Keidel: Yankees Are A Mystery And Lack Any Kind Of Identity
By Jason Keidel
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Major League Baseball has a sense of humor.
Our two local teams were conquered on Opening Day by the very teams that vanquished them last year.
The Yankees still don't have an answer for Dallas Keuchel, who had thrown 29 scoreless innings at the Bombers prior to the game. The Yanks have now lost five straight Opening Days, their longest winless streak since the 1930s, a cold run befitting their frosty ballpark on Tuesday.
And, in some equally warped symmetry, the Mets lost consecutive games to the Royals, both with Matt Harvey on the mound. The symbolism, at least, is annoying.
But the Mets still have their army of young, obscenely gifted pitchers, as evidenced by Thor dropping the hammer on the Royals on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the Yankees' future is a bit more mottled. Masahiro Tanaka, their presumed ace, has had several issues with his pitching arm, including elbow surgery and tear in his ulnar collateral ligament that could someday require Tommy John surgery.
The rest of their rotation is, well, delicate. Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino aren't exactly bedrock aces in case Tanaka takes a fall. And the traditional anchor of 10 rotations, CC Sabathia, is now 35 and the fifth starter.
In the past, the Yankees could overcome woeful pitching by dint of their dominant bats. But their best hitters -- A-Rod, Carlos Beltran, and Mark Teixeira -- are deep into the back nine of their careers with an advancing history of injury, especially Teixeira, who's led us scrambling to Web MD to discover the human anatomy. (Who even knew we had a sheath on our wrist before Teixeira hurt his?) It also doesn't help that Teixeira's gifted substitute and presumed replacement, Greg Bird, is out for the season after ripping up his right shoulder.
It may be hard to believe, but it has been 20 years since the Yankees revived the dynastic ways, and assumed their ancestral perch atop our pastime. Joe Torre was hired to replace the prodigy, Buck Showalter, and was met with a gaggle of doubters and disrespectful handles, like "Clueless Joe."
The Yankees have seen many mutations since then. But one thing they always had was an identity. Whether it was the upstarts of '96, brandishing a young Core Four into the future, their '98 juggernaut of fine pitching and clutch hitting, or the 2009 free agent binge that yielded their last World Series titles, the Bronx Bombers were always loaded with arms, or bats, or both.
What exactly is this 2016 team?
One thing these Yanks have is a robust bullpen, perhaps the best in the sport. Between Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Dellin Betances, the Yankees have the potential to crunch a nine-inning game into six or seven. But is that enough?
The Royals made it work last year, though they were much younger, faster, and deeper than these Yankees, who are an injury or two from chaos, especially against left-handed pitching. And their rotation hardly reminds you of that 1998 titan of Andy Pettitte, David Cone, David Wells, and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez.
Eovaldi has 29 wins in his career. His 14 victories last year were more than double his previous high. Pineda has 26 wins and an epic history of injury. After a lovely maiden campaign in 2011, he missed the next two seasons. Severino is another neophyte whose 5-3 record last year represents his career totals. And, of course, Tanaka, the graybeard of the group, has an aggregate 25-12 mark in the majors.
Remove Sabathia and the Yankees' rotation has a record of 85-78. And only Eovaldi has made more than 30 starts in a season.
Sure, you can point across town and say the Mets are in the same boat, front-loaded with fledgelings. But the chasm in talent is too wide to compare. Not to mention they've already carried the Mets to a World Series appearance, while the Yankees haven't been to a Fall Classic since 2009, their longest drought since the 15-year gap between 1981 and 1996.
Sure, if everything coalesces, if the Yankees stay hearty and healthy, they could make a run into October. But what are they? Are they the Bronx Bombers, who can swing their way out of any slump? Are they pitching-rich, posting zeroes every inning? Or are they a great bullpen and a bunch of variables?
Can they keep up with the Blue Jays' conveyer belt of bats? Are they as young and exciting as the Red Sox? Can they run with the Royals? The Yankees limped into last October with 87 wins. Will that be enough this year? Unlikely.
The Yankees surprised most by making it to the playoffs last season, with a scrappy, overachieving bunch, led by their forgotten DH. A-Rod literally rose from the ashes to club 33 homers and drive in 86 runs. And if Teixeira had stayed in the lineup, they would have had a better chance to slide out of the chokehold Keuchel had applied.
But in the end, the Yanks scored just as many runs in the 2015 postseason as the Padres, Tigers, and Twins. Maybe the Yankees are still a feisty group that will again surprise us in 2016.
But when you spend over $200 million on payroll, a playoff berth should not be shocking. They charge you playoff prices at the gate, and have been at least partially responsible for nearly a million local homes with no way to watch Opening Day on TV, as part of the squabble between YES and Comcast. (This Yankees fan had to flee his Comcast enclave and travel to another home to watch on Time Warner.)
So for those who can't afford a ticket to the opulent ballpark, and don't have cable TV alternatives, fans have to be even more creative to get their fix of the 2016 Yankees. If only we knew what to call these guys.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
