For the New York Yankees, the Pending Offseason is a Vital One

The New York Yankees, one of the premier teams in the American League during the 2019 regular season, were officially eliminated last night, following a 6-4 win by the Houston Astros, courtesy of Jose Altuve's go-ahead 2-run home run during the bottom of the ninth inning. For the Yankees, the regular season was a success, but ending the postseason in the fashion they did, spells trouble for the team, the front office, and the franchise as a whole.

For the first time in a decade since the 1910s, the Yankees will not be playing in the Fall Classic, which is a true testament and sign of where the franchise currently is. While the team played an impressive brand of baseball during the 2019 regular season and overcame injury after injury right from the start, a season is not successful in terms of the Yankees fanbase, unless it results in the team winning the American League pennant and advancing to the World Series.

This year's New York Yankees squad was one that was once again built around a potent offense that had the ability to take over the lead of a game with one swing of a bat and a pitching staff that was good, but not necessarily great. In fact, the Yankees starting pitching was ultimately their downfall this season and during the postseason, which makes it all the more pressing for the team coming up this offseason to address that area of their roster and make a substantial upgrade or two to it.

When you look at the pitching staff amongst the other 29 teams in baseball, the New York Yankees finished the 2019 regular season fourteenth overall in ERA at (4.31) over 1443.0 innings of work with (1,534) strikeouts, an Opponent Batting Average Against of (.248), and a WHIP of (1.30). In terms of ERA, that put them right behind this year's National League pennant winners, the Washington Nationals, and slightly ahead of the San Francisco Giants for comparisons sake. While the Yankees pitching staff finished fifth in strikeouts, their Opponent Batting Average Against was closer to league average (.251) and that makes the overall results less impressive.

From a strikeout perspective, it's fair to assume that many of those strikeouts likely came from the bullpen, but the overall results of the Yankees relievers weren't necessarily that impressive either. As a unit, the Yankees bullpen concluded the 2019 regular season with a (4.08) ERA over 664.2 innings pitched with (750) strikeouts, an Opponent Batting Average Against of (.242), and an Opponent Slugging Percentage of (.411). In terms of where that stacked up amongst the other 29 teams in the game, it put the Yankees bullpen ninth in ERA, fifth in strikeouts, twelfth in Opponent Batting Average Against, and eleventh in Opponent Slugging Percentage.

For a bullpen that has been added to tremendously over the past few seasons, it wasn't the type of results that the Yankees expected and some of those blemishes started to show during the month of October with the performance of Adam Ottavino and the eventual blown hold by Aroldis Chapman, during last night's Game Six to hold things over, into extra innings. However, on the whole when you look at the pitching staff, the bigger issues lie within the starting rotation compared to the bullpen and that's where a heavy investment needs to be made by General Manager and Senior Vice President, Brian Cashman, and his staff this offseason.

Given the fact that the Yankees have made the playoffs four of the last five seasons, with the exception of 2016, and considering where many of the players are in terms of overall performance in their development cycle at the big league level, it's time for the Yankees front office to be bold and make a significant investment or two. Granted, it's going to depend on how much money Hal Steinbrenner and family are willing to add to the books, but that commitment and investment needs to be there by both ownership and the front office, if the team wants to make it back to the postseason next October and potentially vie for a World Series Championship.

In terms of the overall performance in their development life cycle at the big league level, the players on the Yankees 25-man roster have now been playing at the big league level for a couple of seasons now. They are no longer the Baby Bombers and that can no longer be used as an excuse. In addition, Aaron Boone has now been at the realm for two seasons and will be going into his third next year, which means that the pressure will likely be even higher for him as both the front office and the Yankees fanbase expect more. Sure, Aaron Boone will probably win the American League Manager of the Year Award for how well he did managing the team despite several key injuries throughout the entire course of the season, but as mentioned in the beginning of this article, nothing is considered successful in Yankees terms unless it results in the team winning the American League pennant and advancing onto the World Series.

Therefore, now that all of that has been laid out, the question then becomes: who should the primary targets be for the Yankees front office this offseason and how big of a priority should those targets be? Well, for starters, the front office needs to seriously consider investing money in one of the significant free agent starting pitchers available on the market. There are plenty of attractive options available, but none is going to be more attractive than RHP Gerrit Cole. Cole had a phenomenal season for the Houston Astros this year and continues to prove this month how dominant and valuable he can be for any team that signs him this coming offseason.

Among all qualified starting pitchers in baseball during the 2019 regular season, Cole finished the year with the third highest ERA (2.50), second in Fielding Independent Percentage (2.64), third in innings pitched (212.1), and first overall in strikeouts-per-9 at (13.82). For Cole, he doesn't really have a track record to base his potential success of pitching at Yankee Stadium off of, but he has made one career start there where he posted a (4.50) ERA over 6 innings of work and held opponents to a cumulative slash line of: .304/.360/.522. Whether or not he could handle the pressure that comes along with pitching in New York City or if he even would prefer to be a part of the Yankees pitching staff, remains to be seen, but it should be Plan A for the Yankees and their front office.

If Gerrit Cole ends up becoming a non-option for New York, then Plan B still needs to focus around one of the other attractive names on the free agent starting pitching market in LHP Madison Bumgarner and/or RHP Stephen Strasburg, should he elect to opt-out of the remaining four-years and $100 million dollars that he has left on his current deal with the aforementioned, Washington Nationals. Both Bumgarner and Strasburg would be pleasant Plan B options for any team in need of starting pitching and both have proven that they can handle the big stage pitching in markets like San Francisco and Washington DC as well as in the postseason.

