Due to a shortened spring training, there will be an extra two players allowed to be on Opening Day rosters around the league, bringing the grand total to 28 men breaking camp with the Yankees.
And that will help manager Aaron Boone out a bit, as there are some tight battles happening in Tampa at the moment.
So, without delaying any longer, let’s take another crack at predicting the Yanks’ roster on April 7 in the Bronx.
Starting 9
1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. 1B Anthony Rizzo
3. RF Aaron Judge
4. LF Joey Gallo
5. DH Giancarlo Stanton
6. 3B Josh Donaldson
7. SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa
8. CF Aaron Hicks
9. C Kyle Higashioka
The starting nine for me doesn’t change.
But Gleyber Torres is making things very interesting right now. He’s very hot at the plate, smashing two homers against the Baltimore Orioles the other night and hitting .421 overall in his 19 at-bats. The 25-year-old knows he’s on the fringes at the moment and he’s making it tough to not put him in this starting lineup.
Simply put, Boone has options and he’ll be exploring them. Unlike some teams that have their regular nine on most nights, Boone should be moving a lot of people around, giving rest maybe more often to some injury-prone players and making sure everyone is fresh on a nightly basis.
Torres helps as well as others. But, if it’s Game 1 of the World Series tomorrow, I’m going with this group.
Starting Rotation
1. Gerrit Cole
2. Nestor Cortes
3. Jameson Taillon
4. Luis Severino
5. Jordan Montgomery
The Oakland A’s still have Sean Manaea on the trading block, and we pegged him coming here quickly as spring games started. But … the A’s are being weird and the Yanks are likely to roll with this.
Cortes was solid for them in 2021, eating up innings due to injuries and making the best of it with a 2.90 ERA over 22 games. He figures to find some role in the rotation, and it really could be behind Cole right now due to other question marks.
Severino’s been banged up in his 3.2 innings, but let’s see what his next start has. The Yanks are really banking on him to make a comeback. Taillon and Montgomery are self explanatory.
Also worth noting: Don’t sleep on Luis Gil and Deivi Garcia. They’ve looked good early on here.
Bullpen
1. LHP Aroldis Chapman (closer)
2. RHP Jonathan Loaisiga (set up/closer)
3. RHP Chad Green
4. RHP Clay Holmes
5. LHP Lucas Luetge
6. LHP Wandy Peralta
7. RHP Luis Gil
8. LHP Joely Rodriguez
9. RHP Michael King
Here we add King to the mix as the extra bullpen guy, though Boone and Brian Cashman could decide that 10 bullpen arms are needed to keep the load light to start the year. However, I think they’ll have the extra bat instead, so we’ll go with this here.
Everything else is status quo.
Bench
1. INF Gleyber Torres
2. C Ben Rortvedt
3. UTIL Miguel Andujar
4. UTIL Marwin Gonzalez
5. OF Tim Locastro
We love a switch bat and Gonzalez has been raking with it this spring. The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal with an invite to see what he brought to the table. He’s belted a three-run homer now among more solid contact that’s hard not to have him on here. He plays multiple positions, so that’s only an added bonus.
Locastro makes it as the pinch running specialist with his crazy speed.