{"id":543375,"date":"2026-01-29T02:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/543375\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:29:16","slug":"yankees-bullish-on-their-championship-caliber-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/543375\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees bullish on their ‘championship caliber’ roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the Yankees have just about the whole band back together \u2014 the one that got knocked around in an ALDS loss to the Blue Jays \u2014 exactly why will this version have a better ending than the 2025 version?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone and the player that was at the center of the Yankees reunion, Cody Bellinger, tried to explain Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the development of some young players \u2014 Cam Schlittler for one \u2014 a full season with their trade deadline acquisitions from last summer and, most of all, the expected return of Gerrit Cole in the first half of the season.<\/p>\n

Cole didn\u2019t throw a pitch last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His rehab, as well as the rehab of Carlos Rod\u00f3n, is going as expected, which is positive news in The Bronx.<\/p>\n

Will it be enough, though, to get the Yankees past the Blue Jays \u2014 not to mention the improved Orioles and up-and-coming Red Sox \u2014 to win the AL East and then have a chance to upend the mighty Dodgers in the World Series?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne series, make or break, is not gonna define what we think our capabilities are,\u201d Cashman said of the ALDS loss on a Zoom call from Tampa. \u201cWe all understand in [the] postseason, you\u2019ve got to bring your best baseball every series and if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re going home. It doesn\u2019t mean we weren\u2019t capable of great things. We just didn\u2019t get the job done in that time frame against the Toronto Blue Jays, the defending American League champs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone was similarly confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of last year, in so many ways, it\u2019s as good as I felt about our team heading into the postseason in the years I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Boone said. \u201cObviously, we got beat up in the division round. It didn\u2019t go our way. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not gonna go our way the next time. We think we\u2019re really good. That doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re gonna win 94 games again. It doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re gonna win 88. But we think we have the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

A source also told The Post\u2019s Jon Heyman the Yankees have stayed in contact with Paul Goldschmidt as a right-handed bat to give the lefty-swinging Ben Rice some protection at first, but only if the price is right. They also continue to be interested in adding more pitching, as well as possibly a right-handed outfield bat, with Randal Grichuk and Austin Slater potential candidates, according to Heyman.<\/p>\n

\"Tworian Cashman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the New York Yankees, and Aaron Boone #17 of the New York Yankees speak before game two of the American League Division Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Getty Images<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Bellinger, who signed a five-year, $162.5 million deal <\/a>with a pair of opt outs to return to The Bronx after a successful first season with the Yankees following his trade from the Cubs last offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good with that,\u201d Bellinger said of going into this year with a similar squad as a year ago. \u201cThat might not be what everyone wants to hear, but I love the group we had. We had great chemistry. I don\u2019t think that can be understood unless you\u2019re inside the clubhouse. We all played for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger triples. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Cashman, the architect, noted that there have been some alterations from a year ago, with some new arms, in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the same roster,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cWe have some players at some point returning from the IL that are important players. Gerrit Cole is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

They traded for another young reliever Wednesday, acquiring 23-year-old right-hander Angel Chivilli <\/a>from Colorado in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also internal optimism that the upgrades they made at the deadline, with bullpen arms like David Bednar and Camilo Doval, in particular, as well as potential improved defense at third base from Ryan McMahon and more depth with Amed Rosario and Jos\u00e9 Caballero will pay dividends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been openly willing to challenge anybody that we don\u2019t have a championship caliber roster [and] team,\u2019\u2019 Cashman said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s our job to try to make it better along the way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the Yankees have just about the whole band back together \u2014 the one that got knocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[1797,5,377,2554,3936,1365,4,62,185,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-543375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-aaron-boone","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-brian-cashman","13":"tag-cody-bellinger","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-toronto","18":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","19":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115976036293317522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}