The Yankees Will Get Younger Next Season

There has been an outcry from the fans over the past three or so seasons pleading with the Yankees to get younger and build their team from within. The thought process here is that the “Dynasty Yankees” had the core four and just filled in the blanks with veteran deals and timely hitting. While I agree with that line of thinking I will also add that it has to be done right to be effective, that sounds simple but it’s harder than it looks apparently. I believe that the New York Yankees will get younger this season no matter what moves they make this offseason, which should pacify some fans, which could lead to a World Series Championship.

If you think about it the Yankees are replacing three of the oldest players in Major League Baseball from the 2014 season in Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Jeter, and Hiroki Kuroda. New York has already replaced the now 41 year old Ichiro with a 31 year old Chris Young as the team’s fourth outfielder. At some point one of Jacob Lindgren, Tyler Webb, Manny Banuelos, and/or James Pazos will come up to inject some left handed youth in a bullpen replacing a now 38 years old Matt Thornton from 2014. Also the team is eyeing 31 year old free agent Brandon McCarthy as the most likely to replace the 40 year old Kuroda in the rotation. Whoever the Yankees get to replace Jeter will presumably be younger than 40 years old making the average age of the team come down even more.

Can the team be more effective though as they get collectively younger? I think so, yes. Young can outperform Ichiro if used right in my opinion especially if he continues to use the tweak in mechanics that Kevin Long taught him last September. While Kuroda was great down the stretch last season McCarthy was even better and should outperform the Japanese righty if he stays healthy, albeit a big if. As much as I love and will miss Derek Jeter I can’t see the Yankees getting worse production next season out of the position then they did this season.

All in all I believe the Yankees will get younger and get better in 2015 due to the addition by subtraction via free agency.