The New York Yankees and specifically manager Joe Girardi is singing from the roof tops about his excitement for the 2015 season and his new roster of stars. Girardi claimed that this year’s spring training camp will showcase possibly more competition than he has ever seen in a Yankees camp but frankly, I’m not seeing it. You’re preaching to the choir Joe and you’re lying on top of it.
Only mediocre teams claim they have tons of competition in camp while the solid to great teams are pretty set come January 1st, let alone March 7th. Barring injuries of course the Yankees have taken a sharpie to their 25 man roster and filled in the catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, left field, center field, right field, and DH position. The team also has five starting pitchers basically etched in stone (barring injuries of course) and five or six of the bullpen positions with Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson, David Carpenter, Esmil Rogers and Adam Warren with Wilson being the tight rope walker. The Yankees bench will consist of Garrett Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Chris Young and Brendan Ryan leaving 24 of the 25 roster spots basically set.
Where’s the competition? Unless of course Girardi is banking on injuries and will evaluate talent from the minors to fill those holes now which sounds good in theory but has proven time and time again to be something the Yankees manager is unwilling to do. We know what happens when an injury happens and it won’t be a young guy coming up. It will be Garrett Jones at first base when Teixeira needs a day. It will be Brendan Ryan or Alex Rodriguez at third base when Chase Headley needs a break. It will be Chris Young rotating in the outfield to keep everyone fresh. It will be Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge watching Young from the minor leagues and it will be Robert Refsnyder and Jose Pirela watching Drew, Ryan and company from Scranton. It will be Kyle Roller watching Jones and it will be Eric Jagielo watching to see if A Rod still has it in the infield.
There is no competition so don’t pretend like there is.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)