Yankees’ Editorial: Bronx is Boiling: #PrayForOpeningDay

By Wayne Cavadi | Mar 16, 2015

Ok, it’s gotten to that point. I’m tired of the questions and watching number 98 play. I want to see baseball. April 6th can’t get here soon enough.

Sure, the New York Yankees have big question marks. But everyone chipping in giving their two cents is driving me bonkers. The simple truth is that Tuesday’s start for CC Sabathia will indicate nothing about how his deteriorating body will be in July. The Bronx is boiling and I need to blow some steam.

COME ON OPENING DAY

I know it’s part of Spring Training, but nothing is won or lost in March. It’s fun to play the game that you or I know what we are talking about, whether or not Rob Refsnyder should start or Masahiro Tanaka is back, but we don’t. Neither does Brian Cashman, nor Joe Girardi.

More from Yankees News

Spring Training is for fine tuning. It is practice. We like to make it all about position battles, but the reality is, as much as the fan base doesn’t want to admit it, that with the amount of money the Yankees pay their players, there isn’t really a position battle anywhere on the field this spring.

We like to make ourselves believe that Jose Pirela and Rob Refnsyder have a chance at second base, but how are the Yankees going to legitimately bench Stephen Drew after signing him for $5 million? Last season they rolled into the season honestly believing that Brian Roberts and Kelly Johnson could play adequate second base for 2014. Stephen Drew is technically a huge upgrade.

Does that mean I think Stephen Drew will finish the season as the Yankees second baseman? Not at all. Just like Roberts and Johnson, I hope he finds the same fate and isn’t part of the roster. But the reality is he needs to fail at the Major League level for the Yankees to make a move. Not in Tampa. He could hit .075 this spring, the Yankees are rolling into Opening Day with him as the starting second baseman.

The fifth starter slot? We are all really concerned with this “battle”? The last two seasons should have proven to Yankees’ fans that it doesn’t matter who the rotation is, whether it is one, two or five. This is a broken staff, and no matter how well they perform next Tuesday or Wednesday, the reality is that they are a long shot to make it through the season.

Let’s say Esmil Rogers for example, wins the fifth roster spot. Who is going to take Tanaka’s spot when he gets the Tommy John surgery that everyone seems to be hinting he is heading for? Let’s say Adam Warren is moved from the bullpen to the rotation (which I think is the wrong move), who is going to replace CC when he can’t get through his third consecutive season in a row?

These are the questions with which the Yankees need to be concerning themselves. Not who the stater is that is basically serving as a stop gap until Ivan Nova returns.

And then there is A-Rod. Where will he play? How will he play? There is no position battle here neither. He can’t play third base and if he could, why did they sign Chase Headley? Maybe he can spell Mark Teixeira at first base, but he can’t become a first baseman. Alex Rodriguez is going to be the Yankees designated hitter. All of this other stuff is media fodder.

Did you see him play third? He doesn’t have the range, and a few more games this March at the hot corner isn’t going to bring that back. Rodriguez has one asset left and that is his bat. Debate ended, A-Rod is the DH.

It’s not that I don’t like Spring Training. I like rookies out there getting their licks. But at the end of the day, all the hopes that we have that the Yankees may turn this corner and give someone a chance end quickly when Luis Severino and Aaron Judge are the first sent down.

Next week, CC and Tanaka will make back-to-back starts and the next wave of questions will arise. No one will have the answers to them. #PrayForOpeningDay.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Home/Yankees News