General manager Brian Cashman endured a fairly active offseason for the New York Yankees this year, but the moves he made were of the more low-key variation. Nonetheless, he solved many of their issues, but is their lack of a healthy ace going to affect their chances in 2015?
Joel Sherman of the New York Post provided his "checklist" of the Yankees' offseason and it looks like this:
1. Find a shortstop
2. Improve the defense
3. Deepen the bullpen
4. Get younger
5. Avoid further risky, long-term investment
6. Protect the best of the farm system and add to it when possible
7. Create roster depth and flexibility
8. Put safety nets in place for the rotation
And below we show how they fulfilled those priorities:
1. Traded for Arizona Diamondbacks' SS Didi Gregorius
2. Signed 3B Chase Headley and 2B/SS Stephen Drew; Traded for 1B Garrett Jones
3. Signed LHP Andrew Miller; Traded for relievers David Carpenter, Chasen Shreve, Justin Wilson and Chris Martin
4. Via a number of moves above
5. Passed on Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, and, for now, James Shields
6. Kept top prospects Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Ian Clarkin and Greg Bird while acquiring Johnny Barbato and Domingo German
7. Via nearly all of the moves above
8. Acquired Eovaldi and re-signed Chris Capuano
No. 8 is the biggest issue and it wasn't entirely addressed. Although Eovaldi was a good pickup, re-signing Capuano is nothing special as the team is dealing with a shaky starting rotation that may not be entirely healthy heading into 2015. Masahiro Tanaka's partially torn UCL he suffered in July could still be a lingering ailment; C.C. Sabathia's health is questionable after he underwent season-ending knee surgery to take care of a degenerative condition; Michael Pineda has only made 13 starts in three seasons with the team because of various injuries; and Ivan Nova isn't expected to be back until June as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
Although No. 5 on Sherman's checklist could have solved their potential top-of-the-rotation woes, they were not willing or interested in spending $210 million on Scherzer, $155 million on Lester or between $70 million and $125 million for Shields. The team is projected to have a $211 million payroll, according to Spotrac, and George Steinbrenner is no longer around to approve another expensive long-term investment. It's likely they're going to prepare for the future a bit more as they wait for the contracts of Alex Rodriguez ($64 million over the next three seasons), Mark Teixeira ($46.25 million over the next two seasons) and Sabathia ($48 million over the next two seasons plus a $25 million vesting option for 2017) to expire before they make any more big time moves. Additionally, the AL East is fairly wide-open as of right now, so they probably figured they didn't need to spend the extra cash if there's a good chance for playoff contention.
So yes, all in all, it appears as if they're relying on their starting rotation to be healthy, because that will be their key to success. Cashman said, "we'll keep our fingers crossed," earlier in the offseason in reference to Tanaka's health holding up. C.C. Sabathia says he feels good and has no pain in his knee. If those two can piece together solid campaigns in front of Pineda (who was finally healthy for a bit last season), Eovaldi and eventually Nova, then the Yankees look like they'll be in great shape.
However, it's a big "if" and a lot to gamble on if you're hoping for the team to be successful in 2015.
