Yankees Suddenly Are Looking Armed and Dangerous

The Yankees have had pitching concerns for the last few years. When James Kaprielian succumbed to Tommy John, both the future and present pitching possibilities became bleaker. All of a sudden the Yankees look to have one of the best staffs in baseball, from the starters to the bullpen. They even have minor leaguers pushing up from the bottom.

Yankees fans should not decide in April how good or bad this team will be. Clubs in first place on Easter are buried and forgotten by Mother’s Day. And no one should care about wins and losses until the season hits at least 40 games. Instead, Yankees fans and baseball fans everywhere are best off just being happy that this splendid, maddening game of failure is back.

But still, there are certain baseball story lines known even before spring training starts. The Mets have great starting pitching and just need to hit a bit. The Red Sox look loaded, full stop. And the Yankees are rebuilding with promising young talent in the field and the lineup.

There is, however, another part of the 2017 New York Yankees story and it is one that everyone from Seattle to Tampa knows: the team suffers from a dearth of pitching. And not just starting pitching. The bullpen is suspect, although the eighth and ninth innings are under complete lock down. Even the vaunted farm system had just one promising arm to impact the 2017 season, James Kaprielian.