2021 Roster Review: New York Yankees
92-70 (3rd in Division; 7th in MLB)
SP Wins: 44 (14th)
RP Wins: 48 (3rd)
Saves: 47 (6th)
1+ Save: 7 (Aroldis Chapman 30, Chad Green 6, Jonathan Loáisiga 5, Wandy Peralta 3, Lucas Luetge, Albert Abreu, Zack Britton 1)
100+ Ks: 4 (Gerrit Cole 243, Jordan Montgomery 162, Jameson Taillon 140, Nestor Cortes 103; 3 super-close ones: Green 99, Domingo Germán 98, Chapman 97)
.260+ AVG (min. 350 PA): 4 (Aaron Judge .287, Giancarlo Stanton .273, DJ LeMahieu .268, Gio Urshela .267)
65+ Runs: 2 (Judge 89, LeMahieu 84)
65+ RBI: 2 (Judge 98, Stanton 97)
10+ HRs: 10 (Judge 39, Stanton 35, Gary Sánchez 23, Rougned Odor 15, Urshela 14, Joey Gallo 13 [total: 38], Luke Voit 11, LeMahieu, Brett Gardner, Kyle Higashioka 10)
5+ SBs: 4 (Tyler Wade 17, Gleyber Torres 14, Judge 6, Greg Allen 5)
BEST BUY: Giancarlo Stanton
It felt a little odd to land on Stanton here, but he basically replicated Judge’s season and he is about 60 picks cheaper. He also regained OF eligibility after being UT-only in most formats last season. Obviously he comes with higher health risk than an average hitter, but he is still one of the strongest bets for 30 HR in a given season.
ON THE RISE: Nestor Cortes
Cortes unexpectedly found himself in the rotation from July forward and acquitted himself so well that he should remain a starter for 2022. He posted a 3.07 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 20% K-BB is 73.3 IP as a starter and showed the ability to push deeper into games with four starts of 6+ IP, two of which saw him eclipse 100 pitches. He has a starter’s pitch mix which helps him keep a neutral platoon and there is enough swing-and-miss to sustain a full season strikeout rate in the 22-25% range.
OFF THE RADAR: Miguel Andújar
A severe wrist injury limited him to just 61 games across Triple-A (16) and MLB (45). He was great in the Triple-A sample (166), but couldn’t find his pop at the big-league level and managed just an 81 wRC+ in 162 PA. I imagine the wrist played some role, though he did finish his season in Triple-A and had a .529 SLG and .205 ISO in those 40 PA. He found more loft in the minors with a 43% FB rate, 12 points higher than his MLB work. At any rate, he is 27 years old with a strong contact profile and power potential that we did see on display in his only full season back in 2018. If they move him somewhere that opens up a path to playing time, I’d keep an eye on him during Spring Training.
HOT TAKE: Gleyber Torres has a 30 HR season.
Torres just dug himself into too large a hole with the first half (.634 OPS, 3 HR in 317) so it is easy to overlook that he was pretty solid in the second half (.794 OPS, 6 HR in 199 PA). That matches his career OPS and is essentially his 2022 projection. I’m comfortable with that projection, but Baltimore still hasn’t fixed their pitching so I just need 7-8 extra HRs off the O’s pitchers to reach 30 from his projection.
ICYMI: Chad Green (10) and Jonathan Loáisiga (9) combined for 19 Wins! They were fantasy studs in all formats given their ratios, strikeouts, chip-in saves, and those wins.
“Baltimore still hasn’t fixed their pitching so I just need 7-8 extra HRs off the O’s pitchers to reach 30 from his projection”
That could totally happen. And then some. Sigh.
Gleyber Torres expectations need to be tempered until he proves that he is not the player he has shown the past 2 years. His batted ball profile hasn’t changed much since he came into the league and it looks more and more like the 2018 and 2019 juiced ball and a bit of luck helped him into a bunch of home runs he didn’t earn. He’s very consistently put up a xWOBA of .334, .334, .331, .331 in his 4 seasons. His max EV is nice, but his hard hit %, avg. exit velocity, and whiff rate are very poor. He needs to be properly valued for what he is until he demonstrates an improved approach that leads to more frequent hard contact.