MLB. He logged a 6.65 ERA, 6.14 FIP and 1.65 WHIP in 19 games (18 starts). And, you guessed it, more injuries kept him off the field. There was also belief he was tipping his pitches so badly and so often in 2023 that it led to him getting knocked around like he was an undeveloped prospect. Even if that were the case, it's no excuse. Severino is an eight-year MLB veteran and has the resources at his fingertips to stop the spiraling.

He's now a Met. We're happy for him that he got to stay in New York, but it would've been torture to watch him take the mound one more time as a Yankee.

Yankees player fans wish stayed: Wandy Peralta

Peralta's in San Deigo with King, as the right-hander unnecessarily reminded Yankees fans when it all went down. The lefty reliever signed a four-year, $16.5 million contract with three opt outs, which, in the end, was a deal the Yankees weren't going to match.

But for a second there, fans thought a reunion was happening. The Yankees remained interested (per reports) and no other team was chasing Peralta aggressively. It felt like New York was just sorting out its financial situation and Peralta was patiently waiting.

Sadly, that wasn't the case, and one of the most beloved Yankees of the last few years was gone, just like that. What was most upsetting is that this felt avoidable. Peralta wasn't traded as a necessary means to an end. He didn't regress to the point where he was undesirable (though his peripheral metrics in 2023 certainly declined, which probably had the Yankees hesitating).

While Wandy not returning won't be a death knell, it's definitely a hit in the vibes department, because he was a calming presence with a humorous and positive attitude.

Yankees player fans are thrilled to see gone: Josh Donaldson

OK, here's a serious question that's worth a poll among fans: Was Josh Donaldson or Joey Gallo the more infuriating Yankee?

Both were acquired via trade, pretty much spent the same amount of time in New York (from a games played perspective), and offered absolutely nothing. Donaldson, however, was an expected thorn in everybody's side and came at a much higher cost. Gallo might've fetched more headlines for his inexplicably terrible play, but Donaldson rolled up every kind of awfulness into a ball and dropped it like an atom bomb in the middle of Yankee Stadium.

The season before the Yankees decided to import the remaining $50 million attached to Donaldson (which prevented them from signing better free agents), all the while shipping off a fan-favorite in Gio Urshela for no apparent reason other than attempting to get value for Gary Sánchez's final year of arbitration, the former MVP (yes, former MVP!!) publicly ripped Gerrit Cole, the Yankees' second-most important player, for using sticky stuff. Yup, that's a guy you surely accommodate into your very important plans for 2022 and 2023.

Here's a quick timeline of what happened during Donaldson's tenure:

• Walk-off hit on Opening Day against the Red Sox
• Suspended for calling Tim Anderson "Jackie"
• Cried like a baby when Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo called him "Daddy"
• Finished 2022 with his worst OPS and OPS+ marks since his rookie season
• Struck out 16 times in 36 playoff plate appearances that year
• Suffered an injury on April 5 of 2023
• Tried to come back on a rehab assignment while he was STILL INJURED
• Sliced his hand open while "putting something together at home" with his daughter
• Batted .144 in his next 28 games, with 13 total hits (nine of which were home runs)
• Argued with Aaron Boone about his playing time, forcing the Yankees manager to be late to a presser and answer questions as to why he was late to the presser, prompting him to very clearly lie about his interaction with Donaldson
• Suffered a calf strain, placed on the 60-Day IL
• Released on Aug. 29

He ended his Yankees career hitting .207 with a .678 OPS and 90 OPS+. He struck out 180 times in 165 games. His defense at third base suffered for no apparent reason. In 2021, he was still very much a capable player, hitting 27 home runs with an .827 OPS. It's the most steep career decline in modern baseball history.

And it of course happened the moment he put on a Yankees jersey. He was never a fit, and all of these baffling occurrences further confirmed that. Good riddance.