What Do the Yankees First 30 Games Look Like?

The New York Yankees knew when they acquired closer Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds that the left-hander was going to be suspended using Commissioner Rob Manfred’s new Domestic Violence Policy. The team didn’t know for how long but it was almost a foregone conclusion that a suspension was coming but New York took a chance regardless. Whether the team and their GM Brian Cashman secretly counted on Chapman getting suspended for 46 days or more making him ineligible for free agency at the end of the season is anyone’s guess but common sense would tell you that the team would not have been terribly upset if it happened, especially for a year-and-a-half of control of Chapman for what they gave up in return. In the end Chapman was only suspended for 30 games, rumor has it that it would have met the 46 days suspended if he had appealed which is kind of shady in my opinion but that’s another discussion for another blog, so I wanted to take a look at what the Yankees first 30 games will look like in 2016.

As you can see the Yankees can absolutely weather the storm without Chapman if the team comes out of the gates firing on all cylinders. The bullpen is still strong with the returns of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller and the bullpen has the potential to be truly unfair and absolutely ridiculous, in a good way, if Chasen Shreve, Jacob Lindgren and others can return healthy and return to form. It sucks losing your closer for a month of baseball but when you put it into perspective it’s not that bad. A closer averages about 10-15 innings per month so that’s all the Yankees would be losing. This is easier to swallow when you have two potential closers in Betances and Miller behind him so in my opinion the Yankees will be fine.

Don’t fret Yankees family the 30 games will be over before you know it and Chapman will be back to throwing 105 MPH+ heat coming to a mound near you. Stay tuned.