The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball got their spring training season off and running on Feb. 20 in Tampa, Florida. While spring is still making its way into bloom, the Yankees are nearly a month away from going to the home of the San Francisco Giants on March 25 to open their season. A lot has happened these past few months of the offseason but the Yankees, led by captain and MVP Aaron Judge, are returning with a relatively similar roster that lost in the wild-card round to the Toronto Blue Jays last season.
The return of the roster includes outfielders Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham. After months of negotiations, Bellinger signed a five-year $162 million deal. Grisham accepted his qualifying offer amount of $22 million over one year to keep continuity in an outfield that includes Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who will primarily be the designated hitter.
Bellinger, receiving his big payday seven years after winning the 2019 National League MVP award, is expected to continue anchoring the top of the lineup alongside Judge. Grisham became a revelation last season, and the Yankees were able to bring him back for at least one more year.
Grisham led off many times last year, but it is to be determined if manager Aaron Boone will want to stay with that status quo or make some changes after another postseason failure.
The Bronx Bombers lineup will also return with emergent first baseman Benjamin “Ben” Rice who solidified himself as a top-of-the-lineup threat. The young Rice, along with other young players like catcher Austin Wells and shortstop Anthony Volpe, gives the Yankees some youth along with the veterans at the top. Wells is known for being a good defender and having a solid rapport with his pitchers, and Volpe has defensive talent with his glove. However, they both struggle with hitting.
Volpe is coming off a balky shoulder that required surgery, and Wells has a heavy workload behind the plate. But the lineup needs contributions from the bottom half, and some catalysts are these two former organizational first-round draft selections.
As much as a team needs to hit, they also need to pitch. As the saying goes, defense wins championships. The Yankees will return ace Max Fried, closer David Bednar and rookie sensation Cam Schlittler as faces of the pitching staff.
However, the return of ace Gerrit Cole is key to the pitching staff’s ultimate success. Trade acquisition Ryan Weathers, staff holdovers Carlos Rodón and Luis Gil and bullpen pieces Camilo Doval and Fernando Cruz, are all expected to play major roles throughout the season.
However, Cole’s return from Tommy John Surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament will be an enormous storyline to follow throughout the season especially around May and June.
The Yankees will be relying on these names, but it will need to be a team effort if they want to capture that elusive 28th World Series title.
Every year is important, but this one especially is because of the potential of a lockout due to the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between the players association and league at the conclusion of this season. The Judge-led era is just getting started, and this year is at least one more opportunity with a sustainable roster to achieve that title.
