As strange as it is to say, MLB deciding to delay Opening Day for at least 2-weeks might be a blessing in disguise for the New York Yankees.
Before COVID-19 (aka “Coronavirus”), the New York Yankees struggled to keep a number of their key players from getting injured. Now, with MLB on hiatus through at least the first 2-weeks of the regular season, the Yanks could potentially start the season at close to full capacity.
We’re talking about guys like Aaron Judge, who since taking the baseball world by storm in 2017, ranks as a top 10 MLB player in terms of fWAR.
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For the Yankees, nobody is better than Judge. In fact, despite playing in over 70 few games, Judge has a better fWAR (18.0) than the second-best Yankee to take the field since 2017, Brett Gardner (10.2 fWAR).
We’re also talking about sluggers like Giancarlo Stanton, who since carrying the Yanks to 100 wins in 2018, struggled to stay healthy in 2019, ultimately appearing in just 18 regular-season games. This is a guy who won the 2017 NL MVP award after swatting 59 home runs in a not-so home run friendly Marlins Park.
Prognosticators believed that both New York Yankees sluggers Judge and Stanton would likely miss Opening Day this season. However, now that the start of the 2020 MLB season has been pushed back, the team can see a scenario in which both sluggers would be fully healthy beginning on day one.
What’s more, James Paxton, who was expected to return sometime in May, thus missing around 10 starts, could potentially end up missing less than that.
All of these developments may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things. There are 162 games in a regular season, so what difference does 2-wees (approximately 10 games) make, right?
10 games can change the entire scope of a season. As the old adage says, “a win is a win.”