In this coronavirus shortened season, the New York Yankees appear to be primed to take on the teams in the East Division and advance to the postseason. That might not have been true if the season wasn’t halted halfway through spring training by the coronavirus. Several Yankee players were injured in one way or another, and might not be ready to start the season in late March.
The coronavirus has changed all of that, Sanchez, Judge, Stanton, Hicks, and Paxton have recovered in that time away from the game. The Yankees will, however miss the services of Luis Severino, who will be out the entire season due to Tommy John surgery.
Fast forward to summer camp at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees look as ready to start a season as ever. The pitching has stood out particularly as top-shelf. It is near forgone conclusion that newly acquired ace Gerrit Cole will pitch well for the Yankees if not exceedingly so. The big surprises of spring training and summer camp are the excellent pitching of the likes of Clarke Schmidt, Michael King, Johnathan Loaisiga, and Jordon Montgomery. They pitched not only adequately but exceedingly well.
The only question going into the season this week is if Masahiro Tanaka will be able to slide into his third spot in the rotation. Tanaka was hit by a pitch in the head a little over a week ago. He is presently progressing through the concussion protocol but has pitched a bullpen session with no issues. Should he not be ready, the Yankees have several options available to them with the other pitchers move up a slot.
The New York Yankees are known as a home run team for many seasons. But in this shortened season, pitching takes on a paramount position in winning a division and going to a World Series. As it looks right now, the Yankees are in the best position to do that. It is not uncommon before a season for some of the pitchers not being ready. This year for the Yankees, the pitchers look like they are in midseason form.
They all seem to recognize the intensity that will be required to win in a short season where everything single game will take on new importance. In tests of their performance, Jordan Montgomery and Micheal King did fantastic in the last two exhibition games at the stadium. Many MLB insiders have suggested that pitching will be more critical in a short season than the hitting. However, the Yankees appear to be in good shape with that as well, hitting six home runs in their last two games with eight runs driven in by home runs alone.
I took a short informal poll in several Yankee Facebook groups to see what Yankees fans thought were most important in getting the Yankees to the World Series.  80% of fans responded that starting pitching would be vital to getting a World Championship. 11% said it would be the Yankees hitting. 6% thought the bench would take on importance, and the remaining thought the excellent Yankee bullpen would be key. There were 200 responses from Yankee fans to the poll. Overwhelmingly Yankee fans think that Yankee pitching will be key.
Last year Gerrit Cole was 20-5 with an ERA of 2.50. James Paxton was 15-6 with an ERA of 3.82. J.A Happ was 12-8 with a 4.91 ERA.      Masahiro Tanaka was 11-9 with a 4.45 ERA. And Domingo German before his suspension was 18-4. This year with the addition of Jordan Montgomery and Micheal King, the Yankees should be in good shape. Beyond that, they have an excellent bullpen.
There may be a question at the beginning of the season as to if closer Aroldis Chapman would be available due to testing positive for the coronavirus. But the Yankees have that covered as well. They will use the Baltimore Orioles previous closer Zack Britton who had the highest winning percentage of any Yankee pitcher last year, starter or reliever.
The New York Yankees do have another successful option should any of the starting pitchers not be available to pitch. That ace in the hole is named Chad Green, who played an essential part in the 2019 season. The Yankees being short starting pitchers used Green to “open” 15 games last year, 11 of them that the Yankees won. Also, Green can be used for long or short relief to being a setup man. He even closed for two saves on the season.