Yankees: A Rise To At Least Third in MLB Rankings Is Imminent – No?

Yankees fans, this is the way the MLB Power Rankings stood as of Wednesday, April 26. Notice anything missing? That’s about to (finally) change as the rest of baseball comes around to seeing what we already know: The Yankees are back and not going away.

Okay, the Yankees have surprised. Hurrah, but it’s over now. They are a team to be reckoned with and recognized as they are not going away.  We’ll see Wednesday how this changes, but if they don’t pull up to at least the third spot, somebody is not paying attention.

The MLB Rankings (records through Wednesday’s  4/26 games):

1. Washington Nationals (15-6; Previous: 5): Nats really focused on their first 100 wins.

2. Houston Astros (14-7; Previous: 8): Beltran turns 40, targets seventh-inning stretch for a good nap.

3. Baltimore Orioles (14-6; Previous: 10): Unwritten Code of Hammurabi: a head for a knee.

4. Chicago Cubs (12-9; Previous: 1): Cubs hand out rings with pre-nuptial agreements. Employees immediately consider gym membership and Botox.

5. Boston Red Sox (11-9; Previous: 2): The season doesn’t really start until Mookie Betts strikes out.

6. Colorado Rockies (14-8; Previous: 14): Bud Black takes over Coors Field ticket window (really), accidentally sells owner’s suite to a Brownie troop and three guys who got lost backpacking the Colorado Trail.

Video Courtesy of the YES Network

A Team Built To Last

The Yankees team in 2017 is built to last. And even if they get hammered with a series of injuries like those that have, inexplicably, hit their cross-town rival Mets again, there is a wealth of talent in the minors, not only ready but eager to step in and take up the slack.

Granted, one month does not a season make. But then again, Rome was not built in a day, and Brian Cashman knew that long before few of us recognized it. We cajoled him about the starting pitching and how wonderful it would be to see Gleyber Torres playing at Yankee Stadium, not later, but now,

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He turned a deaf ear, choosing instead to let Joe Girardi sort things out with the pitching staff and to pick someone currently on the roster to replace their injured shortstop, Didi Gregorius. Girardi didn’t flinch from the challenge when Jordan Montgomery caught his attention in Spring Training, eventually installing him in the widely contested fifth spot in the rotation.

Nor did Girardi flinch when it came to naming Ronald Torreyes over Tyler Wade and Miguel Andujar as his Opening Day shortstop, or when time forced him to choose Aaron Judge as the regular right fielder over Aaron Hicks.

And if you live in Las Vegas, you might just say somebody got hot at the craps table, and here we are, with all of these moves having run the table. But if you know baseball, you see it better.

This is a finely tuned Yankees organization that is poised to take over the world of baseball again with a combination of executive management and on the field performance.  And we’re only beginning to see the first blooming in the product they’ve created.

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

The Yankees are showing their fans a lot during this Preseason. But there's more to come and the opportunity to play baseball is a real possibility.

The Yankees hold first place in the American League East, and that may last or it may not. But they’re gonna be in this thing and by now, or at least when the next rankings come out; they should be recognized as a team on the rise with the makings of keeping it that way.