As the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to defend the American League East title, sportsnet.ca breaks down every squad in the division by looking at each team’s depth chart, strengths & weaknesses and key storylines to watch in 2016.
More analysis:
Baltimore | Boston | Tampa Bay | Toronto
The New York Yankees have a plan.
Long gone are the days when they would spend wildly on free agents and trade away their best prospects. General manager Brian Cashman seems intent on building a new core from within and did his best to stay the course this winter.
The Yankees didn’t sign a single major-league free agent in the off-season — almost unimaginable given their history. They instead made moves through the trade market, acquiring Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks before dealing for closer Aroldis Chapman, who New York got at a bargain price from the Cincinnati Reds due to Chapman’s involvement in a domestic violence incident.
Dating back to the 2015 trade deadline, the Yanks have managed to hang on to their prized prospects and spend wisely. With major contracts coming off the books at the end of the 2016 and ’17 seasons, their financial situation will only improve, positioning them nicely for a mind-boggling 2018 free-agent class that could include Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Manny Machado, Andrew McCutchen, David Price, Matt Harvey and Clayton Kershaw, among others.
The result of all this is the Bronx Bombers will field a very competitive club in 2016, but one that could have benefited from more tweaking. The glass-half-full outlook is that virtually the same roster that scored the second most runs in baseball and made it to the American League Wild Card game last season returns with the addition of an all-star closer and second baseman. But on the other side lies the fact that the Yankees failed to strengthen a potentially fragile starting rotation, which will be put to the test often by the monstrous batting orders of the AL East.
DEPTH CHART:
Click on each position for a breakdown
KEY STORYLINES TO WATCH:
Bullpen rollout
It will be fun to observe how manager Joe Girardi deploys the three-headed monster in his bullpen. Will he routinely use the trio in the same game, or opt to save one for the following night? Last season Girardi was criticized in some circles for overusing Betances. This year, the skipper has more options and you can bet his handling of a potentially historic bullpen will be second-guessed time and time again by the New York media.
Will Father Time continue to be kind?
The Yankees boasted an overpowering offence last year thanks in large part to strong seasons by players who’re in the latter stages of their careers (A-Rod, Beltran and Teixeira). In fact, the club’s projected 2016 opening day batting order has an average age of 32, with only two players under 30. So the obvious question: Can this aging bunch avoid regression and defy Father Time once more? If the offence needs a boost at some point, look out for top prospect Aaron Judge. The six-foot-seven, 275-pound outfielder possesses a bat that’s oozing with power and he’s almost big-league ready.
Sticking to their guns or firing from the hip?
As outlined above, the Yankees starting rotation comes with loads of health-related questions. It’s fair to say the physical condition of the staff will determine how far the club goes. If a key starter like Tanaka, who had a bone spur removed from his right elbow in the off-season, suffers a major injury while New York is still in contention, it’ll present an interesting dilemma for the front office: Is it worth deviating from The Plan by trading integral pieces from the farm system in return for major-league pitching?
