The Pessimist’s Viewpoint On the 2017 Yankees

Depending on the faction of Yankees fans you speak to on any given day, you’ll get one of three different conclusions as to how the 2017 season will play out.

As Spring Training gets underway, there’s an air of real excitement around the Yankees that has been missing for the past few seasons. For once, the narrative isn’t based on the free agents that were brought in or a crisis-level emphasis on the veterans that are weighing down the team’s chances of winning.

Instead, general manager Brian Cashman remade the farm system in his own image. An image that has potentially set the Yankees up for a long fruitful run of success. I say “potentially” because you never really know what you’re going to get out of a prospect until they produce at the Major League level.

Take Gary Sanchez for instance. Cashman recently said that Sanchez was “bored” at Triple-A Scranton and was in need of a new challenge. Obviously, he was right, as Sanchez hit a Major League record 20 home runs in just 53 big league contests.

Will Sanchez follow-up his stellar rookie season and cement his claim as one of the brightest young stars in all of the game? Or will he fall prey to the dreaded Sophomore slump?

Follow me as I take on the persona of a Negative Nancy and the thoughts that come with it. Don’t freak out that this piece is all negative — the positive spin will debut soon enough.