Yankees 2020 Season Preview
Ready to check out our 2020 New York Yankees predictions? New York won 103 games last season but was stopped again by Houston in the American League Championship Series. It dealt the latest blow in the offseason, however, when it signed Houston’s ace Gerrit Cole.
MLB Yankees Predictions & Handicapping Insight
The odds on New York are incredibly short. Los Angeles in the National League is the only team with shorter odds in the futures market.
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Boston dumped Mookie Betts and may be on a decline. It also could bounce-back with the talent that remains. And Tampa Bay is stronger than most second favorites.
2020 MLB Team Previews – New York Yankees
- New York Yankees 2020 American League East Odds: -500
- New York Yankees 2020 American League Odds: +125
- New York Yankees 2020 World Series Odds: +350
Key Additions:
- Gerrit Cole
The Yankees made Cole both the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history and the highest-paid player in the game, currently, on a per-season basis. Cole is inked to a 9-year deal worth $324 million, or $36 million per season.
He was the best pitcher in the game last season and should have won his first Cy Young. Instead, he narrowly lost out to his teammate Justin Verlander but went on to pitch better than Verlander in the playoffs. He won a critical Game 3 of the ALCS at Yankees Stadium last year.
Last season, the concern was New York didn’t have an ace to fall back on. Cole remedies this problem and will be in charge of holding down an uncertain staff after him.
Key Losses:
- Didi Gregorius
- Dellin Betances
- Edwin Encarnacion
New York lost all three of the players named above to free-agency: Gregorius to Philadelphia, Betances to the Mets, and Encarnacion to the White Sox.
It’s hard to believe Gregorius spent five years in New York and was the guy who immediately succeeded Derek Jeter. His two best seasons came in 2017 and 2018. Last season, he failed to even put up an OPS+ over 90 in roughly half a season.
Betances only faced two batters in 2019. Encarnacion was not particularly productive, either.
2020 New York Yankees Predictions: Projected Lineup:
- DJ LeMahieu 2B
- Aaron Judge OF
- Gleyber Torres SS
- Giancarlo Stanton OF
- Gary Sanchez C
- Luke Voit 1B
- Gio Urshela 3B
- Mike Tauchman OF
- Miguel Andujar DH
Neither Stanton nor Judge would have been ready for the scheduled Opening Day but both may be long ready for when the new Opening Day, which will help New York avoid having to survive on depth for a second year in a row; though it did it remarkably well in 2019.
The performances of Urshela and LeMahieu, along with the return of Andujar, gave the Yankees the option not to pay Gregorius and let Torres takeover full-time at shortstop.
The power is fearsome in a healthy lineup. It’s hard to imagine any other team in baseball matching the Yankees’ muscle.
2020 New York Yankees Predictions: Projected Rotation:
- Gerrit Cole
- Masahiro Tanaka
- James Paxton
- JA Happ
- Jordan Montgomery
- Jonathan Loaisiga
Tanaka has been a model of consistency and was an All-Star for the first time since his rookie season in 2014. He makes an ideal second starter on a team with World Series aspirations like the Yankees.
Things get dicey from there. Let’s all hope Coronavirus goes away before Luis Severino returns. He will miss all of 2020 and even part of 2021 after Tommy John Surgery.
Remember, he missed just about all of last season before coming back to throw 12 regular season innings and then two playoff starts.
James Paxton hopes to be ready to pitch in the big leagues some time in May, which means he likely won’t miss any time. His performance is the bigger question; he wasn’t good in his first season as a Yankee in 2019.
2020 New York Yankees Predictions: Projected Closer:
- Aroldis Chapman
Chapman will continue to be one of the best closers in the game, long as he remains healthy. Just about all of New York’s league-leading bullpen remains from last season.
2020 New York Yankees Predictions: 96 wins and 1st in the AL East (Bet Now at any of our reviewed MLB Sportsbooks!)
There is just so much power in this lineup and few teams will benefit more from a delayed Opening Day than New York, which should have Judge, Stanton and Paxton all healthy to start the regular season, whenever that is.
A terrific 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation and enough arms to fill in the slots at the back will be enough pitching behind this offense. The regular season will be New York’s but a division or pennant bet just doesn’t offer enough of a return to make sense.
What do you think of our 2020 New York Yankees predictions? Comments are welcome below.
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