Good afternoon Yankees family, and a big welcome back to
Major League Baseball. I missed you all. Today pitchers and catchers reported
to George M. Steinbrenner Field and to spring training camps all across the
south as baseball officially returned to us all today, and not a moment too
soon. What a winter, huh? While the winter looked like it could be a fun one at
first with the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton the market has seemingly come
to a screeching halt leaving many big-name free agents still without a job as
spring camps open up today. Who would have thought on February 13th that
JD Martinez, Jake Arrieta and Eric Hosmer would still be looking for work? Who
would have thought that Mike Moustakas would be without a hot corner to man at
this point in the winter? If anyone raises their hand to either of these questions
I would have zero issue with questioning your honesty and credibility as a
person. It has been a weird offseason, and I hope it doesn’t lead to that “S”
word that everyone has been throwing around lately.
While many Yankees fans clamored for the addition of a
starting pitcher before the season I have to say that I am happy with the
current state of the Yankees starting rotation. Last season the Yankees had a
wonderful staff that not only kept the team in a lot of ball games but won a
lot of ball games for them as well. This team was one win away from the 2017
World Series with a down season by Masahiro Tanaka, a rookie starter in Jordan
Montgomery pitching for the entire season without his best pitch and with an
ace from the Oakland Athletics for half a season that couldn’t buy run support
if he had all the money in the world. All three of these scenarios should at
the very minimum remain the same, if not improve here in 2018. Could Luis
Severino take a step back? Sure. Could CC Sabathia finally let father time
catch up to him? Also, sure. The thing about this team is that they have the
replacements and the ammo to acquire the replacements they need to make a deep
run into the 2018 postseason and beyond. The pitching is the least of my
worries, especially considering the strength and depth of the Yankees bullpen.
The Yankees bullpen, at least on paper, is possibly the
deepest and best bullpens in all of Major League Baseball history. Write that
down, because I mean it. Relief pitching can be suspect from year-to-year with
the exception of closers, who seemingly always remain consistent, which is why
I feel confident that the Yankees bullpen can live up to the back of their
baseball cards once again in 2018. Aroldis Chapman is the team’s closer and
behind him is a slew of other former closers or pitchers with at least some
closing experience including Adam Warren, David Robertson, Dellin Betances, Chad
Green and Tommy Kahnle. The bullpen will be able to take four-to-five innings a
night a few times a week and completely shut down games when the starters aren’t
at their best, a luxury that a lot of other teams simply don’t have.
The offense will be stellar and powerful, especially with
full and healthy seasons from Greg Bird and company. This is why I don’t worry
about the lack of experience the team currently employs at second and third
base. The team has the pieces in place both offensively and defensively to live
with and be patient with the growing pains of having a rookie on your team. No
pressure Gleyber (eventually) and no pressure Miguel Andujar, we got this.
I have high hopes for this team, I really do. I am generally
always optimistic around this time of the year, even when projections and the
articles of “experts” tell me I shouldn’t be. Remember, I had the Yankees
making the postseason as a Wild Card team last year when many did not, so ride
this wave with me and let’s take home this World Series Championship once and
for all. Who is with me? Go Yankees!!!