Yankees Face Big Decisions on 2015 Roster

By Dylan Bestler           

With baseball right around the corner, the Yankees, especially manager Joe Girardi, have some big decisions to make. Each team can only have 25 players on the roster, so he is going to have to make some cuts and send some young, hard working players down to the minor leagues.

At a press conference on February 20, before Spring Training started, Girardi discussed the projected lineup, starting rotation and bullpen for the Yankees season in 2015. It’s going to be hard to keep up with the Red Sox in the American League East this year due to all the acquisitions they made this off-season. The two big name players they acquired were Pablo Sandoval, third-baseman for the San Francisco Giants, and infielder Hanley Ramirez from the Los Angeles Dodgers (who they are now converting to an outfielder).

They also improved their pitching rotation, acquiring starting pitchers such as Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson.

But Girardi is confident with his rotation if C.C. Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka stay healthy. He had this to say about Sabathia’s health:

“We’re not sure about how his knee is going to fare but we feel good about where he’s at now, but pitching in games is different,” he said.

If these pitchers all stay healthy, the starting rotation for the Yankees will look like this:

1.    Masahiro Tanaka
2.    Michael Pineda
3.    C.C. Sabathia
4.    Nathan Eovaldi
5.    Adam Warren

Girardi also discussed using a sixth starter for long stretches of games, which most teams do not do.
“As far as having a six man rotation all the time, no. But if we get in some long stretches of games where we’re playing eighteen games in a row, we can interject a sixth starter to give the guys more rest” he said.

The lineup also has some concerns. The Yankees have a lot of talent but their weakness again is all the injuries that occur. Their first-baseman, Mark Teixeira has the potential to hit thirty or forty homeruns in one season, but in the past years he has only played 138 games out of the 324 possible games. The Yankees need him to be healthy this year to have any chance of beating the Red Sox for the AL East pennant. In 2009, the year the Yankees won their last world series, Teixeira hit 39 homeruns and drove in 122 runs which led the American League that year.

Another player that is questionable is Alex Rodriguez. Not having played in two years due to his steroid bust, Girardi was concerned how long it would take him to get back his old swing. Right now, he is very impressed with the way he’s playing. Girardi says he will be the Opening Day designated hitter and occasionally back up Teixeira at first base. The last question they have is who will replace Derek Jeter? The Yankees traded for young shortstop Didi Gregorious from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Girardi has a lot of faith in Didi and feels he is a good replacement for Jeter.

This is the Yankees' projected starting lineup:

1.    Jacoby Ellsbury- CF
2.    Brett Gardner- LF
3.    Carlos Beltran-RF
4.    Mark Teixeira- 1B
5.    Brian McCann- C
6.    Chase Headley- 3B
7.    Alex Rodriguez- DH
8.    Stephen Drew- 2B
9.    Didi Gregorius- SS

“As a club, there are a lot of things we need to iron out, some of it is because of injuries, some of it is because of new faces and how guys fit in and what their role is. But I think this team has a chance to be really good,” Girardi concluded.