In the eyes of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, penciling in Aaron Judge as next season’s starting right fielder would be premature.
But Hal Steinbrenner’s attitude toward the 24-year-old rookie appears to be a little more encouraging.
The Yankees owner spoke of Judge’s candidacy in the first part of a two-part interview with Meredith Marakovits on YES Network, expressing optimism in the young slugger’s makeup despite a lackluster two-month major league debut in 2016.
“He’s got some work to do; he knows that,” Steinbrenner said of Judge, who hit .179 with 42 strikeouts and only four home runs in 95 plate appearances. “We’re going to figure out exactly what we think is wrong. My expectations are he’s going to be my starting right fielder this year. That’s a big deal and a big opportunity. I know he’s going to make the most of it.”
Steinbrenner conveyed discontent with New York’s late September struggles, but also spoke highly of a few young Yankees who premiered this past summer, including catching phenom Gary Sanchez.
“Tough year,” Steinbrenner said. “Always disappointing when we don’t make the playoffs; that’s unacceptable quite frankly, the way we view the world. But there was a lot of hope the last two months; a lot of hope for the future, a lot of excitement. The fact that they came up, and not September call ups, but in a real pennant race where things were tight and close the entire time, really. It was the real deal for them and you can’t have a better test than that, and they responded.
“We’ve been watching Gary (Sanchez) for a lot of years now and we always knew the potential, as we did with several other players that I’m sure we’ll be talking about. But we’ve watched him progress, and it’s all gone well and he’s the real deal. He’s everything we thought he would be.”
While rumors have circulated around New York’s inclination to invest in a starting pitcher on the free-agent market, Steinbrenner hinted at the possibility that expenses could be minimal this winter, with rotation solutions made internally between a group of young arms.
“There’s going to be competition in the starting rotation, we know that,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ve got (Adam) Warren, we’ve got (Chad) Green, (Luis) Cessa, (Luis) Severino, (Bryan) Mitchell. We’ve got good options for two spots. That’s going to be pretty fun to watch, I think. It’s just great to be able to witness that, it’s great to be able to be in that situation, to have that kind of talent actually competing for one of 25 spots.”
In terms of the bullpen, however, Steinbrenner’s vote of confidence has been given to reliever Dellin Betances, who surprisingly labored over the course of September. But faith in Betances won’t necessarily shroud the Yankees’ appeal to polished free-agent closers Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen.
“Health-wise, I’m not worried at all; mentally-wise, he’s as tough as they come,” Steinbrenner said of Betances, a three-time All-Star who turns 29 in March. “I think he could be the closer; that doesn’t mean we’re not going to strengthen the bullpen in one way or another. We’ll see where he fits in, where he best ends up. We’re just starting that process, but particularly with some of the young starters we have, I think it behooves us to strengthen that bullpen and try to shorten the game a little bit.”
According to Steinbrenner, New York’s front office will “go through every possibility, trying to get a good idea of where our weaknesses are, where we can improve, and then look at our options.” The second portion of Steinbrenner’s interview will air Thursday evening on YES Network’s Yankees Hot Stove program.
