Manager Joe Girardi has almost always taken a sunny view of whatever circumstances the New York Yankees might face. So it was little surprise that he thought his team, which faded in the second half of the season and flatlined in the homestretch, could return mostly intact and accomplish the franchise’s usual stated goal.
“Pretty plain and simple — win the World Series,” Girardi said, naming something the Yankees have not done since 2009.
Girardi was speaking at a news conference, just days after losing to the Houston Astros, 3-0, in the American League wild-card game, their first exposure to the playoffs in three years.
Girardi’s optimism was rooted in the questions that were answered this season: Andrew Miller and Justin Wilson joined Dellin Betances to provide a formidable back end of the bullpen; Didi Gregorius, after some major struggles early in the season, proved a capable replacement for Derek Jeter at shortstop; and Masahiro Tanaka’s frayed elbow ligament survived nearly eight months without snapping.
It does not seem unreasonable to expect better performances from pitchers Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda, starters distancing themselves from arm operations.
It is also clear that the long-awaited infusion of prospects has begun, with pitcher Luis Severino, first baseman Greg Bird and catcher John Ryan Murphy proving they can thrive in a limited role. Second baseman Rob Refsnyder performed well in a late-season cameo.
Unaddressed, though, was a big question: How will the regular starting lineup, the oldest in baseball, improve as it ages a year? The lineup, except for second baseman Stephen Drew, is under contract to return.
Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Alex Rodriguez all plummeted late in the season, as did Mark Teixeira before he fractured his leg in mid-August. Third baseman Chase Headley, a former Gold Glove winner, made 23 errors, 10 more than his previous career high.
If the Yankees expect to win a division that is trending younger and improving, if the Boston Red Sox’s late-season surge and the Toronto Blue Jays’ second-half blitz are predictors, then they need to figure a way to keep their regular players as productive in September as they were in May.
Gardner, Rodriguez and Headley played in at least 150 games, and Ellsbury and Teixeira were on a pace to do so had they not been injured. McCann started at catcher in 119 games, his most since 2010.
Might Girardi dole out more days off? “I don’t have an answer to that yet,” he said. “A lot of times it’s really hard when you’re in a division fight and you’re trying to win your division to sit a guy who was 12 for his last 26 and had four homers and 19 RBIs. It’s really hard to sit him.”
He added, “It’s things I’m going to look at — can you do it differently and how does it work?”
Another question mark is Girardi’s relationship with Ellsbury, who has five years left on his $153 million contract but was benched for the wild-card game. Ellsbury was the only player not in the clubhouse after the loss.
“As far as fence mending, that’s to be determined, I guess, as I talk through things with all the players over the course of the winter,” said Girardi, who sat Ellsbury to get Chris Young in the lineup and moved Gardner from left field to center field. “I did what I thought was best at the time. Did it work out? No. If I played Ells, would it have been better? Would it have been three runs better? None of us know that.”
As for whether the coaching staff would return, that remained an open question as well. The New York Post and N.J.com have reported that the contracts for the bench coach, Rob Thomson; the first base coach, Tony Peña; and the hitting coach, Jeff Pentland, are expiring.
“We haven’t talked about that,” Girardi said. “I haven’t even thought about that.”
Girardi also defended his use of Betances, noting that Betances threw just five more pitches than last season, but he did not mention that Betances led the American League both seasons in pitches by a reliever. Girardi said he did not expect to so delicately handle Tanaka, who generally had five days between starts until September, and he said it was possible that Murphy, an infielder until his senior year in high school, could be used there in spot duty.
The need for a right-handed bat, evident against left-handed pitchers, including the Astros’ Dallas Keuchel, will be addressed by the return of the switch-hitting Teixeira, even though he hit only six of his 31 homers against left-handers. Girardi also did not provide Refsnyder a ringing endorsement, saying the team would examine all options. Royals second baseman Ben Zobrist, whom the Yankees declined to deal Refsnyder and Adam Warren for, will be a free agent..
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