Yankees Just Got Deeper

Everybody who follows baseball knows that the New York Yankees are all about one thing: winning. That's what they do. Some people aren't happy with some of the methods the Yanks use to go about it, but the team does what it has to do in order to be able to win. This year, New York has been a first place team in the American League East with a lot of their regulars out of the lineup due to injury. Not only are the Yankees starting to get those players back into the lineup, they just added another big weapon to that offense. Who is it? AL home run leader Edwin Encarnacion. What does it mean?

New York just shipped minor league pitcher Juan Then and cash to the Seattle Mariners for Edwin Encarnacion, who leads the American League with 21 home runs. He joins an outfield that will soon see a return of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Talk about a murders row of slugging outfielders. He can play outfield when need be, but reports are that Edwin will become the DH. What does this mean for the Bombers now? Well, Luke Voit will handle first base, which will mean DJ LeMahieu will possibly have playing time at third base. Stanton will play left field, whicih means that Brett Gardner is going to get moved around, and so will Judge. It does hurt Clint Fraiser, who's been hitting pretty well and getting better, but he looks to be the odd man out here.

What does adding a guy like Encarnacion do to the lineup?

It was tough enough trying to pitch to the lineup as is. Gio Urshela, Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit and Brett Gardner have all been hitting pretty well this year. You add in Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stantion to that lineup, when they come back and find their swing again, it's going to make things even harder. It's turning into one big whopping after another. Now Edwin is 36 years old and has recorded 100 or more strikeouts each of the last three years (he's already at 55 K's with Seattle through 65 games). Just a food for thought.

Sure, this team can hit, but it might not be such a bad idea for Cahsman to consider going out to get an arm. As a team, the Yankees have a 4.07 ERA, well below the MLB average of 4.45 ERA. But they only have 22 quality starts, which ranks 12th in the AL, and 22nd in the majors. The starters are banged up. James Paxton just came back from injury, Luis Severino is MIA and still out with injury (and there's no way to know which one your going to get when he does come back from the injury), and oh yeah, CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka have struggled. The pen has been solid, but going after another arm might help more than getting a bat.

Sure the offense is now loaded, now lets just see if they can keep pace and maybe even pull away from the Rays in the division.