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The Yankees are back to being the Yankees after they made acquisitions that would strengthen their chances of making the playoffs. It’s been a long time coming after they have not done much to go for it since George Steinbrenner passed away in 2010.
There’s no question the late Steinbrenner would be proud of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman for storing up so many prospects and trading them to get pieces to build around for championship No. 28.
Acquiring Sonny Gray, Jaime Garcia, Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle mean not only are the Yankees back to being the Evil Empire, but it means either they win a championship in 2017 or this season is a failure.
There’s no gray area after they made those moves. Stop with the mamby-pamby expectations of winning the AL East. If the Yankees were not playing for a championship, they would not have made the deadline deals. This is a team that was good enough to make the playoffs with what they had before they made the trades.
Getting Gray and Garcia make the Yankees starting rotation potent and fearsome. The Yankees have a good starting trio that can win playoff games in Luis Severino, Gray and Masahiro Tanaka. For Garcia to compete with CC Sabathia for the No. 4 spot in the playoffs is a situation that teams would be envious of.
The Yankees basically assembled the best bullpen ever by acquiring Kahnle and Robertson to complement Adam Warren, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. After watching the Royals winning the World Series with a lights-out bullpen two years ago, the Yankees decided to copy their approach by hoping their starters go five or six innings and have their best relievers finish the rest.
The Yankees lineup can mash the ball with 155 home runs to show for it. Not only they can hit home runs, but they can get base hits and move runners up. It is a versatile lineup that can win in so many ways.
There’s no excuse anymore for the Yankees to not get it done. This is the best Yankees team since 2010, which they failed to win a championship that year. There is not much weakness on this roster. It’s about guys performing when it matters. Whether their young core players such as Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Clint Frazier have it or not remains to be seen.
The regular season games serve nothing more than exhibition games now. This is a team that should be good enough to cruise through the regular season. It’s all about October, and that’s what these acquisitions are all about.
The players embrace it. The fans love it. Yankees manager Joe Girardi and his staff look forward to win with the tools they have. That’s a great thing after years of being ordinary and irrelevant in this town and in Major League Baseball.
Give Cashman credit for going for it now rather than wait until a year or two when the prospects develop into stars or when they were ready to sign free agents such as Manny Machado. It could have been easy for him to stand pat like most general managers from small-market teams tend to do by holding on to their prospects.
Hal Steinbrenner should be commended for authorizing the Yankees’ spending spree. He has erased the perception that he is nothing more than an owner who wants to make money rather than invest on the team.
Cashman and Steinbrenner did their job. Now, the onus is on the players and Girardi to get it done. Getting to the World Series should be the bare minimum for the Yankees.
It’s time to demand more from the Yankees. Let’s not set the bar low by saying making the playoffs would be an accomplishment. This isn’t the Mariners we are talking about. We are talking about a proud franchise that has won 27 championships that had the elder Steinbrenner once said winning is second to breathing.
Cashman did not make these moves just to settle for a playoff appearance. He knows opportunity is knocking, and the players and Girardi received that message.
Will there be pressure? Of course there is, and there should be. This franchise has not won a championship in seven years prior to this season, and this city is on a 5 1/2-year championship drought. Fans in this town have zero tolerance for this when they are paying expensive tickets to see their teams.
This type of pressure is good for the Yankees core players. We will find out if they are tough enough to handle these expectations now and beyond. It’s better early than late to see what they are about.
This season has become interesting now since they overachieved. There was no pressure back then. Now we will see if the Yankees new core can be as good as the Core Four was.
If Girardi still is wearing No. 28 in his uniform next year, consider this year to be a waste of time. It would mean he is still stuck on that number for failing to win championship No. 28.
