With spring training in the books lets take a look at our thoughts on Yankees 2021 team.
Starting rotation- Coming into camp this was our biggest question mark, Cole is the only sure thing you know he will be the ace and give you another great year we expect him to win close to 20 games and have an ERA around 3. The other members of the rotation is a little more up in the air the 4 other guys in the rotation will be Kluber, Montgomery, Taillon and German all of them looked impressive during spring training but there is a reason you never fall in love with a player in March and all 4 of these guys have injury/performance questions they need to answer, they will also no doubt be leaning on guys like Garcia and King throughout the year to make spot starts especially with the limited innings over past 2 years we will need to have 8 starters at least through out the year in my opinion.
Bullpen- This was once a strength of the team in past years but as we enter 2021 season I have some real questions with the pen Chapman will be suspended the first 2 games of the season, Britton will miss at least April and most of May and Justin Wilson will also start year on IL and no timetable as too when he will be back, so who will step up and take over the important innings early in the year Green? Oday? Loaisiga? They have guys capable to handle the load but guys that can be inconsistent at times like Cessa. I personally would love to see what Loaisiga can do in high leverage spots late in the games.
Offense- The only question mark regarding offense is can they stay healthy? This will be Stanton and Judge 4th year together and we have yet to see what the pair can do over a full season together will this finally be the year? Bringing back DJ was huge to this lineup as he helps create balance from the big guys you know DJ will once again hit for high avg and get on base a ton and also Torres will also look to put behind a sub par 2020 season and he has looked in great shape in camp and is primed for a big year in our eyes and could be the best all around player on this team this year, but it wouldn’t be a Yankees season without some sluggers getting hurt as Luke Voit had surgery to repair a partial torn Meniscus and will not resume baseball activities for at least 3 weeks so most likely will miss all of April but that opens the door for Jay Bruce to step in and prove he can still be a contributor to a major league team. The player under the biggest microscope this year will no doubt be Gary Sanchez as his leash will not be long this year if he wants to be in the line up every day then he needs to perform no more excuses he has to be somewhat close to the player he was when he first came up and if he can do that then this line up just got even scarier.
Final analysis- Like every year the Yankees will go as far as health will let them if they stay healthy this team has World Series potential and should easily win the AL East in our opinion and if they have another injury plague year that prevents them from making a serious October run then in our eyes we might need to make some serious changes next winter.
Prediction- We will choose to be very optimistic we love the talent on this team if they can stay healthy, so our prediction is 97-65 and AL East Champions.