New Problem Overshadows Same Old Issues For New York Yankees In 2015

By Darcy Fournier @mrdarcyfournier on October 15, 2014

The New York Yankees, fresh off their second consecutive season of failing to make the postseason, will enter the 2015 MLB season having to deal with the same old issues that have plagued the franchise since they last won it all in 2009.

Brian Cashman, having just inked a new three-year deal to remain as the team’s general manager, will once again be forced to address familiar concerns with the Yankees this coming offseason; concerns that include chronic injury, age, offensive and defensive failures and solidifying the rotation. He will be doing so without the benefit of prosperous, cultivating farm system to help him field a team capable of leading the storied franchise back to the familiar territory of October baseball.

Cashman and the 2015 New York Yankees will have to revisit the familiar playground of free agency, continuing to throw money at the plethora of issues that have plagued the franchise for years in order to contend once again.

These familiar issues pale in comparison to a new problem that looms on the horizon in 2015.

The Yankees, for the first time in decades, will enter a season with an identity crisis.

For the first time since 1920, the 2015 Yankees will field a team without a single homegrown superstar. There will be no franchise player. There will be no pinstriped icon taking the field next season. There will be no captain and possibly, for the first time in their storied history, a retired jersey will probably outsell all those on the Yankees active roster next year.

The Yankees have always been identifiable to fans and foes alike via homegrown legends in pinstripes that led them, year in and year out, decade after decade, to greatness.

The 2015 New York Yankees will be sans a true-blue, bleeding-pinstripes, homegrown legend for the first time since the 1920s when Babe Ruth – who himself was not a homegrown talent but was so iconic in pinstripes that one often forgets he came from the Boston Red Sox — was the face of the Yankees.

The Yankees have been represented and identified by homegrown talent. Legendary players such as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter — to name a few — have graced the Polo Grounds, the old Yankee Stadium and the current field of dreams.

The Yankees team next season will be the most unrecognizable one in the history of the franchise. The Yankees will present an ensemble cast of players mostly developed elsewhere and despite the few homegrown talents they do have—Brett Gardner, Dellin Betances and David Robertson—the Yankees will be without a bona-fide, active, homegrown Yankee legend on the current roster.

Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees of 2015 will be represented by some very good players; players like Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka and Brett Gardner are more than capable of leading them to victory.

They will also, more than likely, be in the conversation to add some of the best free agents available on the market next year. Names like Jon Lester, Nick Markakis, Nelson Cruz, Hanley Ramirez and Max Scherzer will be considered for, and will possibly land in, New York in 2015.

Despite those currently on the roster and those the Yankees might add to it next season, the 2015 New York Yankees, without a homegrown Jeter or DiMaggio-like legend on the team, have no distinguishable identify for fans to latch onto.

It has been a long time since Yankees fans have been forced to relate more to the stadium, the uniform and the history of the franchise than the players representing the team they love.

It’s an unnecessary curve ball, landing just off the plate and a few inches outside, tossed from the arm of a poorly managed farm system.

Darcy Fournier covers the New York Yankees for Rant Sports. Visit/subscribe him on Twitter @mrdarcyfournier and/or “like” him on Facebook.

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