Is Carlos Beltran The Key To The Yankees Season?
By Jason Evans
Back in April, the Yankees were 15-11. Carlos Beltran was right in the middle of things for the Yankees. He won player of the week for one of the weeks in April. He hit .263 with a .826 OPS, five homers and 13 RBI. April was the month that had the Yankees longest winning streak. Like Beltran, the Yankees fell off and didn’t make the playoffs. The Yankees need a typical Carlos Beltran season in 2015.
Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann need to have bounce back seasons as well. However, the Yankees have depth to help in case one of them gets hurt. Garrett Jones can play first. So can McCann if needed. Maybe even Alex Rodriguez. For McCann, the Yankees have John Ryan Murphy, Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine.
More from Yankees News
- Yankees top prospects butt heads after Giants’ gritty win over Commanders
- CC Sabathia defends Yankees’ massive Aaron Judge contract
- Scott Boras closed Yankees-Carlos Rodón deal from Fenway Park, put cherry on top
- Orioles are bailing out Yankees and AL East by botching free agency
- Guy who caught Aaron Judge record HR ball cost himself tons of money in auction
For Beltran, Chris Young is the fourth outfielder, but can you really trust him to start? On the 40-man roster, they have Ramon Flores and Tyler Austin who have a combined zero major league at-bats. There’s Eury Perez, who’s fast and doesn’t have a lot of major league experience either. Then, of course, is Rob Refsnyder, who played outfield in college, but also isn’t on the 40-man.
Beltran is going to get his fair share of time at DH. However, the Yankees need the 2013 All-Star version of the soon to be 38 year old, rather than what they got out of him last year. They don’t have as much depth in the outfield as they do in other spots so they need him to produce. Otherwise, he’ll just be an old hole in the lineup they have to deal with until the end of the 2016 season.