The Baby Bombers will have an opportunity to live up to their moniker next season. Yankees general manger Brian Cashman expects to target pitching in the offseason rather than address a young lineup that is moving on from Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez.
"The pitching is an area of need," Cashman told reporters in a season-ending news conference Wednesday, "so the starting pitching, middle relief, setup … those are certainly going to be almost half of your roster and you have to fortify, fortify, fortify. We'll try to do that again."
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Cashman spoke for nearly an hour in assessing 2016 — "our offense was bad; we had a bad offensive team" — and detailing his approach for 2017.
The Yankees were busy at the trade deadline, dealing relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller for prospects, but the club also lost starter Nathan Eovaldi to Tommy John surgery and have the aging CC Sabathia under contract for one more season.
The good news is the Yankees can spend big; they have no major players to re-sign. The bad news is the market for free-agent starting pitching doesn't contain any big names. Notable options include Jeremy Hellickson, Ivan Nova (whom the Yankees traded to the Pirates at the deadline) and Rich Hill. On the relief side, All-Stars Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon could be available.
New York could also trade for pitching in the winter, but Cashman doesn't seem willing to part with the young talent necessary to fill holes on the staff.
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"I would be hard-pressed to do that; I think that we have spent a lot of time and effort growing to this level," Cashman said just days after his club missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. "I think we have an exciting young nucleus that's coming. Some of it has arrived, some of it's still coming, but there are some flaws in this roster still.
"(Improvement will come) from improved play from younger guys coming up through the system which had a chance to get their legs under them this year, and now being able to hopefully solidify a position moving forward and provide more consistent production from those positions that we got in 2016."
One trade option for Cashman is catcher Brian McCann, who is owed $34 million over the next two seasons and lost his starting job to slugger Gary Sanchez in August. Right fielder Aaron Judge, infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder, first baseman/outfielder Tyler Austin and first baseman Greg Bird are the early competitors to replace Beltran and Teixeira in the lineup full time.
“Every decision is designed to get us closer to being the last team standing,’’ Cashman said. “That’s the approach that’s got to be taking place. Can it happen in 2017? That’s the goal."