One of today’s innumerable sad realities is that the coronavirus will shorten or, in a worst-case scenario, wipe out the 2020 Major League Baseball season. We’re all hoping the world will get back to normal as soon as possible, though the calendar could turn to June or July before MLB’s Opening Day rolls around. The only bright side for baseball is that will give injured players across the majors more time to heal and perhaps play a full season, however long it lasts. Few teams (if any) stand to benefit more from the delay than the reigning American League East champion Yankees, who entered the spring among the game’s World Series favorites but have suffered one key injury after another in recent weeks.
Before the sport was forced to shut down and put off its March 26 opener, there were serious questions about how the Yankees’ roster would look for Game 1. Their rotation took a pair of massive hits with injuries to their two best Gerrit Cole complements, Luis Severino and James Paxton. Even with a truncated season likely, there’s no shot we’ll see Severino in 2020. After all, the flamethrowing right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery less than a month ago. But the outlook is much more hopeful for the oft-injured Paxton, who had back surgery in the first week of February. Paxton’s not expected to take the hill again until May or June; under conventional circumstances, that would have meant missing at least a month-plus of the season. Now, if Paxton’s recovery stays on course, he could be in line for either a full slate of games or something close to it.
A whole year of Paxton would be a boon for New York, though a late start to the season won’t be fully positive for its rotation. Righty Domingo German’s set to miss the first 63 games of 2020 as a result of a domestic violence suspension. So, even if we see far fewer games than usual, he’ll probably have to serve out that entire ban. A reasonably healthy Yankees starting staff would still be in better shape than most, though, with Cole, Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and Jordan Montgomery as their top five.
On the offensive side, the Yankees are facing a slew of injuries. That’s especially true for their outfield, which may have gone without any of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks on a typical Opening Day. That’s a lot of firepower. Judge has been limited by upper body issues and even a collapsed lung for weeks, while a calf problem has slowed Stanton this spring. But the longer we’re deprived of baseball, the better the two sluggers’ chances are of being ready from the get-go. The same applies to Hicks, who underwent Tommy John surgery last October. The belief then was that Hicks would return to action in eight to 10 months. Should that timeline hold up, he may be able to debut sometime in June at the earliest.
The health of Judge, Stanton and Hicks will obviously affect other hitters on the Yankees’ roster. For instance, how much center field will Brett Gardner play if Hicks is around for most of the year? How much action will Stanton see at DH, and if he racks up a lot of time there, will it eat into at-bats for Miguel Andujar, Luke Voit and Mike Ford to a significant extent? Will Clint Frazier, who still has a minor league option remaining, begin the season as a reserve on the Yankees’ roster or as a starter in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre?
It’s fair to say the health of the Yankees at the outset of the season could also impact the rest of the American League. The more high-end contributors return for them by Opening Day, the better the Yankees’ chances are of winning the AL East. That, of course, damages the hopes of division rivals in Tampa Bay, Boston and Toronto. And if the Yankees are healthy enough to position themselves to grab home-field advantage in the AL playoffs, it would bolster their odds of fending off the rest of the league and capturing their first pennant and maybe their first World Series since 2009.
Short seasons would always benefit the yankees.
I don’t think that’s true, they’re a lot more likely to lose the division if there end up being only around 80 games just due to them underperforming and a team like TB outperforming in a smaller sample
So you ran all the models and they show they are more likely to lose the division? Brilliant!
@ Juan, jonnyzuck is both right and wrong in his post. The Bombers are no more likely to lose their division than any other team in a shortened season. Chances are, they still win their division and go deep into the playoffs (if we have them this year). But he’s right about one thing: sample size. Right? We know that in a one game sample size the worst team in the league (take your AL pick, the Orioles or Tigers perhaps) are good enough to beat the best team in the AL (Yanks, Asteriks, etc.). Thus Jonny is right that a shortened season allows for the possibility that the best teams don’t necessarily have the same chances (statistically speaking) to win. The smaller sample size decreases the chance that the cream will rise to the top. That said, in the NL, my team still has NO chance! Stay healthy everyone!
when your team is so banged up you get your own article about how a delayed season would help your team.
MLBTR actually plans on writing one of these pieces for every team. Stay tuned.
Oof what a Byrne lol!
(Hopefully not) sick Byrne!
Really? You might just as well keep the story the same and just change the names. Every team is in the same boat.
You said something about covering other teams… still waiting. Having trouble deciding who would be next?
Wow dark whatever…don’t y0u feel like dumb a_s with your Yankee hate!
Rocky you are as eloquent as an inner city public school 3rd grader. As usual! Lovely work.
Bull Durham, “Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay?”
Although batting average isn’t cool anymore, the point still stands, the margin between good and great is tiny. A player would be stupid to not look for an edge during this time. The Cano PED model that includes a cycle finished off with a diuretic cleanse. Additionally, MLB would be smart to do a post 9/11 look the other way campaign when baseball comes back.
Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge will hurt themselves lifting furniture out of their penthouse apartment. If that doesn’t get them; they’ll hurt themselves carrying groceries up to said apartment.
It’s inevitable fact.. I’m sorry Yankees fan.
Are you just one dumb, weird person running multiple accounts.
Unfortunately I do not run the accounts of the other weird, dumb people. I would wager that my p….. is the smallest of all the weird dumb people though.
But is any team hurt more by a cancelled season than the Yankees (on the field- other teams may be less able to handle the financial hit). They are pretty all in on this season, just trying to keep this group together is going to get to be prohibitively expense really fast.
exactly, they can overcome the $ but a WS favorite is going to lose out on more if the season is cancelled than a team fighting for the #1 pick just like 1994 when the strike happened
It seems quite odd to put Judge with a collapsed lung with Stanton’s hurt calf in the same injury/recovery category, no? I mean, honestly, Stanton, that’s kinda weak when Judge has half his lung capacity and your calf hurts. Oh, and you make about 30 mil more per year…….
I still don’t understand the hatred yankee fans have for Stanton. First off, just because someone doesn’t have as a bad an injury as someone else doesn’t mean they still don’t have an injury. Second, stantons first year with the Yankees was pretty darn good. Last year was a waste, he wasn’t the only player in baseball or even the Yankees to have a lost season due to injury. Lighten up on the guy. He is gonna hit 30 plus drive in 100 plus and help you win numerous games in a normal year. Anyone would sign up for that.
There are just a lot of Yankees fans, not all of us feel that way but the ones that do hate him are very vocal about it. Sure the trade hasn’t worked out great so far due to last year but I’m happy to have him on the team going forward
Connor, am a lifelong Phillies fan and therefore a NY “hater”, cue the Tug McGraw quotes…
But seriously, thank you guys at MLBTR for giving us the stuff to chat about…..am a retail mgr that won’t shut down, but in these weird SYFY channel times….these posts you do IS A SERVICE…..
Delayed season? It’s over. 2021 hopefully
no 2020 season
It helps them but could hurt them. Helps them so their current injuries can heal and be ready by season start. Hurts them if those common injuries come back during a short season
A number of teams could benefit from the short season. Many teams tend to overachieve before July. A short season could mean a post-season berth for the Reds, Mets or Blue Jays.
I think this delay to the season both helps and hurts the Yankees. They will get healthier (with the Yankees that seems like a relative term), but a shorter season could also allow another ballclub that wouldn’t be able to stand the strain of a 162-game season to peak early. Either way, I just hope we get past this strange time and back to normalcy as quickly as possible.
The delay helps the Yankees immensely given the number of injuries sustained prior to the season. However I do think they were winning the AL East regardless of the start date.
Yankees have escaped a bullet but it was more like a barrage of bullets
Didn’t know the Yankees were the only team in the league or the only team affected. Interesting.
It shouldn’t be legal for German to lose more pay and time than he already is just because of the corona virus.
The idea that he could lose an entire year of salary and seniority if the season is shortened enough is ridiculous.
It’s all about the Yankees, and when it isn’t all about the Yankees, it’s all about the Red Sox. It’s bad enough to be without baseball to divert our minds from all the scary stuff going on, only to find that your favorite source of baseball news is continuing saturation reporting on these two teams at the expense of the others. It’s bad enough in normal times, but it’s just plain aggravating now. And nobody tell me I’m imagining it, because I can count, and that’s all anyone needs to do to prove what I am saying to themselves.
And the Yankee haters are out in droves LOL! You would think in times like now we would say less idiotic comments like this from the simpleton but I guess not. Just because your team is horrible does not give you the right to come on these forums and rag on consistent winning franchises.
Hard to know what you are saying here but my point has nothing whatsoever to do with hating any team. That’s a problem you seem to have. Anyone who can’t count probably shouldn’t accuse anyone else of being a simpleton.
whoever runs this forum is an idiot
whoever runs this forum is obtuse
brainless forum moderator yes you F_ck face
boy preacher? WOW. A little sad? Frightened perhaps? Your folks know you are off your meds?
Expect German’s suspension to be modified. The intent was to suspend him for half a season. They measured it in games, 81 games, but half a season was the idea. Not an entire season plus a month and a post season.. To not lessen the penalty at this point would be like blaming him for the corona virus, which is clearly insane.. I don’t know how much they will reduce the number, but they will do something to avoid the image of over-punishment..
I disagree. If German had been suspended for anything else, I see your point. The domestic violence suspension will be served in it’s entirety because of the severity of the offence. MLB will not mess with the optics on a suspension for domestic violence. German will miss the entire 81 games.