The New York Yankees Are Still a Very, Very Good Baseball Team
We as Yankees fans have become incredibly spoiled.
Check out the full video version of this blog on our YouTube channel.
Coming into the 2022 offseason following a rather brutal beatdown from the Boston Red Sox in the 2021 AL Wild Card game, expectations were high. Many fans (including myself) called for massive improvements to this roster, as it seemed that this team just wasn’t good enough.
With a large gap left at shortstop, and recently acquired first-baseman Anthony Rizzo coming off of the books, many of us dreamed of an offseason full of spending. Five huge shortstop names were going onto the free agent market, including Carlos Correa, Cory Seager, Trevor Story, Javier Baez and Marcus Semien.
The Yankees had been linked with Athletics’ first baseman Matt Olson for some time, and he seemed like a perfect fit in pinstripes. And the fallback option, Freddie Freeman, isn’t too bad at baseball either.
Fast-forward to March 16th, 2022. Those big 5 shortstops I mentioned? Only one of them remains on the open market, and that’s Carlos Correa.
The other 4 did not sign with the New York Yankees.
What about Olson and Freeman? We had to have gotten one of those guys, right?
Olson was traded to Atlanta earlier this week and ended up signing an extension with his new squad, and Freeman is likely on his way to Los Angeles.
The Yankees re-signed Anthony Rizzo to a 2-year, $32 million deal, essentially concluding their interest in Freeman.
So, they didn’t get a NEW first baseman and didn’t get a big-name shortstop. This had to be a failure, right?
Wrong.
New York acquired third baseman Josh Donaldson, shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Roervedt from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for a complete defensive liability in Gary Sanchez, and a rather average player in Gio Urshela.
The Yankees won that trade.
They are better defensively after this acquisition and added an insane power bat in Donaldson.
Check out this video on YouTube channel outlining the Josh Donaldson trade. He still mashes in 2022!
Anthony Rizzo was brought back on a decent looking deal. Rizzo was an instant impact after being traded to the Bronx at the trade deadline and became a fan favorite. He is still a top 10 first baseman in baseball, is a great defender, and has a beautiful left swing that fits in perfectly with that short porch in Yankee Stadium.
So, just to summarize here, looking at the offseason with zero context…
The Yankees got better defensively, added a top 5 run producing third baseman, added a top 10 first baseman.
Pretty good, right?
The New York Yankees are a better baseball team then they were previously constructed in 2021. They didn’t make the “sexy” move that all of you wanted, but improved on what they could. I am in no way shape or form defending the front office for not going out and getting the likes of Olson, Story, Freeman etc. However, I will commend them for improving on the squad.
Scariest thing is, I don’t think they’re done yet.
With the current pieces on the roster, the Yankees have 6 high-caliber infield options, and can only field 4 of them. Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit seem like the most likely candidates to get dealt, as both of them seem like the “odd man out” in their respective positions.
Torres and Voit have value on the trade market. If the Yankees can flip either of them for a new starting pitcher, catcher, or center-fielder, this team is even better than it was before!
This Yankees team won 92 games last season. If you scour through Yankees Twitter, you would think they were an under .500 ball club. This is a team that won 13 games in a row last season. This is a team that dealt with an insane amount of injuries last season. This is a team that were forced to field the likes of Ryan LaMarre and Chris Gittens multiple times last year due to injuries!
Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo will get their first full season in pinstripes. Despite Gallo’s poor start in the Bronx last year, I am in firm belief that he will bounce back this season and will be even better than he was during the back half of the 2021 season. As for Rizzo? He will just continue to do what he does for this team.
These guys ooze power, With the likes of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gallo, Rizzo, Donaldson and LeMahieu in this lineup, its one of the best in baseball.
Starting pitching is another area of strength, headlined by Gerrit Cole with great subsidiary pieces in Montgomery, a healthy Severino, Cortes Jr., and Taillon just to name a few.
And the bullpen is also decently staffed. Chapman, Loaisiga, Holmes, Luetge, Abreu, Gil, and Green, they make up a pretty solid group.
Yankees fans, I get it. We wanted the big names. We wanted to spend millions and millions of dollars on more high-caliber players. But guess what, this team is still really good.
More improvements will come. The New York Yankees offseason isn’t close to being completed just yet.
Bottom line is, they are better than they were last year, and that was a 92 win ball club.
