Yankees could face extremely 2020 roster issue in playoffs

The COVID-19 pandemic will likely affect the Yankees heading into the postseason.

Regardless if it’s impacted your immediate life, there’s still an ongoing global pandemic, and we still have more than a month of baseball to play if the New York Yankees manage to reach the World Series.

However, that task will continue to either run into or hurdle obstacles because of limitations, strain and, of course, injuries. The taxi squad that’s supposed to supplement the MLB roster in case of any issues may not be as plentiful by the time the playoffs roll around.

Right now, the Yankees have these extra players in their pool to choose from: Fernando Abad, Luis Avilan, Ryan Buchter, Tyler Lyons, Rob Brantly, Max McDowell, Wynston Sawyer, Josh Thole, Matt Duffy, Thairo Estrada, Mike Ford, Kyle Holder, Jordy Mercer, Miguel Andujar, Estevan Florial, Zack Granite, Albert Abreu, Domingo Acevedo, Daniel Álvarez, Luis Gil, Ben Heller, Brooks Kriske, Luis Medina, Adonis Rosa, Addison Russ, Clarke Schmidt, Alexander Vizcaíno, Miguel Yajure and Tony Zych.

12 of those players will comprise the postseason taxi squad.

Only problem? The Yankees likely have slim pickings.

Here’s what general manager Brian Cashman told MLB Network radio:

“We’ve even had offers for players to be in the alternate site in this taxi squad bubble moving forward and they’ve opted not to be a part of it because it could be six more weeks away from their family if you’re fortunate enough to advance the whole way and with no guarantee of either getting on (the big-league roster) or winning a prize at the end or getting voted a (playoffs) share.“Some of them said, ‘You know what? I’m not doing it.’ So when you have those conversations, they’re disappointing, but you get it at the same time and just move on.”

This is not ideal whatsoever, and we can expect other teams to deal with this dilemma too.

These players, who probably aren’t making much of anything at the moment given the salary reductions, are hanging out in the middle of Pennsylvania waiting for injuries to get an opportunity. You have to think fewer and fewer guys are going to want to potentially spend even more time away from their families when playing time is even less guaranteed.

This comes after Cashman explicitly stated that winning a World Series in 2020 could be harder than ever. Some players still aren’t up to speed. There’s an expanded playoffs. COVID-19 is a threat that can decimate your roster at any time.

Let’s just throw in this taxi squad issue as further support for that statement.

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