Can the Real Bronx Bombers Please Stand Up

Here is Chris Saunders giving his insight about if the Yankees can get back to their championship ways. 

Article by Chris Saunders

                 

The 2015 Season for the New York Yankees was anything but pleasant, when on July 31^st Yankees lead the A. L. East Division by six games over the then second place Baltimore Orioles.   The Blue Jays were seven back in the loss column. Toronto went all in at the trade deadline though, adding David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Revere, Mark Lowe and LaTroy Hawkins. The Yankees added Dustin Ackley. That's all! What happened next was not just an astronomical collapse of the Yankees losing first place by Mid- Aug, but also letting the Blue Jays overcome said Yankees and eventually winning the A. L. East before it was all said and done. Where does that leave us with the Yankees? What will they do to overcome this collapse? Can the Real Bronx Bombers ever regain their glory that led to so many parades down New York Streets?

Revolving Door?

One of the key faults for the collapse was the inconsistency of the Yankee Rotation. New York Ranked 19^th in MLB Rotation’s with a 62-56 W/L Record, 4.24 ERA is lead by 4 of the five rotation pieces (C.C, Pineda, Eovaldi, Nova) having above 4.00 ERA’s. Only Tanaka( 3.51) and Servino( 2.89) had the lowest ERA’s on the team. Mind you Severino was called up on Aug 5^th and Tanaka missed time due to injury. One would imagine that Brian Cashman (GM) would go spend tons of money and forfeit draft picks to get the Cueto’s, Greinke’s, Prices’s of the world, but he didn’t. Cashman stood by his plan, which has always been “Protect the prospects and build from within.” Some will say Cashman should have given any of the prized pitchers what they wanted, but in truth long term contracts haven’t worked out for many clubs. Look at the Mike Hamptons of the world, Barry Zito, C.C. Sabathia, Justin Verlander, just to name a few. Pitchers arm’s slow down as they get older, innings and pitches begin to add up, and with Tommy John becoming quiet the epidemic some teams question giving their young pitchers long term deals. Futhermore, Cashman will also have to figure out what to do with almost 4/5^th’s of his rotation after next season. Tanaka can opt out after 2017 season, C.C has a 5 million dollar buyout after 2016 season, Nova/Eovaldi are free agents after 2016 season, leaving only Severino under contract past 2020 the only future rotation piece Cashman has. Another issue, the entire rotation is filled with uncertainty; Sabathia hasn’t had an All-Star season since 2012, Pineda was inconsistent throughout the entire year, Severino is heading into his sophomore year as a Yankee, Tanaka still has a tear in his elbow and Nova was terrible coming back from Tommy John Surgery. Eovaldi was the only starter who showed some consistency throughout the year, but when reading between the lines of Brian Cashman’s comments at the end of the year, it sounds like the Yankees are going to try to piece together their rotation internally.

                                    

Options for Cashman?

Free Agents- SP- Henderson Alvarez( Has pitched in the A.L. East with Toronto), Tim Lincecum(Former 2 time CY and 3 time World Champion), to Relievers (Joel Peralta), (Craig Stammen) as long relief cogs that can help this Yankees bullpen with the trade of Warren to the cubs along with Brendan Ryan INF for SS/2^nd baseman Starlin Castro.

Offensive Woes 

The Yankees also need to rely on their offense having a bounce back 2016 campaign. Brian McCann, Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury were awful during the second half of the season, Mark Teixeira missed majority of the second half with a broken leg and Alex Rodriguez began to wear down as the season went on. One of the bright spots from 2015 was Didi Gregorius, and while he started off poorly, he emerged as the perfect candidate to replace the recently retired Derek Jeter. The Yankees still have a hole at second base that hasn’t been filled since Robinson Cano signed with the Seattle Mariners, and the Yankees are trying their third attempt in filling the hole, this time using Dustin Ackley and Rob Refsnyder as a platoon to begin the 2016 season. The Yankees recently tried Brian Roberts and Stephen Drew, but neither panned out the way the Yankees were expecting. The Yankees did say they liked Martin Prado and Ben Zobrist, but they would rather try to fix the problem internally before going into the free agent and trade market.

Along with the veterans, the Yankees also have a lot of the young kids hoping to make a contribution to the team. Greg Bird, Slade Heathcott, Refsnyder, Severino and Jacob Lindgren were a few to make their debuts last season, and the Yankees are anticipating the Major League debut of Aaron Judge which could be either in the second half of the season or in September. 2016 seems to be a promising year for the Bronx Bombers, especially if they could once again exceed expectations like they did during the first half of the 2015 season. Only time will tell if the moves, or lack of moves, will pay off.