Yankees: Four Reasons Why They’ll Make The Playoffs In 2017

The Yankees Set Lineup Is Good Enough

Gary Sanchez is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the talent that Brian Cashman has assembled and the Yankees will display this season.

Already, Las Vegas has installed Sanchez as the odds-on favorite to win the Most Valuable Player Award in the American League, and he just might do that. But, he’s going to need some help, and he’s going to get it.

He’s going to get it from Greg Bird, who is poised to be a breakout star at first base. He’s hitting moonshots in Spring Training, and he already has four home runs in three weeks of play. Bird is disciplined at the plate and in the field. He also sneaks up you from his spot in the batting order when a pitcher glances over and sees Sanchez in the on-deck circle getting a little ahead of himself grooving one to Bird.

The strength up the middle continues with the ever refining short-second combination of Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro. Both hit 20 home runs last season and Gregorius, especially, had a breakout season. For as long as both of them stay around, and that’s somewhat questionable with the ever-rising phenom Gleyber Torres in the picture, they’ll more than hold their own in the field and at the plate.

The Yankees will get what they get from the veteran trio of Jacoby Ellsbury, Chase Headley, and Brett Gardner and be happy for it. The Yankees have made it clear that the team is restricted by the money owed to them and that’s that.

Each needs to play at the level they are capable of doing, and it’s not a stretch that tow of them, at least, can go beyond what they’ve given the team in recent years. Gardner and Headley are also motivated by the fact that, in two years, they’ll both be on the free agent market and their value will begin being measured now.

Apparently, Aaron Hicks is being given a chance to prove that he should be the everyday right fielder over Aaron Judge, so there you have another self-motivated player who knows that this is the only chance he’s going to get, at least from the Yankees.

The pitching, while widely criticized by this writer and others is also good enough, especially since the offense is bound to score more runs than they did last year. If nothing else, and with the possible wild-card exception of Luis Severino, they are predictable.

Masahiro Tanaka, even if he doesn’t think so, just keeps getting better and better and could win the Cy Young he came close to earning last season. He has another year under his belt and is getting more used to the Yankees way of doing things, including starting every fifth day instead of having five days off.

As they did last year, the Yankees will accommodate him as best they can to give him that extra day when the schedule meets the need. But, they’re not going to baby him either, and he knows it.

As for the rest of the lot, Michael Pineda will be Michael Pineda as inconsistent as ever. And with him, the trick is for Larry Rothschild and Girardi to recognize early that he’s having one of “those” days and get him out of there early. Gary Sanchez will become an increasingly valuable piece of these decisions too if he’s not already there in his catching process.

CC Sabathia will give the team what he’s always given them, and that’s innings. He’ll pitch until his arm falls off and on most days will give his team a chance to win. The bullpen is sufficient if not spectacular, with the exception, of course, of Aroldis Chapman who works on another planet.

And when something goes wrong with any of these players, that leads us to the next segment: