New York Yankees: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
By Sean Basile
It has been a wild offseason for the New York Yankees. What does the 2020 campaign have in store for them?
The New York Yankees have gone through an emotional roller coaster of an offseason that started on a high of signing their long-time needed ace in Gerrit Cole in free agency and ended on a sour low as injuries have once again plagued the team. Make no mistake about it, the Yankees are still very much going to be in playoff contention in 2020, but their World Series aspirations may just have to be put on hold with all of their offseason injuries and uncertainty awaiting their 2020 campaign.
At the onset of the offseason, the addition of one Gerrit Cole, a Cy Young contender (and possible snub) in 2019, appeared to signify the rich getting richer. Yes, starting pitching was an issue for the Yanks last year, but we all knew once everybody got healthy, a top four rotation of Cole, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, and Luis Severino would be one of, if not the best rotation in all of baseball. Cole and Severino have potential to be perennial CY Young contenders, Tanaka is the Japanese Madison Bumgarner who turns it up to a different level in the postseason, and Paxton ended last year on a 10-0 run from August 2nd on.
Assuming everybody stayed pretty much how they were last year with the exception of Severino hopefully getting his health in order for 2020, the Yankees were primed to be a heavy favorite to get to the World Series this season.
But tragedy struck as it’s always one to do during the course of a regular season to every team and Paxton went down with back surgery and Severino has since required Tommy John surgery. That’s two major pitchers in this Yankee rotation that are going to be shelved this season to various degrees. Sevy is definitely out for all of 2020 and Paxton could be hampered all season long by such a lingering injury, especially as someone who has a checkered injury history.
But does the potential loss of Severino and Paxton for the entire year mean this team is doomed? Not necessarily. After all, the Yanks had the great season they did last year without Severino or Gerrit Cole. And nowadays, their younger guys coming up are in a better position to make a jump up to the big leagues and have an impact.