8 players on Yankees 40-man roster who don't deserve a role in 2024

Franchy Cordero, OF

Eh. Sorry. But it's unbelievable that Franchy Cordero has been in the Yankees' system -- and available for promotion -- this entire season. His career with the Bombers started in strange fashion, signed mysteriously while Estevan Florial was on the MLB roster for Opening Day, biding his time before the axe came down.

Florial pinch ran in Game 1 of 162, then was never heard from again, left to his own devices to rake at Triple-A. Cordero? He was Boston's long-term project and Baltimore's spring training hero, but the Yankees were the only team to reap the big-league benefits of his burly frame this season.

Ultimately, with no further playing time in sight, it seems he'll wrap his Yankees career with 13 hits in 69 at-bats, six of them homers. A deeply odd player who no one's managed to figure out yet, and no one who has any right to steal reps -- at any level -- from the Yankees' legitimate prospects.

Billy McKinney, OF

McKinney was, for a time, the Yankees' most consistent offensive contributor. He also hits from the left side of that plate. It was fantastic that the Month of McKinney happened. That said ... I don't think he turned his career around in any sort of permanent way, and his .188 July/.184 August seem to reflect that.

If there's any way for the 2024 Yankees to retain McKinney as Triple-A depth, that would be fantastic. He's a plus defender with a nose for the porch. He came through far more often than any non-regular Yankees viewer would've noticed. He was deserving of an emergency call-up and 40-man scramble when the opportunity arrived. But he shouldn't be guaranteed a big-league roster spot in New York entering camp next year.