State of the New York Yankees

Sam Vercruysse

Major League Baseball is in the midst of a busy and scandalous offseason that has shifted its focus from an exciting free agent period to the fallout from the 2017 Astros sign stealing fiasco. When taking a look at the approach that the Yankees took to the past few months, it is hard to argue with the fact that they are going into the 2020 season as one of the “winners” of the offseason. After a season in which the Yankees won 103 games and the AL East title it was clear that there was one glaring need that the club had and that was starting pitching. That need was swiftly addressed as the Yankees signed the reigning American League CY Young Award winner, Garrett Cole to a nine year, $324 million deal. This will add to a pitching staff that saw great late season production from James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and Louis Severino who had just come back from a season long shoulder injury. Signing Garrett Cole was clearly the Yankees main priority this offseason as they did not make many more free agent moves and did not move anyone around in their powerful lineup.

As every offseason goes, there were negatives to go along with the positives. Although adding Garrett Cole was a huge win, there were two key losses the Yankees suffered during the winter meetings. The Yankees saw both starting shortstop Didi Gregorious and reliever Dellin Betances leave for the Phillies and Mets respectively. Gregoreous had been a huge offensive plus in the middle infield for the Yankees ever since coming over in a trade with Arizona in 2015 and Dellin Betances is widely regarded as one of the best late inning relief pitchers in the game of baseball. The silver lining in these losses is that the answers lie within the current Yankees roster. The offensive surges from both Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu made it possible for the Yankees to move on from Didi. Torres can slide over to shortstop and then LeMahieu will be able to play his natural position of second base. The loss of Betances may hurt the bullpen depth a little, but the Yankees still have one of the strongest units in the majors highlighted by flame throwing Aroldis Chapman. The final circumstance that makes these losses sting a little less is the plethora of talent that the Yankees have returning from injury. Louis Severino was already mentioned as a player returning from injury, but sluggers Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar are on track to start spring training at full strength.

Due to the strength of the Yankees offseason and their success the past three seasons it is hard to predict anything other than more success in 2020. With the key addition of Garrett Cole and star players returning from injury, the 2020 Yankees are poised for another deep October run. Not to mention the slight downfall of American league rivals Houston and Boston as both squads have had to fire their managers this offseason and Houston dealing with even harsher punishment as a part of their 2017 cheating scandal. This opens up another door for the 2020 Yankees to take advantage of other team’s losses. There are very few teams if any that are coming into the 2020 season in a better position to succeed than the New York Yankees.