Friday, April 8, 2022

You've heard of the Core Four. Well, here are the 2022 Maybe Three

No revelation, here. As Leonard Cohen said, Everybody knows that the boat is leaking; Everybody knows that the captain lied... I'm Just sayin' this, because we have an extra morning before The Crush, and we're all running out of words, eh? 

Everything that happens in 2022, for better or worse, depends on three Yankees: 

Luis Severino
Gleyber Torres
Aroldis Chapman

I won't do Wikipedia histories, or stool sample results. We all know these guys. They are old chums, A-list members of our wedding party, who will either produce rise to the moment - or end up somewhere in the NL West, in a salary dump deal that nets us a Pronk or a Zolio - look out, Scranton!

Certainly, every Yank is critical - God help us if Gerrit Cole or Aaron Judge blow out their hineys - but for these three, it's now or never... and never has never seemed so now.

Sevy must stay healthy. Gleyber must spin the dial back to 2019. El Chapo must regain the command that last year dripped in buckets from his soggy visor.

Certainly, there can be replacements. Clarke Schmidt? DJ? Jonathan Loaisiga as closer? The Yankees would move on. But along with the losses that would stem from realizing their failures, we would see a domino drop of assets throughout the system. If Loaisiga closes, who does the eighth? And the seventh...?

Three players. I suppose every team has a similar three-way: If they return to form, it's an extra, say, 15 wins. In the AL East, that could be the difference between first and last. 

So, here we go...  

3 comments:

Dantes said...

I would go Severino, Torres and Loasiga instead of Chapman as we already know Chapman won’t be back next season anyway. This season is an audition for next years closer

HoraceClarke66 said...

Very true, Duque. And Torres not even starting today.

The May-fly existence of a great Yankee hope these days:

Gary Sanchez: The next Johnny Bench, 2016-2017, traded for dregs, 2022.

Gleyber Torre: The core of the next dynasty, 2018-2019, bench player, 2022.

Dantes said...

Aaron Judge, the one bright spot, thrown under a bus by the organization for not accepting their contract offer.