When Alex Rodriguez had to have hip surgery and we were told he'd be out at least half the season, let's face it--some of us Yankee fans were less than distraught. At the plate in the 2012 playoffs, Rodriguez, once one of the most feared bats in baseball, looked like we would if we were out there trying to hit Major League pitching. And to be honest, most of us never liked the guy anyway.
When Phil Hughes, the pitcher everyone was expecting to have a monster year for monetary reasons (he can be a free agent after this season) got back spasms that turned out to be a bulging disc during routine fielding drills, we thought for a second about CC, Andy, Kuroda, Nova and Phelps, with Pineda hopefully to come in the second half, and we thought, "Enjoy your new team next year, Phil."
When Curtis Granderson got hit with a pitch in his first spring training at-bat and broke his arm, we started to get concerned. He'll be out until mid-May? The guy who might strike out half the time, but hits home runs the other half? Uh-oh. With Nick Swisher and Russell Martin gone to be replaced by one of the game's most adept singles hitters and... somebody, the lack of power on the Yankees (who thought we'd ever see that phrase?) was starting to become a serious concern. Even Brian Cashman noted that, despite his belief in the home run, this team this year would be taking a pretty serious step backward in the long ball department. Double uh-oh.
When Cashman himself broke his right leg skydiving (!), we thought, "Well, that's sort of the way this whole thing has been going since October, isn't it? At least now he'll understand how his players feel when they get hurt." As long as Cashman could use his dialing finger, his value to the team had not diminished.
But now, with Mark Teixiera, perhaps the last power threat the Yankees have not named Cano, went down with a strained wrist (what?) and lost until mid-May at best, things have gotten serious. Can this team win 90 games? 85? 80?
Cashman really has himself in a pickle now as he hobbles around on his crutches and tries to fix an aging, injured, incomplete team. He never found that corner outfielder to replace Swisher, counting on Granderson to provide enough power for all three positions. He never found a catcher at all, and the starting tandem of Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart still isn't exactly striking fear into the heart of the opponent. Remember a couple of years ago, when all the Yankees had were awesome catching prospects who were going to take over the world any minute now? Where'd THAT go?
And now, there's a first baseman to be found. True, the season doesn't end in May, not even close, but what kind of Mark Teixiera are we getting back? What kind of Granderson? There were rumblings over the winter about how Tex was declining--from Tex!--and chatter on sports radio that Granderson should be traded while he still has value.
Derek Jeter, coming back from serious ankle surgery, is probably the brightest story in camp this spring. Mo Rivera is the classiest guy in the world and I'd bet on him to come in and be exactly as he was before he left, but he's 43 years old. Andy Pettitte looks like the pitching coach. Would it really be such a bad idea to see if Jorge Posada is enjoying retirement all that much?
This is not shaping up to be a stellar season. Either someone's going to step up to the plate--literally--and impress, or we're looking at mid-80's vintage Yankees, and anyone who was around for that knows, it's not an era we'd wish to relive.
Yeah, this is bad, okay.
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