Biggest Offseason Additions
Brian McCann
Arguably one of the biggest free agent signings during the offseason goes to the Yankees when they locked up former Atlanta Braves’ catcher McCann on a five-year deal worth $85 million. McCann, who turns 30-years-old later this month, is one of the top-three catchers in the game, let alone one of the top-three most coveted free agents at the end of the 2013 season who is projected to keep on crushing into his mid-30s.
Since 2006 McCann has averaged at least 21 home runs and roughly 80 RBI while batting a solid .277 in a predominantly pitcher-friendly ball park.
The short porches of Yankee Stadium will do nothing more than keep his stats in tune for at least the tenure of his contract and will only boost his value in either league if he ends up getting moved to first base or even the designated hitter role if he can no longer take on the grueling defensive duties behind the dish.
At $17 million per season the Yankees spent wisely in picking up a player in his prime who can still have a team built around him as older players inch closer to retirement.
Carlos Beltran
It’s hard to say how big of a value that Beltran will be for the Yankees over the next three seasons ($15 million per year), but his stats were to tell the tale they were certainly say the addition of the outfielder was worth every penny.
Beltran’s last two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals reinvigorated life into the man who became a playoff hero with the Houston Astros back in 2004, but say his talent take a step back after signing a massive contract with the cross town New York Mets from 2005 through the trade deadline in 2011.
With the Cardinals he hit .282 with 56 home runs and 181 RBI in 296 games, but more importantly, he dominated in the playoffs over that span, averaging .299 with five home runs and 21 RBI while coming just short of a World Series title at the end of this last season.
One other major credit to Beltran’s name is that he became a member of the 300 home run/300 stolen base club in the middle of the 2012 season. While he doesn’t rely upon base stealing much anymore, the 36-year-old is still one of the smartest base runners in the game… just as long as he doesn’t have to worry about a slow home run trot which will surely be on display as he is a switch hitter in a hitter friendly ball park.
Biggest Offseason Losses
Robinson Cano
Losing one of the best, if not THE best second baseman in the game, is the hardest hurdle that the Yankees will have to overcome in 2014. For nine seasons Cano put on a hitting and defensive clinic in The Bronx to the tune of a .309 average, 204 home runs and 822 RBI.
Cano also never struck out more than 96 times in a season (2011 and 2012) and recorded an on-base plus slugging percentage lower than .900 only once in the last four years (.882 in 2011). In the last four seasons he finished in the top-six or better for the American League MVP Award and even took home two Gold Glove Awards in 2010 and 2012 on top of four-straight trips to the All-Star Game.
With numbers like that, it will be close to impossible for the Yankees to replace a guy like that who is hands down that last great player the Yankees have brought up through the ranks since first singing him back in 2001.
Mariano Rivera
Very little needs to be said here, Rivera is the greatest closer of all-time at 652 career saves, 952 games finished and 1,173 strikeouts in 1,293 2/3 innings pitched. If that’s not enough, he also has a career 0.70 ERA in 96 career playoffs games/141 playoff innings, 42 saves in the playoffs and a World Series ring that he can wear on each of his fingers of his pitching hand (if he wants to). It’s unlikely that anyone will best his record anytime in the near future mostly because nobody will ever be able to throw a cutter quite like Mo can.
Curtis Granderson
It’s interesting what money can do to a player. In some cases it can help take the pressure off, but in Granderson’s case it somehow made things worse… sort of. Granderson had a great four-year run (2010-2013) with the Yankees by hitting 115 of his 217 career home runs in pinstripes on top of knocking in 307 of his 606 career RBI.
However, his batting average suffered to the tune of going from .272 with the Detroit Tigers to .245 with the Bronx Bombers.
Granderson certainly had the advantage of shorter alleys at Yankee Stadium, but based on his numbers he was really only good for dingers, pop flys and a gross amount of strikeouts.
His bat will certainly be missed, but this is one of the partings which may actually benefit both the team and the man as Granderson signed with the Mets a little over a month ago.
Name to Watch in Spring Training: Masahiro Tanaka
Like the Yu Darvish sweepstakes a few years ago, everyone in the baseball world was whipped into a frenzy when Tanaka was posted by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League before Christmas.
In seven seasons with the Golden Eagles Tanaka has certainly proven to be a worthy pitcher (99-35 with a 2.30 ERA and 1,238 strikeouts in 175 games/1,315 innings).
