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New York Yankees Editorial: Severino, Judge, Bird, and Sanchez: Next Core Four?

By Caleb Gebrewold

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Although the New York Yankees entered play Monday with a comfortable six and a half game lead in the AL East, it is still hard to deny that the team has went through an identity change in 2015.  For the first time in two decades, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada are all no longer with the team.

The organization, like so many others, are looking for the next wave of prospects to come up and leave their mark on the big league club.  The Core Four’s success will be hard for any group of prospects to match, as they won five rings, set countless team and postseason records, and produced two sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famers (Jeter and Rivera) and two borderline Hall of Famers (Pettitte and Posada).

One of the things that most people found unique about the Core Four was how they climbed through the Minor Leagues together, and eventually all debuted in 1995 before becoming fixtures in the Yankees dynasty, something that turned the four into very good friends.

The Yankees have a similar situation brewing in the Minors currently, and although it is unfair to compare Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, and Gary Sanchez to four of the greatest Yankees ever, the Yankees current minor leaguers have seen their path to the Majors cross at nearly every level, and all are now on the cusp of debuting with the Yankees, creating friendships that go beyond baseball along the way.  Judge feels that having each other there for support is something that has been key for the prospects:

"We’re all grinding.  We’ve all got that main goal of winning and making it to the major leagues.  Just having each other there and backing each other up has been huge."

Of the four players, the two with the most potential were also the first two to play together.  Judge, who was drafted in 2013 but didn’t debut until 2014, began his professional career in Low-A Charleston, joining Severino, who spent part of the previous season with the club.  Soon thereafter, Judge was promoted to High-A Tampa, joining Bird in the lineup on June 19.  The next day, Severino received the promotion and made his first start.

While Judge would spend the rest of 2014 in Tampa, Severino only made four starts with Tampa before joining Sanchez with Double-A Trenton and debuting on July 19.  Bird followed soon, and on August 2, he made his Double-A debut.  Starting the 2015 season, Judge joined Severino, Bird, and Sanchez in Trenton, marking the first time that all four were teammates, although they already had begun building a bond, according to Bird:

"These guys, we’re all friends and guys I spend time with, not just at the field.  We care about each other.  We want to see each other do well."

Their time in Trenton together wouldn’t even last two months, as Severino was promoted to Triple-A Scranton on May 30th, debuting the next day.  After just three weeks, Judge would join him, and twelve days later, Bird too was on the move.  On July 18, two weeks after Bird debuted, and in the RailRiders first game following the All-Star break, Sanchez was promoted, bringing all four friends together once again.

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While they don’t know who will be the first to the majors, moving through the ranks together has made the job easier, something we have heard from members of the Core Four.  According to Judge, it is just a matter of time before they make the last leap:

"The majority of the time it’s ‘can’t wait to see you there, too’.  That’s the biggest thing.  You know it’s just a matter of time for all these guys to get called up.  If you’re the first one to get called up, [it seems like] just give it a few days or a week or something and all the rest of us will be up there."

Pressure for any top prospect always run high, but in the Yankees organization, the pressure grows much higher.  For Severino, who has seemingly dominated every level and could already be deserving of a spot in the big league rotation, he doesn’t worry about the pressure, or the possibility of promotion:

"That’s not my job.  My job is to be on the mound and do a good job out there.  It’s easy to block out [all the noise]."

Severino’s mindset is the right one, as he has no control of his Major League debut.  Bird, who noted that while baseball is a business, it is also a game, stated that the four motivate each other and share a common goal, making their relationship unique:

"We all push each other and we push ourselves because we want to win games and we want to win games for the Yankees.  I think we share that one goal and I think that’s what makes us unique."

Judge reiterated Bird’s claims that the four share a common goal, and added that having each other around takes pressure off of each:

"All these guys, we have one goal in mind and that’s just to win.  Having that goal and being as talented and humble as we are, it makes it so much fun to come to the ballpark.  I feel no pressure at all playing with the team we have here.  These aren’t just teammates, they’re like brothers so it’s pretty cool.  Now that Gary’s up here and Bird and Severino and they’re all doing well, it’s going to be exciting to see what happens at the end of the year and next year, too.  I’m looking forward to it."

Although the Yankees are set at catcher, with Brian McCann locked in through the 2018 season, and Sanchez wasn’t one of the four prospects listed as “untouchable” leading up to the trade deadline (Severino, Judge, Bird, and Jorge Mateo are the four), the team would be wise to hold on to Sanchez.  Mateo is still only at Low-A Charleston, and if Sanchez continues to hit, a role will open up for him, as contracts expire.  After all, Posada didn’t become a regular behind the plate until 1998, at the age of 26 (he turned 27 that summer).

Even if Sanchez isn’t an everyday player in the big leagues as quickly as the other three, he won’t reach that age of 26 until the winter before the 2018 season.  Having the possibility of four players becoming key contributors for the club for the next decade is something that should have Yankees fans excited.  Adding Mateo in, and you could even say that it becomes a “Fab Five”, something that the Yankees dynasty teams possessed with Bernie Williams.

Fans should be cautioned not to expect the four prospects in Triple-A to duplicate the years of magic brought by the Core Four, but the early parallels are there.  Now, they just need to work their way to the Majors, and continue to perform.

What do you think Yankee fans?  Could Severino, Judge, Bird, and Sanchez become the next Core Four, or would you rather see the Yankees shop one (or more) of these prospects for an upgrade before Friday’s trade deadline.

Next: New York Yankees News: Brian Cashman Won't Budge On Prospects

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