Written by Jonah Keri at CBSSports.com
These are not your father’s New York Yankees. Hell, they’re not even your slightly older brother’s New York Yankees.
The team that spent megabucks on Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann, CC Sabathia, and Jacoby Ellsbury is no more. A-Rod, Teixeira, and McCann are done, while Sabathia and Ellsbury are nine-figure bit players. In their stead, the era of the Baby Bombers is upon us.
The emergence of rookie planet-crusher Gary Sanchez after the All-Star break last season marked the start of the new phase of Yankees baseball. When Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge crushed back-to-back homers in their first major league at-bats on a sunny August afternoon in the Bronx, the possibilities seemed limitless.
Now, Sanchez slots in as the Yankees’ number-three hitter, the linchpin of the lineup despite having just 55 big league games under his belt (and despite the fact that teams shouldn’t bat their best hitters third). Greg Bird will be his left-swinging middle-of-the-order running mate. Judge starts the season as the everyday right fielder. Austin will miss the start of the season with a fracture in his foot, but figures to make an impact later this year. For Joe Girardi, the formula for handling all those kids is simple.
“Patience is important,” said the Yankees manager. “Probably the biggest reason is so they’re not looking over their shoulder wondering, ‘Is this my last at bat? If I don’t get a hit today, am I going down? If I don’t play good defense, am I not going to play for three or four days?’ So that’s where the patience comes in. It’s important that you build their confidence.”
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