No more honeymoon for these Yankees.
The Baby Bombers aren’t quite as adorable anymore.
OK, look, the Yankees’ pitchers and catchers will take George M. Steinbrenner Field to an adoring crowd on Thursday, and the rest of their players the following week. Those who expend the effort to show up at the ballpark don’t do so to boo, not this time of year.
Yet the 2019 Yankees launch under a different vibe than their two immediate predecessors, in the wake of a disappointing October and an offseason when they raised their payroll but haven’t strongly pursued either of the top two free agents — still available, in case if you haven’t heard — Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
If the 2017 and 2018 camps opened with strong external anticipation, thanks first to the emergence of the homegrown (or acquired as minor leaguers) guys then the arrival of Giancarlo Stanton, then this year’s anticipation must be earned.
“I think it’s going to be exciting,” Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said this past week at Major League Baseball’s owners meetings. “I’m really excited to see that the players are excited. These guys have been at the Himes [minor league] complex [in Tampa] all winter. Didi [Gregorius] has been in and out of there. They’ve been working hard.”
It should be exciting, for sure. The Yankees won 100 regular-season games last year. They have posted 26 consecutive winning seasons. As of now, both Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA system and FanGraphs project the Yankees to finish 95-67, though the former pegs the Red Sox to go 89-73 and the latter 97-65.
The concern comes in whether it’ll be exciting enough. The Red Sox, after all, stand as the game’s defending champions, and though the Yankees’ luxury-tax payroll currently stands at about $220 million, over the $206 million threshold, the Red Sox, playing in the smaller market, lurk more in the $250 million range.
Hence it’s on the Yankees, particularly Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman, to prove they can do more with less. Though that effort requires the entire season, it can either progress or regress between Tuesday’s initial reporting date and the breaking of camp March 24.
Can first-year Yankees pitcher James Paxton, known from his Mariners days for both his high ceiling and his fragility, enjoy a peaceful spring? Will Gary Sanchez go about his business as though 2018 was his Season 9 of “Dallas,” just a bad dream? Can CC Sabathia be his old, reliable self after undergoing an offseason heart procedure? Will either Luke Voit or Greg Bird perform convincingly enough to give the Yankees confidence about their starting first baseman? How far along will Gregorius come in his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery, and does his short-term replacement Troy Tulowitzki have anything left?
Aaron Boone, now a second-year manager, must wait until the playoffs, assuming he gets there, to show that he learned from his ALDS mistakes against the Bosox that helped sink his team’s season. His serenity served the Yankees pretty well from February through September, and he’ll be counted on to repeat that.
Steinbrenner said that ticket sales for the upcoming season were “flat,” and it’ll take some doing for the Yankees to match or exceed last year’s increase of 327,917. Palpable frustration exists out there. That naturally will dissipate if things go as the Yankees hope.
After this terrible winter for the industry, defined by games of chicken and ill will, every team’s mood will brighten just by putting on uniforms and hearing the pop of a catcher’s glove taking in a fastball. Maybe fan bases will get less grouchy, too. For now, though, the Yankees hit the stage with a reduced sheen, fair or not.
“Don’t I get hammered every year about something?” Steinbrenner said with a smile this past week. “If you don’t win the World Series, that’s perfectly justifiable.”
This week, Steinbrenner and his team will start the effort of gently extricating those nails, which got hammered deeper than normal.
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