New York Yankees Offseason Moves

Was it irony or just a coincidence that the year that the New York Yankees are under the supervision of someone other than Joe Torre, they miss the playoffs. That's one question we will never know. Joe Torre had been the man calling shots for the Yankees for the last decade and a half. However, because of the stubbornness of the Steinbrenner family they couldn't bring Joe back to New York for one more season. The Yankees hadn't missed the playoffs in all the years that Torre was manager. The new man the Yankees brought in, Joe Girardi, had coached the Florida Marlins and found success taking a team with practically no payroll and turning them into a relative contender. Girardi's first year in pinstripes was a huge failure for the Yankees. With big time injuries the Yankees failed to make the playoffs in 2008. During the off-season, Hank Steinbrenner made sure that the Yankees would contend in 2009. He spent over 450 million dollars to bring in C.C. Sabbathia, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, A.J. Burnett and many others. Sabbathia, who won the American League Cy Young award in 06, had an unbelievable year for the Brewers last year in the 2nd half. He led the Brew Crew to a rare Playoff birth in 2008. Mark Teixeira, who is considered by many as the best young first basemen in baseball, has put up great numbers in Texas and Atlanta in the past two seasons. In Teixeira, the Yankees have an all-star first basemen for many years to come. Teixeira and Sabbathia are only two of the many excellent players that the Yankees brought in this off-season. In my opinion, the Yankees had one of the best off-seasons in MLB history and for that I have given the Yankees an off-season grade of an A+. Whether this means that the Yankees are going to play like they did in the mid 90's is to be seen.

Yankees off-season grade- A+

Josh Jakers

NYchalktalk.com