QUESTIONS FOR ’16
Ellsbury heads list of Yanks who must improve
The Yankees’ rallying cry toward the end of the regular season and even after they sleepwalked through their wildcard loss to the Astros was that no one expected them even to make the postseason.
“We were picked to finish last in the division,” Jacoby Ellsbury said before the last game of the regular season in Baltimore. “But we overcame a lot of adversity.”
Fine. But much of that was selfinflicted because of subpar seasons from some highpriced players. If the Yankees are going to make it back to the playoffs in 2016, they likely will need bounceback seasons from several players, like they got in 2015 from Alex Rodriguez, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira (before he went down with a fractured leg).
At the top of the list could be Ellsbury, who has not looked like a $153 million player for much of his two years in The Bronx.
He was limited to 111 games, mostly due to a sprained right knee, and saw his production fall off dramatically following the injury.
While he showed flashes of the dynamic playmaking skill that attracted the Yankees to him two offseasons ago, he finished with a middling .663 OPS. For perspective, even though Ellsbury fell one plate appearance short of qualifying, his OPS put him between struggling Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus (.667) and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, both of whom had a .660 OPSand are known primarily for their defense.
“The knee was my only issue this year,” Ellsbury said. “[In 2014], I was pretty much out there all the time. But I don’t judge my success by looking at individual numbers. I look at it by what happens in the postseason.”
Ellsbury ended up being benched in the wildcard game and wasn’t used until the Yankees were down by three runs in the eighth when he popped to short as a pinch hitter.
The Yankees also made a significant investment last offseason to keep Chase Headley around, and he responded with one of his worst seasons.
Of the 20 third basemen who played enough to qualify, only the Red Sox’s Pablo Sandoval (.658) finished with a worse OPS than Headley’s .693.
On defense, Headley was nexttolast of the 20 qualifying third basemen with a .946 fielding percentage.
He will turn 32 in May while hoping to regain the form he showed when he came to the Yankees before the 2014 trade deadline from the Padres.
In addition to seeing how CC Sabathia pitches after un dergoing alcohol rehab and with a right knee that’s not going to get better, the Yankees also will have their fingers crossed for Masahiro Tanaka.
He was dominant at times, but the Yankees didn’t cough up $175 million for 22 starts a year and a 3.54 ERA, which is what the righthander has offered since coming to the majors.
“I don’t think I was able to meet any expectations,” Tanaka said through an interpreter after giving up two homers in the wildcard loss. “I still feel I have a lot of work to do to get better. I’ll try not to forget this bad moment I’m having right now and try to turn this into a positive experience for future.”
The Cardinals Adam Wainwright, pitching with a small UCL tear in his elbow, performed at a high level until the ligament blew out and he had to have Tommy John surgery. Tanaka is still trying to pitch through his own small UCL tear.
Even AllStar Dellin Betances, though his final numbers were excellent, showed worrying signs toward the end of 2015.
In his last 18 games of the regular season, he pitched a total of 20 innings and allowed 33 base runners (18 hits, 14 walks and a hit by pitch). He also gave up four homers, compared to two the rest of the season, and batters had a .834 OPS against him during that stretch.
Betances finished his season by giving up an insurance run to the Astros in the wildcard game, but consistently said he didn’t feel overworked.