TAMPA — This was the day to dream. If not today, when exactly?
This was the day, with all the players on the field — except Alfonso Soriano, out with the flu — the Yankees could see the half billion invested this offseason in one place and one time, do more than envision what all that star power looked like collectively.
Naturally, eyes gravitated to Derek Jeter because: a) He is Derek Jeter. b) He is trying to return from a twice-fractured ankle. c) He is retiring after this season. And for the smallest sample size imaginable — first day of spring — the view hardly could have been better.
Jeter was noticeably more streamlined, a purposeful decision to drop from 199 to 193 pounds to put less strain on his legs. But of greater importance was that he moved with fluidity, which never occurred last year at any time as he rushed his recovery and kept breaking down.
“It looked,” Joe Girardi said, “like he never got hurt.”
Of course, it was the first step, albeit one without a limp. There is so much to come, so much wear and tear for a middle-of-the-diamond player, approaching 40, who was relatively without range even before his left ankle burst. He is a metaphor for this team — all looks good now, but there is so much worry in so many places.
As even the uber-optimistic Girardi conceded, “I understand it is not all going to go according to plan — it never does.”
But, again, if you were not going to dream Thursday, Day 1 of full squads, when will you dream? The Red Sox pretty much had everything go right last season — seven-for-seven on free agents, payoffs from the farm system, an ideal new manager, bonhomie in the clubhouse. The reward was a rise from humiliation in 2012 to a championship in 2013.
As Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said, “After last year, we’re due for one of those where things generally fall into place.”
Brian Cashman said he does not allow himself to even think about such a possibility — “not how I am wired,” he explained. Instead, the general manager, owner and manager all have pseudo-bragged about the resilience and craftiness exhibited last year when a plague of injuries hit, the team used a franchise-record 56 players and yet stayed in wild-card contention to nearly the end of the season. It is a “we will figure it out” ethos. And that is certainly a good quality to have.
But the American League, in specific, and the AL East, in particular, look far too tough for the Yankees to believe they can paste and glue their way into 2014 contention. So if this is a day to dream, here is what I think the Yankees should dream to happen most this year:
- Jeter starts 130 games at short and Mark Teixeira 140 at first. Because the alternatives are hardly appetizing. If Jeter can hit even .275 and be steady while limited on defense and Teixeira can provide 25 homers, it stabilizes an infield that feels so uncertain today.
- Masahiro Tanaka — like, say, Orlando Hernandez — quickly gives the impression he can handle the upgrade in competition in a new forum, providing a sense he is in control of his starts in a way, say, A.J. Burnett or Hideki Irabu never truly did.
- Michael Pineda makes 25 starts, pitches like a high-end No. 3 starter and leaves no doubt the Yankees won their Jesus Montero trade with the Mariners. Just as important, the Yankees leave the 2014 season believing they can build future rotations around Tanaka, Pineda, Ivan Nova and Manny Banuelos (who shows health and promise both at Triple-A and in major league cameos).
- David Robertson can not only handle the ninth inning, but someone such as Jose Ramirez or Preston Claiborne shows himself capable of replacing Robertson as the set-up man.
- Brian McCann not only turns the short right-field porch into his personal shooting gallery, but exhibits the kind of leadership skills that show he can take the baton from Jeter and be a stabilizing force in the clubhouse for years to come.
- Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner avoid injury and use their speed to steal a few outs on defense and drive opposing pitchers to distraction on offense by combining for 90 steals.
- CC Sabathia, with distance from his elbow surgery and comfort at his lighter weight, morphs into Andy Pettitte — 200 innings of reliability on the field, steadiness in the clubhouse.
- Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano show they still have it in their late-30s, combining for 50 homers while sharing a corner-outfield slot and the DH.
- Eduardo Nunez, who blew a golden shortstop opportunity while Jeter healed last year, capitalizes on his last best chance as a Yankee by showing last September, when he had an .808 OPS and fielded superbly at third, was no fluke.
- Gary Sanchez emerges as a top-20 prospect going into the 2015 campaign and at least one from among Tyler Austin, Slade Heathcott and Mason Williams is top 40, giving some life to what has been a too-dormant Yankees system.