Hello everyone and welcome to February. We\u2019re trying out something new this month with \u201cToday on Pinstripe Alley\u201d in alignment with many of our fellow SB Nation sites. Instead of getting two occasionally random questions per day at the end of the Today on PSAs, we\u2019ll be choosing one and offering our own answers before turning it over to you all for discussion. We\u2019ll still be detailing what\u2019s ahead on the docket at PSA, but the goal here is to really engage on something of note, so let\u2019s see what happens!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no time to waste! So what\u2019s the strongest reason to believe this Yankees season won\u2019t be a waste? I think there\u2019s a number of ways to approach this. There\u2019s the very obvious, and that\u2019s the 6-foot-7, three-time AL MVP who patrols right field for the Yankees. Anytime you get to pencil Aaron Judge into a lineup, you feel like good things will follow.<\/p>\n
The only time the Yanks have missed the playoffs since he broke out as a rookie in 2017 was when the Dodger Stadium outfield fence rudely interrupted another MVP-caliber campaign in 2023. They\u2019ve been one of the last four teams standing in four of those eight seasons, and while the rest of the team wasn\u2019t as sharp last October, Judge was en fuego, shaking off some playoff doldrums. He\u2019ll be another year older in 2026, but it\u2019s not as though 34 is ancient; former teammate Paul Goldschmidt didn\u2019t win his first career MVP until his age-34 season in 2022. Judge can absolutely be as good again, or at least at a highly impressive level.<\/p>\n
One player cannot make a team though (ask the Angels). And yet for as much as I would\u2019ve liked to see the Yankees do more this offseason to bolster their championship odds and better safeguard them from potentially ruinous injuries, it\u2019s still a very good ballclub. They have flaws, but ask an opposing fan if their own preferred team has any flaws; trust me, they\u2019ll be sure to find \u2018em! (Yes, even on the Dodgers.) The Yankees\u2019 offense easily led the majors last year with 274 homers, and non-Judge players still combined for 221 bombs, which would\u2019ve still ranked six without Judge. Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Giancarlo Stanton, and Ben Rice all provided hefty support, and for as frustrating as the \u201crun it back\u201d approach is in some aspects, that\u2019s not really the case for the offense. They should rake again, and for as uneasy as fans were with the non-Gerrit Cole pitching staff last year, they still recorded more strikeouts than every AL team outside of Houston \u2014 and Cole will rejoin them eventually.<\/p>\n
Is this the rose-colored glasses view? Perhaps, but hope springs eternal. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n