AL East: spring position battles

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

the YANKEES

The Yankees spent last year with one of their most question-mark filled rosters in recent memory, and they went and signed most of the free agent market to compensate for as many as they could this offseason. There are still holes, to be sure, but with the outfield and catcher settled and the rotation all but sewn up, the only place any real competition seems to be going on is in the bullpen. The final spot in the pen appears to have come down to two interesting names.

Matt Daley appears to be the front runner. The right-hander doesn’t throw all that hard, but mixes his three pitches effectively. Daley was extremely effective in AAA in 2013, striking out 53 batters in only 39 innings, and appears to currently be the front runner.

However, this spring Dellin Betances has been making his presence known with continually strong performances. He’s shown the ability to miss bats in a big way at every stop throughout the minors, but he’s never got his control issues under, ahem, control. He claims to have figured something out in that area, and should that prove to be the case the ceiling on Betances is definitely the higher of the two.

My Gut Says: Daley takes the job but neither candidate is overwhelmingly impressive this year.

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