Saturday, September 26, 2015

Quick Hit: Being Cautiously Optimistic for 2016


After the New York Yankees have seemingly snapped their two consecutive postseason-less season drought in 2015 should the fans be confident about a return trip in 2016?I hate to be looking ahead right now with a potential one-game series being played inside Yankee Stadium while the AL East Division race is still not mathematically over but I can't help it, I'm always looking ahead. Should we all start making plans to be in the Bronx in October of 2016? Maybe.

Looking at the 2016 roster the fans will likely see more of the same from the team that we've all watched in 2015. Mark Teixeira will be in a contract season, the second base position seems to be a relative unknown(although it seems like Dustin Ackley's position to lose in Spring Training) and Didi Gregorius will spend his second straight Opening Day at the shortstop position inside Yankee Stadium. Chase Headley seems to have a lock at third base, Brian McCann is your everyday catcher, the outfield consists of Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran and barring a shocking retirement Alex Rodriguez will try and chase down Babe Ruth in 2016 as the team's DH. That doesn't leave much room for change, especially considering that Greg Bird has all but worked his way into some sort of rotation with A Rod and Teixeira while John Ryan Murphy and Brendan Ryan will be with the team in some capacity. Essentially, assuming Ackley wins the second base job, New York has room for a fourth outfielder and one more infielder for the bench. That's it.

The pitching is even more of a log jam with, again barring a trade from the MLB talent, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, Ivan Nova, Nathan Eovaldi, Adam Warren, CC Sabathia and Bryan Mitchell fighting for one of the five starting rotation spots. The bullpen will consist of Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Chasen Shreve, Justin Wilson and some combination of the Scranton Shuffle (the plethora of names that bounced back from Triple-A to the MLB bullpen including Caleb Cotham, Nick Goody, Nick Rumbelow, Branden Pinder and Jacob Lindgren) to fill out the bullpen.

In a normal season I would mention the team getting one year older, one year more injury prone and one year away from their primes thus becoming one year less effective but the youth movement seems to be all in for 2016. No one really expected to see the Greg Bird's and the Luis Severino's in 2015 and there will likely be a new list of players for 2016. This alone, along with multiple contract years mixed with a hungry veteran team, makes me at least cautiously optimistic about the 2016 season. Of course, a lot can change between now and then.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)