Hello everyone and welcome to February. We’re trying out something new this month with “Today on Pinstripe Alley” in alignment with many of our fellow SB Nation sites. Instead of getting two occasionally random questions per day at the end of the Today on PSAs, we’ll be choosing one and offering our own answers before turning it over to you all for discussion. We’ll still be detailing what’s ahead on the docket at PSA, but the goal here is to really engage on something of note, so let’s see what happens!
There’s no time to waste! So what’s the strongest reason to believe this Yankees season won’t be a waste? I think there’s a number of ways to approach this. There’s the very obvious, and that’s the 6-foot-7, three-time AL MVP who patrols right field for the Yankees. Anytime you get to pencil Aaron Judge into a lineup, you feel like good things will follow.
The only time the Yanks have missed the playoffs since he broke out as a rookie in 2017 was when the Dodger Stadium outfield fence rudely interrupted another MVP-caliber campaign in 2023. They’ve been one of the last four teams standing in four of those eight seasons, and while the rest of the team wasn’t as sharp last October, Judge was en fuego, shaking off some playoff doldrums. He’ll be another year older in 2026, but it’s not as though 34 is ancient; former teammate Paul Goldschmidt didn’t win his first career MVP until his age-34 season in 2022. Judge can absolutely be as good again, or at least at a highly impressive level.
One player cannot make a team though (ask the Angels). And yet for as much as I would’ve liked to see the Yankees do more this offseason to bolster their championship odds and better safeguard them from potentially ruinous injuries, it’s still a very good ballclub. They have flaws, but ask an opposing fan if their own preferred team has any flaws; trust me, they’ll be sure to find ‘em! (Yes, even on the Dodgers.) The Yankees’ offense easily led the majors last year with 274 homers, and non-Judge players still combined for 221 bombs, which would’ve still ranked six without Judge. Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Giancarlo Stanton, and Ben Rice all provided hefty support, and for as frustrating as the “run it back” approach is in some aspects, that’s not really the case for the offense. They should rake again, and for as uneasy as fans were with the non-Gerrit Cole pitching staff last year, they still recorded more strikeouts than every AL team outside of Houston — and Cole will rejoin them eventually.
Is this the rose-colored glasses view? Perhaps, but hope springs eternal. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
Today on the site, Matt will celebrate a very familiar Yankee second baseman’s birthday as part of our ongoing series and Peter will look into pitcher Nick Martinez as a free agent addition, given the recent news of the Yankees’ possible interest in the erstwhile Reds righty. Later, John will present the weekly Social Media Spotlight.
