After splitting Sunday’s doubleheader against the Texas Rangers, the New York Yankees’ record stands at 19-8. Mainly because of an 11-game winning streak that was snapped this week, the Bombers hold the best record in the American League as we head to a new week.
The junior circuit has some of the same foes for the Yankees, namely the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros, plus some emerging powerhouses, in the Minnesota Twins, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Los Angeles Angels. Yet the Yankees look a tier above, at least in the early going. The season is long, and they will need to keep up this level for a sustained period of time.
Jon Heyman, an MLB insider, said in his NY Post column that “it’s early but they (the Yankees) are starting to establish themselves as the team to beat in the American League.”
The Yankees have been a tier above everyone else in the American League
Heyman noted that “like many folks, I was concerned about a winter the Blue Jays did headline-grabbing things, and the Yankees did little, or so it seemed,” but the Blue Jays, even though they are just 3.5 games behind the Yanks, haven’t been in the same tier.
The Yankees have the best run differential of the American League, with +48. The second-best team, the Angels, are at +27, so there are 21 runs of difference between New York and the rest of the pack. This early in the season, that’s a significant gap.
Per Heyman: “The verdict is far from in, but a month and a day into the season, the Yankees look like the AL’s best team. There are two reasons for this. One, they look pretty good. And two, nobody else does.”
It’s still very early, but most of the teams that can really compete with the Yankees as currently constructed and as things currently stand, are in the National League.