And so it goes... the Yankees likely have developed a plan for their off-season that should address their weaknesses. First, they need to find a number one pitcher who can be relied upon to end losing streaks and who can give innings, as Yankee starters did not go deep into games this season, resulting in the over-use of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller with the former showing signs of weakness as evidenced by his incredibly high walk rate (4.3BB/9IP). Options include Zach Grienke, who will likely win the NL Cy Young award and David Price, who has an outside chance of garnering Cy Young honors in the American League. Cheaper options include Marco Estrada, who gave the Blue Jays a great season, John Lackey, Jeff Samardzija, among others. The most likely player to sign with the Yankees is Jordan Zimmermann, who finished the season in Washington with a 3.66 ERA in 33 starts, over 200 innings pitched and 22 quality starts. Also, he will be 29 when the 2016 season begins, meaning that he will likely demand a seven year contract to get him signed and I believe the Yankees will be willing to go that far for a pitcher who is still in his prime.I can see the Yankees being aggressive on the starting pitching front given their weaknesses in the rotation throughout the 2015 season. At one point, all of their starters were on the disabled list and none of them could be counted on for a consistently dominant effort, although there were flashes of brilliances sprinkled throughout some starts by Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka. Severino is the only bright spot in the rotation, as he is a key to the Yankees future success. He exceeded expectations since he arrived from Scranton and only had one blip against the Blue Jays where he gave up six runs in two innings earlier in September. CC Sabathia has his issues, and cannot be counted upon to be a reliable pitcher in 2016 given his age and wear, and Ivan Nova will likely be flipped this offseason for a decent right-handed bat if the Yankees could include him in a package.
The Yankees would do anything to get out from under Ellsbury's putrid contract, to which he is still committed to for five seasons (through 2020). They would like a right handed bat in the outfield to take Beltran's place after his contract ends following the 2016 season, which will likely mean that star prospect Aaron Judge will be ready to take over the right field spot, with better defense and a promising bat. If the Yankees want to package Ellsbury and eat most of his contract (which will be very tough to do), they would likely go after a Yoenis Cespedes type of player who can put fear into the opposing pitcher's eyes. However, I see this as a very unlikely scenario unless they can offload the contract of Jacoby Ellsbury.
Whatever the Yankees do this year, they will address the issues. They do not necessarily need to make a splash in the free agent market, but instead may be able to pull off some trades that are unexpected, similar to last year when they traded for RHP Nathan Eovaldi and SS Didi Gregorius who turned out to be big players for the Yankees.
You just never know what the Yankees will do, but you do know they will not sit on their hands while issues need to be addressed . This is why they are the Yankees; they will do whatever it takes to put a competitive team on the field and give their fan base something to cheer for.
