MLB Offseason Preview - New York Yankees

New York Yankees

American League	East Division
84-78	5.0 GB of Division Lead
Manager: Joe Girardi	GM: Brian Cashman
AAA Affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders	AA Affiliate Trenton Thunder

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 20th	OPS – 24th	Runs – 22nd	HR – 19th	SB – 18th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 19th	K/9 – 10th	H/9 – 16th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 16th	K/9 – 1st	H/9 – 3rd

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	SB	WAR
LF	Brett Gardner	.261	.351	.362	7	41	16	3.4
C	Gary Sanchez – 53 Games	.299	.376	.657	20	42	1	3.0
CF	Jacoby Ellsbury	.263	.330	.374	9	56	20	2.8

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	G/GS	Record	IP/Saves	ERA	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
SP	Masahiro Tanaka	31 GS	14-4	199.2 IP	3.07	165	36	142	5.4
SP	C.C. Sabathia	30 GS	9-12	179.2 IP	3.91	152	65	111	3.0
RP	Andrew Miller	44 G	6-1	45.1 IP	1.39	77	7	314	2.3

Trades That Occurred During the Season

• Traded CP Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for RP Adam Warren, SS Gleyber Torres, OF Billy McKinney, and OF Rashad Crawford
• Traded RP Andrew Miller to Cleveland for P Benn Heller, OF Clint Frazier, P J.P. Feyereisen, and P Justus Sheffield
• Traded P Vicente Campos to Arizona for RP Tyler Clippard
• Traded P Ivan Nova to Pittsburgh for two players to be named later
• Traded DH/OF Carlos Beltran to Texas for P Nick Green, P Erik Swanson, P Dillon Tate

Impending Free Agents

• 1B Mark Teixeira
• CF Eric Young Jr
• RP Anthony Swarzak
• DH Billy Butler
• 2B Donovan Solano
• OF Nick Swisher
• RP Colin Curtis
• 1B Mat Gamel

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
OF	Clint Frazier	AAA
SS	Gleyber Torres	A+
SS/2B	Jorge Mateo	A+
OF	Aaron Judge	MLB
OF	Blake Rutherford	Rookie
P	Justus Sheffield	AA
OF	Billy McKinney	SS
P	Dillon Tate	A

Team MVP

• GM Brian Cashman - Although I think a player should normally receive this accolade, Cashman was the Yankees' real star this season and it would have taken quite a performance by a player to unseat him.  Cashman completely turned around the entire franchise by trading away players with expiring contracts in Carlos Beltran and Aroldis Chapman and received quite a bit in return and then traded Andrew Miller, who has two years left on his contract, and got two top 100 prospects.  All of this equated to their farm system jumping to number two in baseball.  If it weren't for the Cubs winning the World Series this season, I think that Cashman would win GM of the year.

Success/Failure

• Success - Although the Yankees probably could have made the playoffs this season if they had kept Chapman and Miller but they definitely wouldn't have made it far.  The Yankees don't need to make the playoffs considering their franchise history but are always striving to win the World Series.  Because of that, GM Brian Cashman saw an opportunity to move some contracts at the deadline and received a lot of talent back in prospects.  They now have baseball's second best farm system, which will allow them to field a good young team in a couple of years or trade a few prospects away to bring in an elite, already established player.  Perhaps the best part is that the Yankees could still sign Chapman this offseason, after giving up almost nothing to get him from the Reds, getting usage out of him, and then flipping him for several prospects. That would be an incredible move if they are able to get him back.  They were also able to give playing time to several young players, including catcher Gary Sanchez, who hit 20 home runs in just 53 games, and Ronald Torreyes.  They also had good seasons from starting pitchers Masahiro Tanaka and C.C. Sabathia which helped them stay in the race all season long.

Offseason Outlook

• I think that the Yankees could have another season next year where they don't try overly hard to make the playoffs.  They could still manage to sneak into the playoffs as a Wild Card team, however, as Toronto and Baltimore could both take steps back this offseason.  Having another off year means that they don't actively pursue any expensive free agents this offseason in a weak free agency class.  I think it would be smart for them to go into this offseason with the goal of shedding more contracts, such as catcher Brian McCann, who has been linked to the Astros, and outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner, which would mean the Yankees would probably have to eat some of their salaries.  By trading these players and not signing any major free agents, it means that they would be waiting for 2018 and beyond to go all-in, when arguably the biggest free agency class in history will occur, with Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Clayton Kershaw all potentially available.  They will have openings for Harper and Machado on their roster and they would fit in very nicely for the Yankees.  I still think that pursuing closer Aroldis Chapman would be a good move for the team this offseason, because he will still be valuable in a few years and when elite relievers are available, teams have to consider going after them.  Regardless of whether they spend money this offseason or hold off until 2018, the Yankees have a large group of elite prospects that will continue making their way to the majors in 2017.  They will almost certainly have to trade a few of these prospects, simply for space reasons and they could definitely use these prospects to acquire an elite, already-established MLB player.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com