2018 Yankees: More Talent Than The Core Four

Many have compared the potential of this 2018 Yankee team to other teams in Yankee lore including the 1998 team (for which we will celebrate its 20th anniversary this season) and even the 1927 Murderer’s Row team.  But Willie Randolph, the New York Yankees spring training special instructor and 1977-78 World Championship second baseman took this premise one step further.  “I really can’t say I’ve seen anything like it,” Randolph said Saturday. “I was around when the Core Four was here. I saw that mix. And I think there’s more overall talent here than when that team was coming together,” reported the NY Daily News.  Now that’s taking it up a notch.

“It’s impressive. And with some of the established guys to take the pressure off, I really like the mix of this team. They’re going to be fun to watch,” said Randolph.  So, if the anticipation for the start of the season wasn’t enough after this long winter’s drought, we have Randolph giving us even more of a reason to be excited.

Last year’s team, which wasn’t supposed to do much, scored 858 runs, second only to the Houston Astros and this was without powerhouse Giancarlo Stanton.  Let your mind wander how many runs we could potentially score in 2018 with Stanton, Aaron Judge, Miguel Andujar, Brandon Drury, Gleyber Torres and newly acquired Adam Lind.  The Yankees are stacked, so opponents beware. The 1998 team scored 965 runs and the 2009 team 915 runs.  The belief is that the 2018 team could score more runs than each of these two teams.  They were both young teams that worked together cohesively and weren’t “me”kids but rather “us” kids, something that Randolph pointed out with the 2018 team.

“These young guys have all been brought up in the organization in a way where I don’t hear a lot of “me,” said Randolph.  This type of collaborative culture is evidenced by Judge’s humble presence and the team’s thumbs down cheer in 2017.

Could the 2018 Yankees be better than the Core Four who were much more than hitting, but stellar pitching too?  The talent and potential are there.  All that’s left is execution.

–Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof