A Quick Look At The Current 25-Man Roster

There was no shortage of needs for the Yankees heading into the offseason, and there's been no shortage of activity on their part to address those needs.  In less than 3 weeks, they've spent $307 million to upgrade at catcher (Brian McCann), the outfield (Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran), the infield (Kelly Johnson, Brendan Ryan), and the rotation (Hiroki Kuroda).  Losing Robinson Cano to Seattle was a big blow to their rebuild plan, but they continue to move forward without him and try to find a way to replace his lost production.

With the Winter Meetings coming and passing without any new developments this week, it's as good a time as any to stop for a minute and evaluate what the Yankee 25-man roster would look like if the regular season started today.


Starting Lineup:

1) Ellsbury- CF
2) Derek Jeter- SS
3) Beltran- RF
4) McCann- C
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Alfonso Soriano- DH
7) Johnson- 2B
8) Eduardo Nunez- 3B
9) Brett Gardner- LF

Starting Rotation:

1) CC Sabathia
2) Kuroda
3) Ivan Nova
4) David Phelps
5) Michael Pineda

Bullpen:

1) David Robertson
2) Shawn Kelley
3) Preston Claiborne
4) Adam Warren
5) Cesar Cabral
6) Dellin Betances
7) David Huff

Bench:

C) Francisco Cervelli
OF) Ichiro Suzuki
OF) Vernon Wells
IF) Brendan Ryan

Does that team make the playoffs in 2014?  Nope.  The rotation still needs another above-average arm at least, the bullpen needs help, and the second/third base positions need to be addressed so guys like Johnson and Nunez can be bumped to the bench where they belong.  It's a good start, but as everybody has been saying since the minute the McCann signing was reported, there's still a lot of work to do.