Yankees' manager Joe Girardi held his end-of-season press conference on Monday and answered a number of questions from the media. What can we expect from the 2015 Yankees and will they get back into the playoff conversation? Below are five things to take away from Girardi's responses.
Alex Rodriguez will be back with the team. Girardi did not guarantee Rodriguez would be starting in 2015, but he "absolutely" expects the slugger to be back with the Yankees after he was suspended for the entire 2014 season. Girardi reiterated that Rodriguez is a good clubhouse guy and that he was not a distraction to the team in 2013 when he was appealing his original 211 game suspension.
"We have to see where he's physically at. If he can play the field, how many days will he DH, play the field ... I don't think any of us know about him until we get him in games in Spring Training."
Derek Jeter's leadership will be missed, but others will step up to provide guidance. The former Yankees' catcher recalled spending four seasons with the team from 1996-1999 and there not being one sole particular clubhouse leader. Girardi expects veteran players to collectively step up and provide insight through their experience to help with that aspect next season.
"Can you ever replace certain people? No, but you can have characteristics in your clubhouse that represent what they represented."
He expects the pitching staff to bounce back and have success. New York's starting rotation was decimated this season, starting with Ivan Nova, when he partially tore his UCL and needed Tommy John surgery in April. Then Michael Pineda was out from April 24 until August 13, C.C. Sabathia underwent season-ending knee surgery after just eight starts, and Masahiro Tanaka partially tore his UCL and missed about two and half months while he rehabbed. Girardi expects good things from Tanaka and Pineda - the future of the starting rotation - next season.
"We expect him [Tanaka] to have a good year next year. We expect him to make 32 starts. I thought he had a very good year for us this year."
"I'm excited about his [Pineda's] year next year and I told him that. You look at the way he did it with movement and efficiency, he was a treat to have and I look forward to having him in 2015."
Working on hitting and base-running will be the focus on the offseason. New York ranked 20th in the MLB for runs scored (633) and average (.245); 22nd in RBIs (591) and; 23rd in hits (1,349) and on-base percentage (.307). That's pretty much all there is to know. And they still finished 84-78 despite ranking at the bottom of the league in those categories.
"We just didn't get a lot of hits. Your opportunities were fairly limited," said Girardi. "We need to get better and what we did this year wasn't good enough."
Yankee fans might see some homegrown farm system players in 2015. The Yankees have an obvious aging lineup. Alex Rodriguez is 39; Carlos Beltran is 37; Mark Teixeira is 34; and even Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury are 31. That doesn't even count Derek Jeter (40), Ichiro Suzuki (40) and Hiroki Kuroda (39) who are all expected to be gone. New York has some young talent in the minors, including pitcher Luis Severino, third baseman Eric Jagielo and outfielder Aaron Judge. Will the team start building from within?
"I think we all (look forward to young players)," said Girardi. "I think we all want to get an idea of - without certain individuals who have been here a long time - what's it going to look like? Who is going to be the next great Yankee people latch onto? I'm anxious to see some kids in the minor leagues come up and have some tremendous years. Maybe you establish a new core. Hopefully it's a Core Eight."
All quotes from Girardi were used from Riveraveblues.com's transcription of yesterday's end-of-season press conference.
