Will this year be different for the Yankees?

Spring training is finally here, and the Yankees are all set to begin their 2023 campaign. Yankees fans are gearing up again to claim their team the favorite out of the AL and believe this is the year everything finally changes for them. You will hear statements like “This is our year finally!”, “It feels different this year”, and the good ole “We’ve improved our roster dramatically”. The bitter truth is that this fanbase is delusional, you are still not good enough to beat the Kings of the AL and your daddy, the Houston Astros.

Let us look at the Key Additions made this offseason:

• Carlos Rodón

• Re-signing both Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo

Yes, you read that right, there were no major additions made aside from the stud lefty. There is no doubt Carlos Rodón will help this staff, this team has never had a stud #2 option to pair with ace Gerrit Cole. At the time of the signing, addition of Rodón was a welcome sign as it would help relieve the pressure on this rotation. At the time of writing this article, one must wonder where the Yankees would be without the Rodón signing since we’ve learned that Frankie Montas is undergoing surgery (scheduled to at least half the year), Nestor Cortes hurt his hamstring, and who can say how long before we get news on Luis Severino being shut down due to “inflammation”. Who is going to makeup the starting rotation for this team?

1. Gerrit Cole

2. Carlos Rodón

3. Luis Severino

4. Nestor Cortes (when healthy)

5. TBD

The top two in the rotation will have no issues performing and nor should Yankees fans be concerned; they will be carrying this team on the pitching front. The next three in the rotation should be a massive concern. When is the last time we had a full season of Luis Severino? We will have to look back to 2018 as that was the last time he started in a full complement of games (32). Right after that season, Sevy broke down and he has only started a total of 22 games over the last three seasons. The fourth starter, Nestor Cortes had a breakout year in 2022, as well as a Cinderella run. Cortes pitched a career high 158.1 innings last year and just two weeks ago we have our first news of Cortes pulling his hamstring. It is fair to wonder if Cortes will be able to replicate his stellar season and handle the heavy workload. At best #4 spot in the rotation is a question mark. That brings us to the fifth spot, and I will keep this brief, having your fifth spot as TBD says enough.

While there are concerns on the pitching staff, this was the best functioning group of their team last year. The bigger issue has been their offense. On the surface, fans will say “We score tons of runs and hit tons of home runs”. Guess what, this offense goes kaput in the playoffs because when heavy hitters face off against elite pitching, pitching always wins. The Yankees have redundancy in their lineup, and that redundancy is in the form of power hitting. Low batting average hitters that aim for the fences and do not care for manufacturing runs or cutting down their strikeouts. The new age philosophy in baseball is, hit home runs and ignore strikeouts. The formula to win games still has not changed. The Houston Astros had the second lowest amount of Ks last year and its not surprise they won World Series. Home runs are a huge part of the game, but you cannot have a team filled with boom or bust batters. Here is the projected starting lineup for the Yankees:

• C Jose Trevino

• 1B Anthony Rizzo (boom or bust)

• 2B Gleyber Torres (boom or bust)

• 3B Josh Donaldson (boom or bust)

• SS Oswald Peraza

• LF Aaron Hicks (boom or bust)

• CF Aaron Judge

• RF Giancarlo Stanton (boom or bust)

• DH DJ LeMahieu

How is this season going to be different when you are going to run out almost the same lineup out there, and everyone is another year older. Aaron Judge, as great as he is, has been a massive disappointment in the postseason. In his career over 171 Abs in the postseason, he is batting .211 with 13 HRs and 25 RBIs. You cannot win against elite pitching when your best player goes MIA on the biggest stage. The supporting cast is expected to see number dip down in the playoffs but the best players in your lineup cannot underperform. Finally, we have the return of possibly two of the worst players in MLB at their positions, Josh Donaldson and Aaron Hicks. How in the world is this team and GM running both guys out again after a massive failure with the both of them last year? They are not spry chickens either, they are both on the wrong side of 30 and their games have been in a decline over the past couple of years.

Yankees fans, sit back and enjoy the same movie again. You will see plenty of high scoring games, exciting home runs, and maybe even win close to 100 games BUT the climax of this movie will not change. When it comes to reaching and potentially winning a World Series, this team is multiple moves away and not even in the same class as the Houston Astros. That magical 2017 year seems like it happened ages ago, and of course Cashman’s quote that he’s building this team to “win championships – not championship” is not aging well 5 plus years later.