Top Five Bright Spots of the Yankees 2016 Season

5. A Shift in Philosophy

The New York Yankees have been very reluctant to hand regular jobs to their own minor leaguers in recent years, almost always preferring the proven but declining veteran over their own homegrown talent. I can count on one hand the number of quality starting position players the team has developed since the dynasty years.

More from Yankees News

• Aaron Judge puts more pressure on Yankees after being named Captain
• Carlos Correa-Giants-Mets bombshell makes Aaron Judge’s return to Yankees even better
• Did Yankees troll Jon Heyman with Aaron Judge contract tweet?
• Matt Carpenter leaving Yankees for massive raise is hard to argue with
• Yankees top prospects butt heads after Giants’ gritty win over Commanders

The team’s decision makers have made a concerted effort to change that following the trade deadline, handing everyday jobs to top prospects Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge, while also giving significant playing time to rookies Mason Williams, Rob Refsnyder, Ronald Torreyes, and Tyler Austin, giving them the chance to audition for expanded roles in 2017.

The rotation was another area where the team leaned heavily on its farm system, giving regular turns to Luis Cessa, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, and Luis Severino in the second half. There were no knee-jerk moves to bring in a washed up veteran, even as their regular starters were dropping like flies.

While there were occasional missteps (Billy Butler? Really?) the team remained committed to its youth movement. While the team will be connected all winter to guys like Edwin Encarnacion and Rich Hill, I really expect the 2017 Yankees to look pretty similar to the club we saw in the last two months of the season.

Next: Five Yankees Most Likely to Be Traded this Winter

The Yankees have a nice nucleus of both position players and pitchers that showed enough this season to really raise expectations for 2017. This could be a very short rebuild.