Good Riddance, 2023

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New York is made for stars to shine under the brightest lights. And in the sports world, some of the games’ biggest names called the area home during 2023, From the teams I follow, we had the iconic Aaron’s, Judge and Rodgers, supreme NBA talents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and hockey wizards Artemi Panarin and Jack Hughes, just to name a few. And I’ll even extend it to the WNBA’s Liberty, which counted a pair of league MVPs, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, on its “super team” roster.  

Yet when the area’s sports fans look back at the past calendar year, the only words I can come up with are, “What a waste.”

I can’t think of a New York sports year that was filled with as much bitter disappointment, nearly universal across the board. Since my life illogically revolves around such matters that others may find trivial, a large portion of the 275 columns I’ve posted in 2023 related to dealing with these feelings.   

Fortunately, the sports world isn’t static. New stars can be acquired and lousy management can be overhauled. Teams’ paths aren’t necessarily linear in either direction. Look at the Giants as an extreme example.

So, like I did in May after the winter season concluded, here’s a few words and current trajectories on each of the nine area teams from the four major sports’ leagues as we say, “Good riddance” to 2023 and hope for a much Happier New Year:

New York Yankees

When you can pretty much print money, there’s always hope. The problem in the Bronx for the past decade has been how it was spent. The trade for outfielder Juan Soto appears on paper to be a game-changer. Then again, many said the same thing six years ago about Giancarlo Stanton, and that hasn’t netted the Bombers World Series ring No. 28. One should never assume anything in baseball, but with Soto added to protect Judge and Cy Young winner Gerritt Cole returning to lead a deep pitching staff, the Yankees have to be considered a contender in the American League.

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New York Mets

Coming from the hedge fund world, I can tell you that Mets owner Steve Cohen had enormous success flipping investments in day trading. He has obviously found that such a strategy doesn’t translate to running a pro sports franchise. Since taking the reins three years ago, Cohen will be on General Manager No. 5 (including interims), whenever he gets around to choosing one. The Manager position hasn’t really been any more stable, with Carlos Mendoza becoming Cohen’s third charm in November. The Mets started 2023 banking on aging pitching stars Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer and ended it with 30-year old Kodai Senga as the ace of the staff. It’s hard to find stability on the field with this much chaos off it.   

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New York Jets

No fan base in the four sports leagues has gone longer without witnessing a single playoff game. The embarrassment never ends. It’s why I found them to be so predictable this season. I projected them to be 9-8 WITH Rodgers, who lasted four snaps before rupturing his Achilles. Now the most clueless owner among these teams, Woody Johnson, wants to run it all back with the same incompetent GM/HC tandem. Probably because the trust fund baby doesn’t want to have to do the work.

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New York Giants

One of the year’s top New York sports highlights occurred way back in January with that fun Giants playoff win in Minnesota. The subsequent blowout loss in Philly, unfortunately, exposed how far Big Blue really was from capturing the storied franchise’s fifth Super Bowl, though I didn’t think it would lead to such a drastic downward turn this season. Unlike with their MetLife Stadium co-tenants, Giants GM Joe Schoen and HC Brian Daboll deserve a mulligan here, though they have a lot of work to do this offseason. How they move forward with overpaid quarterback Daniel Jones might make me change my tune. In any case, 2024 will be a crucial year for this regime.  

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New York Knicks

I know many Knicks fans didn’t like Saturday’s trade. Losing homegrown talents R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley may sting. However, it can’t be analyzed in a vacuum. The beauty of the deal is that it left New York with the flexibility to obtain a more reliable postseason stalwart than Julius Randle to complement Jalen Brunson. O.G. Anunoby, a switchable wing who can score at every level, is exactly the piece contending NBA teams prioritize. The Knicks could have easily stayed the course and won another playoff round before bowing out to a superior club like last season, but I think it’s good that management has higher goals. They’re not where they need to be yet, but I believe they just got closer to getting there.

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Brooklyn Nets

The local club with the highest volatility index, on and off the court. Unfortunately, they currently find themselves near rock bottom of the graph, so much further from legitimate contention than they were 12 months ago. Then KD and Kyrie bailed, replaced by more likable but lesser talented players. This season may have started off promising, but this team wasn’t configured to achieve anything beyond a low playoff/play-in seed, and it might not even reach that. The measurement below, though, is drawn just as much more from where this franchise is headed as where it stands, and most Nets fans trust GM Sean Marks to replicate the rebuild that drew the league’s biggest stars to Brooklyn in the first place.

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New York Rangers

James Dolan’s ownership of the Knicks is perceived to be an impediment to the team’s ability to bring in the biggest stars. Meanwhile, James Dolan’s Rangers seem to be able to get whoever they want, be it a marquee free agent for less than the highest bid (Panarin) or a top U.S. college hockey player taking advantage of the NHL’s ludicrous free agent rule to avoid playing for the club that originally drafted him (Adam Fox). Now, this is not discounting the organization’s acumen in finding gems outside the Draft lottery like Igor Shesterkin and K’Andre Miller. This is a solid hockey operation. There’s no question that the Rangers’ playoff loss to the rival Devils in the first round left a bad taste, but they surely have come to terms with it. Saturday night’s win in Tampa Bay vaulted them to the top of the league, making them the most likely contender to break the area’s championship drought.

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New York Islanders

Stuck in the proverbial mud since their back-to-back marches to the Eastern Conference finals, matching the temperament of GM Lou Lamoriello, who operates like it’s 2003 instead of 2023. They’re good enough defensively and in net to scare potential playoff foes, but their inconsistent scoring makes it a struggle just to get there. Same old, same old. They did get a nice new arena in the interim, though.

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New Jersey Devils

The poster child for nonlinear progression. After a record-setting season in many ways for the franchise, the Devils have struggled to find their high gear to start 2023-24. Their top-end talent up front led by Hughes makes them a joy to watch, but then they have way too many games like Saturday night in Boston where they blew a 2-0 second-period lead in a matter of minutes and it makes you think, “This is not a serious hockey team.”  

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And with that, I’d like to wish all New York area sports fans a very Happy New Year!