New York Yankees
Key Acquisitions: Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, Masahiro Tanaka
Key Losses: Robinson Cano, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte
Biggest Strength: Top half of the order
Biggest Weakness: Bullpen
At the outset of the season, the Yankees probably provide the most interesting storylines among the teams in the American League East. For my own sanity, I will not include Alex Rodriguez among these storylines. I feel the average sports fan will get enough input on that from other sources.
As the Yankees are known to do, a lot of money was spent in the offseason. The contracts of Ellsbury, McCann, Beltran, and Tanaka alone represent $438 million. One thing that the Yankees have in the batting order that they did not last year is depth: Behind the aging Derek Jeter is Brendan Ryan (ok, defensively at least); Ichiro, Ellsbury, Beltran, and Brett Gardner make a formidable four-man outfield; the newly-signed Brian Roberts has Kelly Johnson handcuffed to him. At times last year, the Yankees lineup had injuries to the point where the lineup was laughable. It doesn’t look like that will be the case this year.
The Yankees lineup, even with the loss of Robinson Cano, has a lot of power from the left side of the plate. With the addition of McCann and the switch-hitting Beltran, it would seem the Yankees have configured a lineup built to drive in Ellsbury and Gardner.
There are a lot of ifs in the rotation, though: IF C.C. Sabathia can rebound somewhat from last year; IF Hiroki Kuroda can keep battling the aging curve; IF Tanaka can at least perform close to his expectation of a number two pitcher; IF Michael Pineda can come back clean from injury and be the pitcher the Yankees hoped when they traded away Jesus Montero for him, THEN this could prove to be a very solid rotation. That’s a lot of ‘ifs’ that have to break right (not even including up-and-down youngsters Ivan Nova and David Phelps), though, and the bullpen doesn’t appear to be much improved from last year. The loss of Mariano Rivera won’t help that.
The rotation will prove to be the key to the Yankees season. If it can hold together, this team will challenge for a division title. If not, they’ll be in a fight for the wild card.
