Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Yankees decision making matrix for possible starting players in 2022.

Aaron Boone signed a new three contract today to continue managing the New York Yankees. Boone has managed the team 2018-2021. In his three full seasons, the Yankees have won these number of games: 100, 103, 92. Top Yankee executive Hal Steinbrenner is not blaming Boone for the Yankees playoff failures in recent seasons but is holding the players responsible.

This post excludes two lefty batters acquired around the trading deadline of July 31, 2021: Anthony Rizzo first base, Joey Gallo outfield. Rizzo is a free agent. Gallo is under Yankee contract through 2022. Rizzo's age: 32 years, 72 days.

The core veterans who should be considered for 2022 and beyond is limited to the six below. There is no shortstop or first baseman. Age is in years and days.

posbirthdayageage
Urshela3BFri, Oct 11, 1991308
Torres2BFri, Dec 13, 199624310
SanchezCWed, Dec 2, 199228321
JudgeRFSun, Apr 26, 199229176
StantonDHWed, Nov 8, 198931345
LeMahieu??Wed, Jul 13, 19883398

The Yankees must make these two big decisions:
- Trade Gary Sanchez.
- Sign Aaron Judge long term as he will be a free agent after 2022, his age 30 season.

Career totals below are just that, and include stats for the player's entire career, not just with the Yankees. If a cell is empty it means that the player did not play for the Yankees that season or that he played very little.

There are three sections: OPS+, Home Runs, WAR (Wins Above Replacement, which includes batting, fielding, base running).

OPS+career20212020201920182017
Urshela9996137133OPS+Urshela
Torres11493103128122OPS+Torres
Sanchez113997011989126OPS+Sanchez
Judge150149143143150171OPS+Judge
Stanton143136145138130OPS+Stanton
LeMahieu10197178136OPS+LeMahieu
HRcareer20212020201920182017
Urshela4914621HRUrshela
Torres74933824HRTorres
Sanchez1382310341833HRSanchez
Judge158399272752HRJudge
Stanton347354338HRStanton
LeMahieu95101026HRLeMahieu
WARcareer20212020201920182017
Urshela5.10.52.03.8WARUrshela
Torres7.40.80.03.03.6WARTorres
Sanchez11.70.7-0.33.11.14.0WARSanchez
Judge26.35.91.25.65.98.0WARJudge
Stanton44.03.10.60.44.4WARStanton
LeMahieu26.61.53.15.6WARLeMahieu
career20212020201920182017

The Yankees have two good shortstop prospects but each is probably at least one year away, so the Yankees need to make a fundamental decision there.

Manager Boone does not have a set lineup but plenty of work to do. And this does not even address the pitching.

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