The Yankees might go all in on pitching in order to compete with the tough lineups in the AL East.
Now that
Victor Martinez,
Pablo Sandoval, and Hanley Ramirez have found their homes, it has been really difficult for clubs to find big time impact bats on the market, and some have found themselves hitting the trade market instead. As bad as the
Yankees offense was last year, there isn't exactly a "savior" who they can throw money at, so perhaps they will look to improve their bullpen and pitching staff even more in hopes of fighting off the
Red Sox and
Blue Jays' additions on offense.
The bullpen currently sport the
newly-signedAndrew Miller,
Dellin Betances (who was completely ridiculous last year), lefty trade acquisition
Justin Wilson, and holdovers
Adam Warren,
Shawn Kelley, and Esmil Rogers. As I'm writing this, the Yankees are
still considering bringing back
David Robertson as well which would create a scary trio at the end of games. Combine that with someone like 2014 top draft pick Jacob Lindgren, and a few other young bullpen arms the Yankees have coming up, and the bullpen can not only shorten games, but combat big time hitters in the AL East. They may not be able to get a lot of runs across the board, so a one-run lead going into the sixth or seventh inning may feel like a win with all those arms coming in.
The Yankees have also been linked to
Max Scherzer, and anytime the Yankees have been relatively quiet in the offseason, they always seem to come out of nowhere to reel in a big free agent. Perhaps Scherzer will be added to go along with
Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda. Maybe the Yankees shock everyone and sign Jon Lester. If the Yankees can't bring life to their bats, they are going to have to do everything to shut down their opposition. Don't forget that
Brandon McCarthy is still out on the open market. That will be another arm the Yankees could look at, with the idea to not only stockpile solid arms in order to create depth, but also to compete with the offense the division will have to offer.
It seems very clear that Brian Cashman is relying on
Jacoby Ellsbury and
Brett Gardner to repeat their successful 2014 campaigns and a lot of other guys to have big bounce-back years.
Brian McCann came alive the last few weeks of the season so hopefully that can carry over to his sophomore year in pinstripes. Carlos Beltran will be healthy, so maybe he could have a typical Beltran year, and we can all hope that
Mark Teixeira at least adds 20 home runs while playing his usual good defense. Having Martin Prado an entire year should boost the offense as well. Anything that
Didi Gregorius,
Alex Rodriguez,
Robert Refsnyder, and Jose Pirela add to the team on offense will be a huge plus as well, though more uncertain at the moment.
Unless the Yankees acquire a big impact bat through trade, it seems like they will shore up their bullpen and rotation in order to compete in a division that seems to be getting more and more competitive with each passing day.
