With a new season set to begin on Thursday afternoon, so too will the Yankees’ latest quest for another championship.
The organization has been stuck on 27 titles since 2009. That may not seem like that long for some franchises or fanbases, but it’s been eons in Bronx years. Especially after the Bombers returned to the Fall Classic last season, only to lose in five games and sloppy fashion to the Dodgers, who look like a powerhouse yet again this season.
The Yankees made so many mistakes in the World Series — particularly in Game 5 — that Los Angeles players spent a good chunk of the offseason publicly mocking the pinstripers.
“I don’t like hearing that,” Boone said when the Yankees reported to spring training, “but the reality is we didn’t play our best in the series and they won. So they have that right to say whatever.
“Hopefully we’re in that position [this] year and handle things with a little more class.”
Putting themselves in that position won’t be easy for the Yankees, as they are carrying a new-look, beat-up roster into Thursday’s Opening Day tilt against the Brewers at Yankee Stadium.
Juan Soto is a Met now. Gerrit Cole won’t pitch this season. Who knows when Giancarlo Stanton will be back. Luis Gil, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year, won’t take the mound until at least the summer. A slew of others are starting the year on the injured list, including Clarke Schmidt, DJ LeMahieu, Jonathan Loáisiga, Ian Hamilton and Jake Cousins.
It’s a tough — and painful — way to start the year, leaving the Yankees highly dependent on youngsters like Jasson Domínguez, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Ben Rice and Will Warren.
“A work in progress,” Brian Cashman recently said of his roster, yet the Yankees could still achieve their ultimate goal.
With no clear-cut superpower in the American League, FanGraphs gives the club a 63.9% shot at making the playoffs. That’s the highest figure in the Junior Circuit and trails only the Dodgers (98%), Braves (93.4%) and Phillies (72.4%).
The Yankees’ 5.7% chance of winning the World Series ranks third behind L.A. (22.9%) and Atlanta (15.8%), and they still have the best odds of winning the American League East (31.1%) despite sharing the division with a revamped Red Sox roster (24%) and a young and talented Orioles team (16.6%).
If the Yankees are to live up to those expectations, they will need their new arrivals to perform as expected.
In the wake of Soto’s departure, the team acquired Max Fried, Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt. The hope is that the first two, along with improved defense, can enhance the team’s run prevention. Fried, already the face of the post-Soto pivot, will now have to lead a Cole-less rotation that is no longer the force it once appeared to be.
Meanwhile, Bellinger and Goldschmidt, two former MVPs, are being asked to make up for a fraction of Soto’s impact while hitting behind Aaron Judge, always an MVP threat himself when healthy.
“You can’t replace a guy like Juan Soto,” Judge admitted this spring, “but you bring in guys like this who are All-Star, MVP caliber players, we did a pretty good job.”
Time will tell if Judge and the Yankees are right about that.
For now, as short-handed as they are, they can go into Opening Day with eyes wide open and aspirations still sky-high as they prep for Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta. Carlos Rodón will start in place of Cole for the Yankees — following a moment of silence for Miller Gardner, the late son of former outfielder Brett Gardner, and a ceremonial first pitch from Andy Pettitte.
Much will be different as the Yankees ready for the real first pitch and the season ahead.
Bombers will be bearded for the first time in decades. New play-by-play man Dave Sims — John Sterling’s replacement — will call the game on WFAN. Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” won’t play should opponents win. And the roster will look vastly different from the one that went to the World Series just a year ago.
“It’s certainly a different roster this year than how it ended last year, and so we’re learning a lot about the new guys. We’ve had some injuries to some of the previous guys left over,” Cashman said, though he still believes this is a talented squad. “I think we have a good team, and we look forward to testing it when we deploy it March 27.”
