New York Yankees: Three promising signs down the stretch

Here are three signs the New York Yankees will return to prominence this season.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve written a lot about the apparent collapse of the New York Yankees. Beginning on August 17th, they went from 16-6 and the 1-seed in the AL Playoff Picture to 21-21 and fending off the Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers for the 8-seed.

Today, however, with the Yankees coming off of three straight wins, we’re going to give you three promising signs for the Bronx Bombers heading down the stretch.

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FIRST: To start with, Gerrit Cole looked like the peak 2019 version of himself in game one of Friday’s doubleheader against the Orioles. In fact, when comparing Cole to last year’s version of himself, he’s actually ahead of schedule.

This season, Cole has started 10 games and has posted a 5-3 record with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. Last season, Cole didn’t begin to heat up until his 12th start of the season.

To prove this, here are his stats through his first 11 games in 2019: 4-5, 4.11 ERA, 1.09 WHIP. For the rest of the season, Cole would go 16-0 with a 1.78 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP.

SECOND: The Yankees finally got some good news regarding arguably their two best players Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. According to Aaron Boone, “(Stanton and Judge) are finishing up their final progressions… if everything goes well, potentially this weekend you can see them getting some ABs in Scranton and then with us right shortly after that.”

In other words, there’s a realistic scenario in which the New York Yankees are at full force sometime next week, with less than two weeks left in the regular season.

THIRD: Another key component to the team’s offense – Gleyber Torres – is finally coming around. Before coming back from the IL, where he spent 2-weeks with a left hamstring strain, Gleyber had only 18 H in 91 PA. Only THREE of those hits were for extra-bases: two doubles and 1 HR.

Since returning from the IL, however, in 7 games and 22 PA, Gleyber has FIVE extra-base hits: 4 2B and 1 HR. Thus, his SLG has already jumped over .100 points.

Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. In the midst of that 5-15 stretch, the Yankees actually had a 3-game win streak too. They wound up losing eight out of the last 10 games that followed.

The difference here is that the team is beginning to resemble who they are on paper; the same team that won 100 or more games in two consecutive seasons and started 2020 with a 16-6 record.

If the Yankees are really back, watch out. Things are really about to start to get interesting.