2 Yankees players who will be unexpected surprises, 2 who will be bitter letdowns

Opening Day is upon us, and the New York Yankees have grand plans for how they would like the 2026 season to play out. As is the case every year, the mission for the Yankees is World Series or bust. Brian Cashman has set the roster, and Aaron Boone has charted the course, but as we know, things never go completely according to plan.

We can look to last season to find a few really pleasant surprises and some truly bitter disappointments. If you asked us what we were concerned about last year, it would have been Ben Rice getting prime run at DH while Giancarlo Stanton struggled to open bags of chips. We wouldn't have believed you if you said that Trent Grisham would be integral to the lineup's success. We were convinced that, anchored by Luke Weaver and Devin Williams, New York would have an elite bullpen.

All four of those players turned our expectations on their heads, and surely we'll see more things happen that no one thought was possible as 2026 unfolds. To get ahead of the game, here are our best guesses for the players who will bring unexpected joy, and the ones who will surprisingly draw our ire.

Two Yankees who will punch above their weight and change how we feel about them in 2026

Jose Caballero

The seeds of a breakout have been growing for some time now. Caballero proved to be more than just a versatile defensive asset when he hit .266/.372/.456 in his 95 post-trade plate appearances. Still, it was too small a sample to get all that excited over.

The MLB stolen base king wanted to prove he had more in his bag of tricks than speed, and went to work at Driveline over the winter, turning some heads in the process. The work seemed to produce results, as he starred for Team Panama in the World Baseball Classic.

Caballero doesn't have to become the next great pinstriped slugger. Instead, if he can spray line drives around the field, turn on an occasional meatball, and continue to run while on the bases and impress in the field, he'll be an insanely valuable player. If we see him elevate his offensive game to a 100-105 wRC+ level, he'll immediately become one of the better shortstops in the game, and might not go down quietly once Anthony Volpe returns from the IL.

Brent Headrick

Brent Headrick became a favorite of Aaron Boone's over the course of spring training. The former Minnesota Twin was an afterthought this time last year, but when he got his opportunity in the bigs, he impressed with a 3.13 ERA and a 32.6% strikeout rate. There were some caveats. Those numbers came over just 23 innings, and the vast majority were low-leverage situations.

However, a high-strikeout lefty is a valuable commodity in a bullpen, and Headrick continued that showing over the spring. The 28-year-old has good stuff, but maintaining his velocity will be key.

New York's bullpen is chock-full of question marks, but we think now that he's seemingly been given the opportunity, Headrick can ascend to a high-leverage role. If all goes well, he's manning the seventh inning more often than not by midseason.

These two Yankees are going to let us down in 2026

David Bednar

The one constant many believe the Yankees can count on in their bullpen is David Bednar, but he might not be as rock-solid as some may want to believe. Bednar struggled so badly at the beginning of last season that he was briefly demoted to Triple-A. That poor start came on the heels of a 2024 campaign where his strikeouts were down, his walks were up, and he posted a 5.77 ERA.

Your feelings on the beefy right-hander's WBC performance will depend on your inclination towards optimism. Glass half full, he wiggled out of jams, allowed zero earned runs, and struck out eight over four innings. If you're a pessimist, you're dismissing that and chalking it up to luck, as those jams were all of Bednar's making.

Pirates fans at times lamented the cardiac nature of his outings, and on a bigger stage and under much more pressure, some unravelings could be in his future. Believing that Bednar is some sort of an elite closer is misguided, and as such, the typical reliever volatility concerns apply.

Cody Bellinger

Cody Bellinger being included after a nearly three-month standoff that eventually ended when the Yankees caved and gave him $162.5 million over five years is not what you want to see, but the warning signs are there. Foot issues hampered him during the playoffs, and a sore back limited him this spring.

Add in the underlying concerns about his quality of contact, and the red flags start rising. Bellinger is a picture perfect fit for Yankee Stadium, but there are 81 road games. If these bumps and bruises linger, his bat might slow a touch, and the lazy fly balls that sail over the short porch might turn into pop-ups to shallow left-center field.

The former NL MVP isn't the picture of consistency, and all of this coming together could have him looking like the 2024 version of himself, rather than the 2025 edition. That's not a terrible player, but not one worth the handsome sum New York will be paying him.