The 2020 New York Yankees, as currently constructed are one of the most dangerous teams in baseball. How? Here’s how.
Core Chemistry
Look at who made up the New York Yankees during the 98-01 teams. Jeter, Knoblauch, O’Neil, Martinez, Williams, Posada, Brocious, Soriano, Pettite, Cone, and Rivera. From 17 to now, we have Sanchez, Severino, Chapman, Torres, Judge, Gardner, Stanton, Andujar, Voit, Urshela, Tanaka, German, and DJ. There has to be something to be said for a core unit that’s been there for multiple seasons. They know how to play together, they know how to win, and they know how to have fun.
This Lineup Will Make You Salivate
Think about it. We’ll look at the slash lines of each hitter for the (potential) lineup, including home runs, RBI’s, and walk totals during the 2019 (or 2018 in case of injury) seasons:
DJ LeMahieu (.327/.375/.518, 26 HR’s, 102 RBI’s [both career highs], and 46 walks)
Aaron Judge (.272/.381/.540, 27 HR’s, 55 RBI’s, 64 walks)
Gleyber Torres (.278/.337/.535, 38 HR’s, 90 RBI’s [both career highs], 48 walks)
Gary Sanchez (.232/.316/.525, 34 HR’s [career high], 77 RBI’s, 40 walks)
Giancarlo Stanton (.266/.343/.509, 38 HR’s, 100 RBI’s, 70 walks [2018 stats])
Luke Voit (.263/.378/.464, 21 HR’s, 62 RBI’s, 71 walks [all career highs])
Gio Urshela (.314/.355/.534, 21 HR’s, 74 RBI’s, 25 walks [all career highs])
Miguel Andujar (.297/.328/.527, 27 HR’s, 92 RBI’s, 25 walks [2018 stats])
Brett Gardner (.251/.325/.503, 28 HR’s, 74 RBI’s [both career highs], 52 walks).
That’s 260 home runs, 726 runs batted in, and 441 walks. This is a team that gets on base, drives runners in, and are above average hitters. Think about it, Gary Sanchez was the only truly below-average hitter, along with a truly average hitter in Brett Gardner, and everyone else was an above-average hitter.
The Starting Rotation Ain’t Bad Too
Gerrit Cole improves every rotation. Because… well, did you SEE his 2019? Paxton is going to hopefully improve on the season he put up last year. Severino can likely return to form next year, and Tanaka can be expected to turn in a great first half of the season. If German isn’t suspended for too long, he has the stuff to be the most dominant number 5 in a rotation.
This is the first team the New York Yankees put up that, on paper, can best the 1998 Yankees.