Opening Day 25-Man Lineup Finalized

(The most 'blah' team $220 mil can buy?  Courtesy of Getty Images)

It's not what any of us likely had in mind when Spring Training started, and that was before Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter went down.  The Yankees still have to put 25 guys in uniform for Monday, and they've scrambled to fill those gaps in the past few weeks.  Yesterday they put the finishing touches on what will be the official 25-man roster when the regular season opens tomorrow.  It's not pretty, but you already knew that.  Have a look.


Starting Lineup:

Chris Stewart- C
Lyle Overbay- 1B
Robinson Cano- 2B
Eduardo Nunez- SS
Kevin Youkilis- 3B
Vernon Wells- LF
Brett Gardner- CF
Ichiro Suzuki- RF
Travis Hafner- DH

Starting Rotation:

CC Sabathia- LHP
Hiroki Kuroda- RHP
Andy Pettitte- LHP
Ivan Nova- RHP
David Phelps- RHP

Bullpen:

Mariano Rivera- RHP
David Robertson- RHP
Boone Logan- LHP
Joba Chamberlain- RHP
Shawn Kelley- RHP
Cody Eppley- RHP
Adam Warren- RHP

Bench:

Francisco Cervelli- C
Jayson Nix- IF
Ben Francisco- OF
Brennan Boesch- OF

The Kelley-Eppely-Warren picks are the only ones that I really don't agree with.  I'd like to see Ronnier Mustelier in place of Nix, but his knee injury earlier in the week eliminated any chance of that and a case could be made for Nix based on his consistent defense.  A case really can't be made that any of those last three bullpen guys are better pitchers than the DFA'd David Aardsma, however, whether that case is being based on career numbers, recent history, or ST performance.  I thought Vidal Nuno would sneak in as the second lefty in place of Clay Rapada, so hopefully him being sent to Triple-A means the Yanks plan to keep him stretched out as a starter.  That's really the only that choosing Eppley or Warren over him makes sense.

This likely won't be the 25-man roster for very long with Phil Hughes set to return soon after the season starts.  Thinking optimistically, and in the one-game-at-a-time mindset that this year's team will really have to play with, if this group is at .500 or better when Phil comes back, that's a win.