New York Yankees: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

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.

Michael King, Deivi Garcia, Jonathan Loaisiga, Jordan Montgomery, Clarke Schmidt, and Nick Nelson are all lined up to round out the Yankees rotation this year, not to mention Domingo German when he returns from suspension (if at all), and each one of them has a high-enough ceiling for the Yanks to be excited about the prospect of them getting quality mound time this year. The question will be if one or two of them will be able to make a big enough impact that will offset the losses the Yanks have already suffered due to their injuries.

There’s also a big question in my mind as to how Gerrit Cole will be coming into this season on the heels of a huge contract signed in the offseason. We see this time and time again where guys who sign big contracts ultimately don’t pay it off. Who were the players who signed monster contracts last offseason?- Manny Machado, Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper. How many of them made the playoffs? Zero.

So, in the case of these gigantic contracts, I think there tends to be some sort of letdown at some point where that player doesn’t exactly live up to expectations. Cole is one of the best pitchers in the game today. Many believe he is the best. I would say he’s at the very least top two behind Jacob deGrom.

But will he come in this year and repeat what he did in 2019 to a tee and clean sweep the Cy Young this time around? I tend to think he will have a small rough patch at some point. Hopefully, it’s just in the beginning and he’ll be able to hit his stride as the season goes on.

So, once again, the Yankee rotation is a big question mark for me. But what about the bullpen? We still have the great Aroldis Chapman in his prime to close down games as well as a strong back end with Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, and Tommy Kahnle who’s coming off a terrific 2019 himself. But is this group really as strong as it’s marketed?

Tommy Kahnle is a guy I believe has hit his stride with the development of his changeup that he utilized more than half the time last year, but with the other three back end arms, I just feel as though they’re all in tough spots in their careers right now. Chapman was not very good with his command last year, and if not for his fastball velocity, he would be a middle of the road relief pitcher. How long can he keep that velocity up to cover up his mistakes?

Britton and Otto were also subjected to a handful of rough outings in 2019, especially Ottavino who got torn up in the postseason. Altogether, the Yankees blew 28 saves last year, which was three off of Boston’s 31 that led all of baseball. Is this Yankee bullpen really as good as everyone says it is? I’m not so sure.

I feel as though they’ve gotten a little stronger with the additions of Dan Otero and Luis Avilan. Plus, they’ll probably use a bunch of swing starter guys in middle relief roles such as Luis Cessa, Michael King, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Bettis, and Chad Green who could also be an “opener”‘ once again. But will it be good enough to pick up the slack of a struggling rotation if it does indeed get back to that point like it did last year? I’m going to say no.

My biggest thing with this 2020 Yankees team is that they had everything go right for them last year (in the wake of countless setbacks) and I don’t feel confident that they’ll be able to harness that same magic they had in 2019. They’ll be a very good team because of how deep their roster is, but will they be in the same position as they were last year to get to the World Series? I’m not as sure about it as I was before all these injuries came up.

All in all, I believe the Yankees would’ve ended up 90-72 and come in second place in the AL East before the Coronavirus outbreak. I’m not sure as to how many games they’ll win and lose now, but I still believe they’ll be very much in both the divisional and Wild Card races and that they’ll eke out that second Wild Card spot.

In the end, however, I think the strikeouts will catch up to them at the plate and their starting pitching will be somewhat where it was last year in that they’ll finish middle of the pack in terms of team ERA, resulting in them missing out on yet another World Series.

Maybe the shortened season plays in their favor. Maybe it dooms them.