Later
this week, MLB begins its workouts for pitchers and catchers and the following
week the rest of the squads will join them.
Once March begins, this year’s spring training games will also begin. Before you know it, in approximately 1½
months (on April 4th) the NYY are scheduled to open/play their first
official 2016 MLB game against the Astros at Yankee Stadium. From my own personal perspective, this year’s
offseason passed by rather quickly; yet, I can’t wait for baseball’s return.
It’s
hard to fathom that the Yankees were the only team in MLB that didn’t sign a
free agent! All of their new
acquisitions came via trades. That
certainly doesn’t fit the mold of the late George Steinbrenner! It’s clear that the NYY are waiting for this season’s
expiration of both Mark Teixeira’s and Carlos Beltran’s contracts before they
commit large sums of money into any free-agent.
Next season, they will also have the contracts of both A-Rod and CC
Sabathia coming off the books. There is
no doubt to me that by the time all 4 contracts expire, the Yankees’ farm
system and the youth they’ve acquired will be fully lined up with a comparable ammunition
that they had back in 1996 when their last great generation began for years to
come.
In the
interim, I look forward to seeing some of our new acquisitions play - particularly,
Aroldis Chapman, Starlin Castro, and Aaron Hicks. Chapman offers a very intimidating 1-2-3
punch at the end of games (along with Betances and Miller); Castro offers a
great up-the-middle duo with Didi Gregorius (one of last year’s youthful
acquisitions); and Hicks offers a great deal of speed to join Gardner and Ellsbury
in the outfield, while also offering an alternative to either of them without
compromising defense.
Of
course, health is always a concern for all teams; but, the Yankees have already
experienced a big blow before this year’s first official pitch was thrown! Greg Bird (Teixeira’s potential 2017
replacement) was diagnosed with a torn labrum to his right shoulder and had
surgery that will typically require Bird to miss this season (with a small
possibility of returning by August or September this year). Bird wasn’t expected to be more than a backup
player for Teixeira this year, with the possibility of playing mostly for their
AAA (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) team. In either instance,
Bird’s injury will offer the Yankees less time to definitively conclude whether
or not he will irrefutably become their starting first baseman for their 2017 team.
Besides
the ramifications of Bird’s injury, I also (unfortunately) reserve my jubilance
for this season because, as most feel, the Yankees' health concerns are well
beyond first base. Their health concerns
mostly evolve around their starting pitchers.
They have 5 of their potential 6 starting pitchers with recent historic
health issues (Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Nathan Eovaldi, and
Michael Pineda). Their farm system holds
many players that are 1-2 years away, but just a few that could potentially
step right into the majors during the first half of this season - especially a starter. They really need to acquire either a decent major-league-ready
starter or one that is a AAA player on the cusp of making the majors this
season! Brian Cashman has, thus far,
failed to make such an acquisition. He
also failed to pick up a decent first-base backup to Teixeira. He’s relying on too many middle infielders to
have that ability - a past reliance that has customarily failed too many times.