However, the only Major League experience the 25-year-old has displayed has come at the hands of the World Baseball Classic in 2009, the last time Japan won the gold and this last year when he had shaky outings against Brazil and Cuba in the group stages.
Tanaka’s signing by the Yankees, a seven-year contract worth $155 million plus the $20 million posting fee, is one of the biggest contracts in Major League history, and most certainly the largest for someone who has never played in the Majors.
Skepticism will be every high toward Tanaka who obviously looks great on paper, but carries an unfortunate burden along with him. Darvish has obviously been a success for the Texas Rangers since 2012, but look at every other highly-touted pitcher who has come before both of them: Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Irabu, Masato Yoshii, Tomo Ohka or even current Yankee Hiroki Kuroda.
All of these guys had a decent first two-to-three seasons, but every one of them tapered off hard as soon as batter learned how to adjust to their throwing motions and pitch selections. Simply from a historical perspective, Tanaka’s hype may be nothing more than just that. Spring Training and Opening Day will certainly keep Yankees brass and their fans on edge.
Biggest Spring Training Battle: Fielding a complete team
While the Yankees are certainly pros at dishing out cash for all of the best available free agents, they don’t exactly have a lot waiting in savings, so to speak. The full season suspension of Alex Rodriguez has pretty much left a "For Sale" sign at third base which could have been easily filled by Kevin Youkilis had he not opted to sign with Tanaka’s former ball club in Japan, the Golden Eagles.
Even worse is the hole that was left by Cano which will more-than-likely be filled by former Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, who unfortunately has only played in 192 games over the last four seasons or 456 games missed.
The other options include Kelly Johnson or even shortstop Brendan Ryan, as he signed a two-year deal with the team as insurance if Derek Jeter injuries himself for yet another season. Oh, and there is also that “small” issue of replacing the greatest closer of all-time.
Needless to say, there’s only about two weeks left until pitchers and catchers report and the Yankees aren’t even close to being done.
What Went Right in 2013
The Yankees did three things right in 2013, and only one of them could be considered a team effort. In their final seasons with the Yankees Rivera and Cano were the clear bright spots as Mo saved 44 games, tying his fourth-most in a season, and Cano led the team with a .314 average, but most importantly as the only person on the team to hit over .273.
The third accomplishment is that the Yankees still managed to draw an AL-leading 3.28 million fans over the course of the 2013 despite constant injuries, a fiasco on Rivera bobblehead day and a tie for third place in the AL East standings.
Biggest Areas of Improvement in 2014
The offensive production from the outfield is going to be hard to top with the additions of Beltran and Jacoby Ellsbury. The only reason why Ellsbury wasn’t listed above as one of the biggest additions is because nobody knows which version they’re going to get.
If it’s the Ellsbury from 2013 (.298/nine/53 with a league-leading 52 stolen bases) it’s a good move, and definitely a terrific replacement for Granderson. If the Yankees are getting the Ellsbury from 2011 (.321/32/105 with 39 stolen bases) then the Yankees have officially won at life in conjunction with McCann.
Either way, the Yankees made some key acquisitions; however, they still need to find reliable replacements for a few more spots to even merit consideration for contention in 2014.
Overall Spring Training Preview
Spring Training will certainly be a great time for the new Yankees stars to flex their wings, but it’s not like their going to be playing at 100 percent. This will be one of the few times that the Yankees will be cycling through a lot of players who hope to make the 25-man or even the 40-man rosters as opposed to just being filler for the top-paid players in an attempt to not overwork them prior to the start of the seasons like in years passed.
The return of Mark Teixeira will also be an interesting sight as he only managed to play in 33 games in 2013 while batting a dismal .151 with three home runs and 12 RBI. Tex will probably have a better season, as will Jeter, but based on their performances last season that’s hardly a pat on the back.
No, the Yankees have a lot of serious issues that they need to work out starting with rebuilding from the ground up. General Manager Brian Cashman has opted to go back to his old ways by fixing the problem with money as opposed to starting at the bottom and reworking the farm system that has produced so many soon-to-be Hall of Famers.
Even with the additions of a few quality bats and a talented but questionable pitcher, the Yankees are hardly favorites for the postseason, especially with the reigning champion Boston Red Sox, Wild Card-winning Tampa Bay Rays and the retooled Orioles looking to stay on top. And really, who could forget about the Toronto Blue Jays? Well… a lot of people can, so expect them and the Yankees to slug it out at the kid’s table in 2014.