ICYMI: The 2014 Yankees vs. the 2015 Yankees - Offense

We have seen a lot of turnover on this team since the beginning of the 2014 season to now and we still are likely to see some change between now and Opening Day. There are two types of change in this world with the first being change just for the sake of change. Sure you changed but you didn’t really gain anything and now things may be worse. The second type of change is change for the better, which is harder of the two to accomplish obviously. Which one have the Yankees accomplished since the beginning of 2014?

2014 1B: Mark Teixeira

2015 1B: Mark Teixeira

2014 2B: Brian Roberts

2015 2B: Stephen Drew

2014 SS: Derek Jeter

2015 SS: Didi Gregorius

2014 3B: Yangervis Solarte

2015 3B: Chase Headley

2014 LF: Brett Gardner

2015 LF: Brett Gardner

2014 CF: Jacoby Ellsbury

2015 CF: Jacoby Ellsbury

2014 RF: Carlos Beltran

2015 RF: Carlos Beltran

2014 C: Brian McCann

2015 C: Brian McCann

2014 DH: Alfonso Soriano

2015 DH: Alex Rodriguez

As you can see the Yankees have a push at five different positions because the same player donned the position last year. While I am banking on, even if marginal, improvements from all five of those players in 2015 but you cannot really analyze “banking” on players. What you can bank on, with stats like WAR to back you up, are the improvements at second base, shortstop, third base and probably the DH position. If you wanted to take it one step further you can probably count on the Yankees bench being better and more productive in 2015 with power options like Garrett Jones and Chris Young after losing out on the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Dean Anna and Francisco Cervelli in 2014. This team won’t win 100 games by any stretch of the imagination but the team definitely has a chance for improvement in 2015.