Yankees Continue to Get Younger

For better or worse the New York Yankees as an organization took a left turn after the 2012 season. George Steinbrenner had passed away and many of the contracts, again for better or worse, were beginning to come off the books. The players that I grew up watching as a child, the Derek Jeter’s and the Jorge Posada’s and the Mariano Rivera’s and the Andy Pettitte’s, were beginning to retire or at least think about retiring and a new era of baseball was coming to the Bronx. Gone were the days of spending freely on the free agent market and gone were the days of leading the league not only in wins but in dollars spent. Gone was the #TooManyDamnHRs mantra and gone, little by little, was the fact that the New York Yankees were considered to be an “old team.”

Whether you like Brian Cashman or not, agree with his moves or not or want him to be the Yankees GM or not is irrelevant. Cashman had a plan and while he may or may not have gone about it the entirely wrong way or whether he took the long route or not is a discussion for another day, at the end of the day the plan is almost complete. Cashman’s plan was to build a respectable farm system that produces talent, check, and the Yankees GM wanted to make the team younger almost across the board. Ever since the 2012 season the Yankees have done just that.

Entering the 2016 season as it stands today the New York Yankees have just 10 players at or above the age of 30 currently on their 25 man roster. When the season ended in 2012 that number was significantly higher at 18. In 2013 the Yankees direction changed leaving the team with 20 players at or over the age of 30 while the 2014 version was left with 20 at or over the age of 30. The Yankees have seen their average team age go from 33.0 in 2012 all the way down to 27.0 in 2016 thanks to the additions of Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Nathan Eovaldi, Greg Bird, Luis Severino and a load of other young and developing talent.

The plan may have taken longer than it should have but the plan is finally coming to fruition. The Yankees are getting versatile, flexible, durable and younger. Finally.