New York Yankees: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

As for the Yankee lineup, look………it’s very possible both Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge miss a lot of time this season and those would be two monumental losses for a team that desperately needs their healthy bats in the lineup. Both guys are sidelined right now and it’s very unclear as to whether or not they’ll be ready for Opening Day, though with the Coronavirus outbreak, I could be totally wrong and both guys could recover in time. But if they’re banged up all year, this team is going to be thirsty for power and their lineup will suffer because of it.

Miguel Andujar returns this year, which is great news in terms of formulating a solid contact-hitting club alongside DJ LeMahieu who elevated the Yankee lineup last year at the top of the order, but will the rest of this lineup be able to repeat what it did last year? I tend to believe last year was a bit special for this lineup.

Here’s what I’m really worried about with this Yankees team. I feel as though last year, they got a ton of bad breaks with injuries, but somehow they were fortunate in getting production from everywhere they turned. Stanton, Judge, and Gary Sanchez went down and Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, and Cameron Maybin stepped up big time and showed out.

The Yankees got very lucky last year in that their backup guys put together the years they did. Is that magic going to carry over into 2020? The numbers say it won’t because this is a team that is always at risk of becoming a strikeout machine.

I’m not too sure Urshela has the same impact he did at the plate last season. The same goes for Tauchman and Mike Ford as presumed key backups. These guys were all very good last year, but are they very good players? That remains to be seen. I’m certain we’ll find out for sure this time around.

As for the everyday players, is Brett Gardner going to hit 28 jacks again? I don’t know. I would say the Yanks got Gardy’s ceiling last year. Will DJ LeMahieu be able to repeat what he did at the plate in 2019? I would also have to say the Yankees got a ceiling year out of him as well.

I think Gleyber Torres has himself a huge year where he’ll be consistently hitting in the two and three holes and thrashing anywhere from 35-40 home runs, but other than him, who else will improve upon what they did in 2019? The Yankees are still very good, but I felt better about them last year.