OUR LONG-ANTICIPATED TOWERING SEASON IS ABOUT TO BEGIN
Well, we’re coming to
the end of our long anticipated time again…a new baseball season is about to
begin with spring training officially starting next week! The Yankees, like all teams, have added some
new faces to their roster. Of course,
their largest acquisition was via a trade with the Miami Marlins (led by one of
their recent owners, Derek Jeter) whereby the Yanks attained Giancarlo Stanton. In the deal, the Yankees gave up their second
baseman (Starlin Castro) along with a decent right-handed pitching prospect (Jorge
Guzman) and a lower-tiered prospect who plays shortstop (Jose Devers).
Castro will be missed. He was a good defensive player and a very
good hitter for the Yankees. I enjoyed
his sporadic Reggie Jackson-like swing onto his knee while trying to desperately
hit a homerun. The trade from the
Yankees’ standpoint made total sense as their top prospect (21-year-old Gleyber
Torres) happens to be mainly considered a second baseman who seems ready to
join the big leagues this season. Torres
also plays shortstop and third base, but the Yankees seemed to like him best as
a second baseman.
I, like most NYY fans,
am excited to have Stanton (last year’s National League MVP) join our team,
creating one portion of a set of offensive towers, alongside Aaron Judge. Last year’s lineup was feared by opposing
pitchers; this upcoming season’s lineup must petrify them! Of course they’ll be strikeouts, just like
last year, but it looks like we are going to see even more moonshot homeruns this
year. Stanton will certainly be a force
to be reckoned with; but the best part about him, besides his offense, is his
desire. He practically forced the
Marlins to trade him to the Yankees specifically!
It will remain to be
seen what the Yankees will do with their lineup. If Gleyber tears it up in spring training, I
believe he’ll be named as their starting second baseman. Another prospect, 22-year-old Miguel Andujar,
will possibly get a chance as the NYY’s third baseman (if the Yankees don’t
acquire someone else prior to the start of the season). We saw Andujar last year for about 2 minutes
in the majors. It looks like he has a
nice swing; but, his defense at third has been viewed by the Yankees as needing
more development. We’ll find out soon
enough about his future.
Personally, I don’t
think the Yankees are done with their 25-man roster just yet. I believe they’ll acquire another starting
pitcher and possibly a veteran third baseman.
For the former, my preference would be for them to acquire left-handed
starter Patrick Corbin from the Diamondbacks.
He’s 28 years old, so he’s just begun his prime career. While he had a slightly unattractive National
League ERA last year (4.03), he also pitched in a hitter-friendly ballpark. Additionally, he had a very good ERA (3.22) during
his second half of the season - even whilst pitching in Arizona! Furthermore, he’s a lefty starter, which
would certainly benefit him with his starts at Yankee Stadium. It would be overly awesome if the Yankees
could somehow trade Ellsbury in such a trade, while paying at least 50% of Ellsbury’s
contract and rightfully offering at least one top prospect in the deal. Other available starting pitchers come mostly
from the current free agent pool, including some who I like such as Jake
Arrieta, Lance Lynn, or Alex Cobb.
Again, we’ll have to
wait and see; but, at least now we won’t have to wait too long!
