A year ago, the Yankees entered camp with a new manager and coaching staff, but a roster that barely differed from one they took into the 2007 playoffs. Having spent this past October at home while several of their most expensive player contracts expired (including those of Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina, and Carl Pavano), the Yankees enter spring training 2009 with a new look. Just 19 of the 25 spots on the Opening Day roster appear set, and of those 19, four are filled by players acquired this offseason, while two others are filled by players acquired at last year’s trading deadline. The 19 men who will fill those spots are:
1B – Mark Teixeira (S)
2B – Robinson Cano (L)
SS – Derek Jeter (R)
3B – Alex Rodriguez (R)
C – Jorge Posada (S)
RF – Xavier Nady (R)
LF – Johnny Damon (L)
DH – Hideki Matsui (L)
Bench:
S – Nick Swisher (OF/1B)
S – Melky Cabrera (OF)
R – Jose Molina (C)
Rotation:
L – CC Sabathia
R – Chien-Ming Wang
R – A.J. Burnett
L – Andy Pettitte
R – Joba Chamberlain
Bullpen:
R – Mariano Rivera
R – Brian Bruney
L – Damaso Marte
Even among these 19, there are battles to be waged. Xavier Nady, who was acquired along with Damaso Marte in a trade with the Pirates at last year’s deadline, enters camp as the intended successor to Bobby Abreu in right field, but Nick Swisher, acquired from the White Sox in a mid-November trade, is the superior player and seems likely to open the season as no worse than the strong-side of a right-field platoon with Nady provided he can prove in camp that his poor 2008 campaign was a fluke.
Similarly, Melky Cabrera is only among the 19 above because he’s out of options. I didn’t list him as the starting center fielder because Cabrera will spend spring training engaged trying to reclaim the middle pasture from Brett Gardner. It’s not entirely out of the question for Gardner to win that battle in a landslide and for the Yankees to spend the final weeks of spring training weighing the risks of trading or outrighting their former Center Fielder of the Future.
Thus it’s with Gardner that I begin my sixth annual look at the Yankees campers. The Yankees will fill the six vacant spots on their Opening Day roster from among the 45 players below, most likely by selecting a pair of position players (a utility infielder and either Gardner or a third catcher) and four relievers.
