The New York Yankees roster for 2020 will look a little different. For starters, it’ll be a 26 man team from April to September 1, with only 2-3 more players joining the team in September. Much is being speculated about the Yankees trading Andujar AND Voit to the Pirates for Bell (idiocy), but THIS is the 26 man roster the Yankees should field.
Position Players and Bench
Next year will be a 13/13 player split between the pen and the rest of the team. Now, there’s one of two ways the Yankees could go. They can either bring Brett Gardner back (which I think is the prudent move), or let him walk. So, here’s the roster without Brett Gardner:
Catcher: Sanchez. First: Voit. Second: DJ (I assume that they’ll still move Torres to short). Short: Gleyber. Third: Urshela. Left: Stanton. Center: Tauchman. Right: Judge. Bench: Higashioka, Ford, Andujar, Wade, Frazier.
If they do the smart thing and bring Gardner back: Gardner slides into center field, and Tauchman replaces Frazier.
Pitchers
13 pitchers on the team, 5 will be reserved for the starting rotation. I won’t comment about that till pitchers and catchers report. So here’s the best bullpen option for the New York Yankees.
Chapman, Britton, and Ottavino are all under contract. The fact that during the course of the season they were all good/All Star caliber makes it easy enough to justify bringing them all back for next season. So now, there are 4 spots left.
Chad Green and Tommy Kahnle proved to be more than adequate pitchers. They should fill 2 of the 4 spots. Jordan Montgomery should be your long innings man for the season (or Happ if Monty beats him for a spot in the rotation), and the last spot should be reserved for Devi Garcia. Bring him up, and see what he can do. Right there, you got two starter caliber pitchers who can fill in for hurt members of the rotation (which we know will happen).
And there you have it. The perfect 26 man roster for the NY Yankees.