New York Yankees: Can They Realistically Make the Playoffs in 2016?
By Jason Burke
After the trade deadline, the New York Yankees were seen as a rebuilding project that would take a year or two to complete before making another postseason run. While some are maintaining that 2017 could see a return to contention, this year’s squad finds themselves only 2.5 back in the wild card with just over a month to play.
Since the All-Star break, the New York Yankees are 23-17, putting them six games over the .500 mark on the season. This is largely without Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman, while Alex Rodriguez called it a career shortly thereafter as well. With their influx of young talent, the Yankees have been rolling off victories, winning six of their eight series this month, splitting a four-game set with the Mets and dropping two of three to the Blue Jays.
While not every team that New York has taken a series against is uber impressive (Rays, Angels), the other four series have come against the Indians and Orioles at home, while taking two of three against the Red Sox and Mariners on the road.
In taking a quick look at the standings heading into Sunday, you’ll see that the Yankees are currently fourth in the AL East at 5.5 back of first-place Toronto, while Red Sox and Orioles hold onto both wild card spots. Between New York and Baltimore, who holds the second wild card spot, are Detroit (1 game back), while Houston and Seattle are two games back.
Houston has managed just two wins over 13 games against the AL West leading Texas Rangers, and they play each other six more times this season. Seattle hasn’t fared much better, going 4-8 with seven games coming up against the Rangers in the next couple of weeks. Both Seattle and Houston have been wildly inconsistent this season, and even a slight misstep could spell the end for their 2016 campaigns.
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Baltimore is dealing with an injury to their most reliable starter, Chris Tillman, but seeing as how they rank 26th in baseball in starter’s ERA at 4.97, his loss may not have a tremendous impact if they can continue to smash the cover off of the ball and Zach Britton continues his Cy Young chase. That said, the Yankees are 5-1 against them at full strength in the second half and close the regular season with a three-game set at home against the O’s.
While Gary Sanchez has been getting all of the headlines, and rightfully so, the Bronx Armers (hey, I tried) have been receiving stellar starting pitching that has helped to propel this recent surge. Heading into Saturday’s matchup with the Orioles, Yankees starters had six quality starts in seven outings and had allowed one run or fewer in five of seven contests, and also had five scoreless outings in their previous ten games. Over that span, they held the second-lowest ERA in the Majors at 2.47, behind just the Kansas City Royals, who have also surged back into the wild card race and sit just half a game back of the Yanks.
On the year, the fifth inning has been a problem for the team, as 100 of the 556 runs they’ve allowed all season have come in the frame. The addition of Luis Cessa (12 IP, 3 ER) to the rotation is still in its early stages, but has the potential to be the difference between New York making the postseason cut, and being left on the outside looking in. The Yankees don’t necessarily need dominant starting pitching day in and day out, they just need five guys that will keep the game close heading to the ninth.
The Bombers have 36 come-from-behind wins this season, which is tied for second in baseball with the Dodgers, while Texas holds top honors with 39. With Dellin Betances holding down the ninth, most leads should be considered safe.
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All in all, the Yankees have a pretty decent shot at making a run at the wild card spot. They have the teams they need to beat on the schedule, and are playing good baseball at the right time. They may not be able to match up with Texas or Cleveland just yet, but making the dance is all any team hopes for each season, and if the New York Yankees were to accomplish that feat given their current rebuild, the future would indeed appear just a bit brighter.