This article is the first part of a three-part article series discussing what we can possibly expect from the Yankees and Brian Cashman this offseason. I broke this into three parts because there is so much to talk about and I don't want to bore you with a never-ending article.
As an avid baseball fan, the season for me does not end at the final out of the World Series. There is just as much excitement in the days and months between the end of the season and the first day of Spring Training. If you pay attention as closely to the sport as I do, then you know exactly what I am referring to - and if you are relatively new to all of this (or are just a casual fan) let me tell you about the excitement of the MLB off-season. The season is over, now all of the teams must regroup and assess what moves, signings, trades, etc. they need to make to gear up for the next season. Players with expiring contracts become Free Agents, and are able to sign or re-sign with any team they so choose. Teams hire new managers, General Managers, Coaches and so on... for me, it's exciting to see teams make these moves and see the players change uniforms. I absolutely love baseball season, but there are two days a year that are my absolute favorite, the July 31st Trade Deadline and the Winter Meetings. I happen to live in Orlando, Florida and one of these years, when they hold the Winter Meetings here, I will attend. It's definitely on my bucket list.
I digress...
The Yankees finished the 2018 season 100-62, which is quite impressive. Only two teams had a better record, and nine times out of ten a 100-win season would likely be the best record. It was difficult though, as one of those teams was the Boston Red Sox - so of course it wasn't good enough for most fans.
Now, looking back over the past season it is very easy to see what some of the Yankees glaring holes might be. Yes, even a 100-win team has holes. The Yankees had a major injury problem this season, as almost everyone in their Opening Day lineup missed some time with some sort of injury. Judge, Sanchez, Hicks, Torres, Bird, Didi and so on and so forth. That makes it hard to put together a consistent lineup - yet somehow they managed. Combine that with disappointing seasons from Bird and Sanchez and inconsistent starting pitching - it's easy to imagine what could have been. Maybe if everyone stays healthy, and you get league average seasons from Bird and Sanchez, the Yankees win 106 games? You never know...
But, moving into the off-season, what kind of moves can we expect from GM Brian Cashman? Well, it's best to know which Yankees have become Free Agents:
CC Sabathia
Brett Gardner - Club Option
JA Happ
Lance Lynn
Zach Britton
David Robertson
Andrew McCutchen
Adeiny Hechavarria
Neil Walker
Shane Robinson
George Kontos
As of today we can scratch off CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner from the list as the Yankees have re-signed both veteran players. First, they declined Brett Gardner's $12.5 million club option, bought it out for $2million and resigned him for 1-year at $7.5million, then they re-signed CC Sabathia to a 1-year $8million deal. CC has already announced that this will be his final season of baseball, as he plans to retire after the 2019 season. These are great moves for the Yankees - since Derek Jeter retired both of these guys have become major clubhouse leaders. They also BOTH took a pay cut to come on for one more year. Please also understand that the Yankees re-signed these veteran players as depth, and I think also as groundwork for future off-season moves. They will not lean on Sabathia to be their ace, and they will not rely on Gardner to be the everyday left fielder (unless he can produce as such) - no, he will likely be the Yankees' fourth outfielder. In 2018, Sabathia pitched very well - in 29 starts, he went 9-7 with a 3.65 ERA. For the most part, he was consistent and has figured out how to pitch with a diminished velocity. If he ends up as the Yankees' number five starter, then that's a pretty solid rotation. Brett Gardner got off to a decent start on the season, with a solid month of May (.313/3HR/11RBI) but pretty much flatlined the rest of the way. He does get on-base quite a bit, and seemingly always grinds out every at-bat. One number that disappointed me was his 16 stolen bases... I know there are people out there thinking, with the likes of Judge and Stanton behind him why should he be stealing bases. Him stealing keeps the defense on their toes, potentially pulls them out of positioning, and makes things happen. Stanton and Judge will not homer every time up, so if Gardner can get into scoring position, he can score easily on a double or single.
YANKEES 2019 NEEDS
Pitching, pitching, and more pitching. The 2018 Yankees had arguably the BEST bullpen in the majors, and I would expect the 2019 bullpen to rank up there as well. However, coming into the season, their starting rotation wasn't quite highly touted. Severino was dominant the first half of the year, but fizzled in the second half. They lost Jordan Montgomery for almost the entire season AND probably half of next season with Tommy John Surgery - and there's no guarantee he comes back the same from that. Tanaka ended up having a nice bounce-back season, but he actually started off pretty inconsistent. If you re-evaluate the rotation, they did not have a clear bona-fide ace. It was absolutely noticeable in the playoffs when not one starter pitched past the 5th inning. Not one. So, it seems pretty evident that Cashman needs to bulk up the rotation either with a Free Agent signing, or via trade.
First Base also seems to be a big problem since Mark Teixiera retired. Greg Bird, healthy for the first time in three seasons (still missed time with an injury), failed to do much of anything in the chance that he was given. Luke Voit was fantastic in his short stint, but he still remains a major question mark - is he really that good? Or was it a fluke, Shane Spencer 2.0?
Shortstop will need to be addressed for the first half of the season, as Didi Gregorius needed Tommy John Surgery on his right arm following the ALDS. This is a big blow, as Didi, a fan favorite has developed into a quality shortstop both on offense and defense. And, the answer may be as simple as sliding Gleyber Torres over to fill-in until Didi returns. I would look for Cashman to add some middle-infield depth.
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The Yankees need to make some big moves this off-season. This is not a knee-jerk response to Boston winning the World Series. The Yankees have supposedly planned for this off-season back in 2016 when they decided to re-build mid-season, and when they made it their goal to get below the $190 million tax threshold. They did both of these to go big in this particular off-season. Yes, Boston winning SHOULD add more fuel to the fire - you don't want to see your rival win and you don't want to see them repeat either. The Yankees are a very good team, now they need to make the corresponding moves that will make them an elite team.
Stay tuned for Part II of this article series!