One selling point for Stephen Strasburg, should he end up opting-out, is the fact that he is coming off a season in which he threw a career high (209) innings and posted the second highest amount of strikeouts at (251) over his ten-year big league career. Strasburg would give the Yankees another right-handed option for their rotation and could slot in very nicely at the top at this team's workhorse. On the other hand, if the Yankees prefer a left-handed starting pitcher, then Madison Bumgarner is going to be their best option. Bumgarner, who matched a career high (34) games started during the 2019 regular season, ended the year with a (3.90) ERA, a (3.90) FIP and an (8.8) strikeouts-per-9 rate over 207.2 innings of work. The only drawback would be that Bumgarner turned 30-years old this past August and as teams have shown over the past couple of years, that is considered "old" in some regard.

Either way, those three individuals need to be the top targets of the New York Yankees front office and if the front office fails to land one of those names or doesn't want to commit to the dollars involved, then it needs to turn to Plan C which should be to focus on the next group of free agent starting pitchers. Within that realm of pitching, the biggest names that stand out are left-handers Dallas Keuchel and Hyun-Jin Ryu along with right-handers Tanner Roark and Jake Odorizzi. The only problem with this realm is the fact that some of those names are going to be upgrades over what the Yankees currently have, while others will only be a slight upgrade and might not necessarily make the team's starting rotation that much better.

If Brian Cashman and Company still are unable to make a deal or don't like those names, then it's time for them to turn to the trade market and survey the market to see what might be available. Depending on what the Arizona Diamondbacks end up doing this offseason, someone like LHP Robbie Ray might be available. There's been interest by the Yankees with Ray, as recent as this year's July 31st Trade Deadline, and Ray would give the Yankees a high strikeout starter, but a guy that does have a history of walking a lot of batters. Other trade options include: LHP Danny Duffy of the Kansas City Royals, LHP Matt Boyd of the Detroit Tigers, and RHP Trevor Bauer of the Cincinnati Reds.

Although, once again with those trade targets as is the case with the Plan C group of free agent starting pitchers, the biggest question is going to be: are those individuals better than what the New York Yankees currently possess and would they be worth giving up the prospect capital to acquire? For the Yankees, that has been a significant question mark for them over the past few years, both during the offseason and prior to the July 31st Trade Deadline, when the team's front office is surveying the market and looking at every potential option available. It could once again play a big part in the Yankees front office decision making process again this offseason and it will be something to watch.

Additionally, if the New York Yankees front office led by Brian Cashman feel as though none of the names mentioned in this piece are worth any type of investment, then the team could ultimately decide to focus on bulking up the bullpen once again or potentially adding another bat to their already offensive-heavy lineup. In recent history, there have been teams that have taken this approach especially since the Kansas City Royals made bullpenning a thing back during their run in 2015, which ultimately led to a World Series Championship. Brian Cashman & Company could do the same thing and hope that by having an even deeper bullpen, it would take away some of the struggles of their good, but not great starting rotation that the team currently possesses.

Furthermore, if the New York Yankees were to ignore pitching altogether and look for another substantial position player to add to the mix, then the thinking would be that the team could hopefully score more runs than their opponent and win ball games that way. Of the three options available, this one seems to be the least likely because the Yankees already have a talented group of position players and quite a bit of pop in their everyday lineup. However, for conversation purposes, let's assume that the Yankees decide to invest in one of the free agent starting pitchers mentioned in Plan A, B, or to a lesser degree Plan C and turn to the free agent position player market for a significant upgrade as well.

Of this year's free agent class, the name that would stand out the most would be 3B Anthony Rendon. Rendon is going to cost upwards of $240 million dollars or more and will likely command a deal between six and eight years, but this is one way the Yankees could add a substantial amount of offense to their everyday lineup and give themselves another option regarding the future of current third baseman, Gio Urshela, and more certainty about the status of third baseman, Miguel Andujar, and his right shoulder which sidelined him for the entire 2019 regular season. If this were to happen, Urshela could be packaged in a deal for one of the aforementioned starting pitchers on the trade market or a reliever that the Yankees could target among the other 29 teams.

There's no guarantee that the Yankees owernship, led by Hal Steinbrenner or their front office, would want to make a substantial position player investment with someone like Anthony Rendon, but it's an intriguing topic of conversation and one that could bare some watching this offseason. Despite that being an attractive option, other options on the free agent market that the Yankees could target are 3B Josh Donaldson, OF Marcell Ozuna, OF Yasiel Puig, or attempt to resign SS Didi Gregorious instead.  Gregorious has been an integral part of recent Yankees teams and there's no reason to think that the team won't push hard to resign him and ensure that he is part of the mix moving forward.

What the New York Yankees front office ends up doing this offseason remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain and thats the fact that Brian Cashman & Company need to have a very aggressive plan heading into the offseason this year, if they want the Yankees to play in October come next year. If the team fails to address it's starting rotation to some degree and make a significant investment or two this winter, then it's only going to dampen the mood amongst the Yankees fanbase and prevent them from staying committed to the original pillars of the franchise, which were to always field a competitive team and do everything possible to win a World Series Championship year in and year out.