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With Opening Day rapidly approaching, the New York Yankees find themselves looking to win their 28th World Series—by far the most of any MLB franchise.

How realistic a goal is that? Well, that’s what I’m here to help you figure out.

Over the course of this article I’ll give you everything you need to know about the Bronx Bombers in 2015, including previews of the lineup, rotation and bullpen, as well as prospects to watch, predictions for the season’s opening series and more.

The Yankees are projected to win 80 games this season, according to the latest PECOTA win projections posted by Baseball Prospectus, but there’s room for them to fall short, and also to exceed those rather modest projections.

I guess that’s to say that this season of Yankee baseball is going to be very interesting, so allow me to break it all down for you.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Not long ago, second base for the New York Yankees was as stable, consistent and productive as any position on any team in Major League Baseball. These days, it’s anything but.

The keystone has become a key question mark for the Yankees ever since Robinson Cano—the last true star position player the club has drafted and developed—surprisingly up and left for the Seattle Mariners as a free agent in December of 2013.

From 2005, his rookie campaign, through 2013, Cano registered a .309/.355/.504 triple-slash line and averaged just shy of 23 homers and just north of 90 RBI a season. He also played—get this—at least 159 games every year from 2007 through 2013.

By comparison, in their first year post-Cano, here’s what the Yankees got out of their second basemen—an aging, injury-prone, past-their-prime conglomeration of, among others, Brian Roberts, Stephen Drew, Martin Prado and Brendan Ryan: .246/.303/.390 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI.

Combined.

Seeking a mulligan for that, New York brought back Drew on a cheap, one-year, $5 million deal to see if the 32-year-old nine-year veteran can do better than his ghastly .150/.219/.271 Yankees line now that he’ll have a full spring training under him.

Manager Joe Girardi already has declared Drew the starting second sacker.

“Our plan is for it to be Stephen,” Girardi said, via Erik Boland of Newsday. “We signed him to be our second baseman.”

But it’s not as if the franchise is counting on Drew to be the long-term answer at the position. The Yankees still are seeking Cano’s replacement.

This year and, especially, going forward, the Yankees have to be wondering who—or what—is on second?

That’s where prospects Robert Refsnyder and Jose Pirela come in as candidates who are nearly ready to be big leaguers and who at least present the possibility of handling second base for years to come.

Refsnyder, who is not yet on the 40-man roster, is a soon-to-be 24-year-old righty hitter and thrower who started to come into his own in 2014. He batted .318/.387/.497 while splitting his season between Double- and Triple-A. That put Refsnyder, who was drafted in the fifth round in 2012, on the prospect map.

That spring, the Korean-born Refsnyder had played outfield for the University of Arizona club that won the College World Series in 2012—he was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player—but he transitioned to second base soon after turning pro.

“He primarily played right field for the Arizona Wildcats,” writes Nick Peruffo of The Trentonian, “but at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, he didn’t project to have the type of power major league teams look for at the corner outfield position.”

Refsnyder, who has hit .346 (9-for-26) with six runs, a homer and a steal this spring, played 122 games at second base in 2014, with another nine in right field.

Unlike Refsnyder, Pirela is on the 40-man and already has made his MLB debut, which came very late last September. Pirela, who also is right-handed, earned the promotion by hitting .305/.351/.441 at Triple-A.

The 25-year-old Venezuela native played all over the diamond at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, seeing time at first and short, in addition to second, as well as all three outfield spots.

Pirela, who has good speed despite a shorter, stockier frame at 5’11” and 210 pounds, has performed well this March, too, going 10-for-27 (.370) with three doubles, two triples and a steal.

That appeared to have put Pirela in position to make the 25-man roster, but a collision with the outfield wall while playing center field on Sunday resulted in a concussion that has his status up in the air at the moment.

“Obviously you’re concerned when a player doesn’t get up,” Girardi said via Jamal Collier of MLB.com. “He did not feel good.”

So, is Refsnyder or Pirela the Yankees’ future at second base? That question can be interpreted one of two ways.

If it’s an either/or—as in, Refsnyder vs. Pirela—then the bet here is on Refsnyder, given that he’s younger, has better plate discipline (.389 career OBP versus .339 for Pirela), has a better pedigree as a fifth-round draft pick and is coming off a breakout 2014 campaign. Plus, he might be able to improve a little more, seeing as he only transitioned to second base a couple of years ago.

Pirela, on the other hand, profiles more as a backup or utility man-type. He can hit well enough, run a bit and play multiple positions, as he has shown this spring and in the minors. There’s always value in versatility, but Pirela doesn’t project as an impact player either offensively or defensively.

Which brings us to the second way to interpret the question above. If it’s taken as a straight query—as in, will one of Refsnyder or Pirela be good enough to become the Yankees’ second baseman of the future?—then the answer is murkier.

In short, it really depends on two things: 1) how much more Refsnyder can develop, especially on defense, and 2) whether the Yankees—a big-market, contend-at-all-costs organization—would feel comfortable going with a second baseman who might fit as more of a second-division regular.

There’s certainly the argument that New York needs to get younger, more athletic and cheaper, and general manager Brian Cashman gradually is remaking the roster with that in mind. That bodes well for Refsnyder, who is about to embark on a very important year. If he continues to develop, not only will Refsnyder make his major league debut, but he also could turn himself into the long-term answer at second base.

Refsnyder isn’t going to remind anyone of Cano, the super-smooth, sweet-swinging superstar of a second baseman. But then again, no one else in MLB at the position does, either.

Statistics are accurate through Monday, March 23 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

And now for something we all ought to be used to by now:

A discussion about whether veteran New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia is good at pitching baseballs again, which will inevitably skew toward an “I’m not so sure, man” conclusion.

But first, the basics. Sabathia made his 2015 spring training debut Tuesday evening against the Toronto Blue Jays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, and he was hit-and-miss. He struck out two without a walk in two innings but also surrendered two earned runs on four hits.

On the surface, that’s a rough way for Sabathia to start getting his pitching legs back after a prolonged recovery from a right knee surgery that ended a season in which he had a 5.28 ERA in eight starts. And once you get into the finer details, there are some concerning things to talk about.

But that can wait. There are also some positives to be pulled from the 34-year-old’s first start since May 10, 2015, including one that I doubt anybody saw coming.

Lo and behold, Sabathia’s velocity was pretty good.

That was apparent when the first fastball the YES Network gun clocked came in at 96 miles per hour, a speed that BaseballSavant.com says Sabathia has hit only twice since 2012. From there, the YES gun had him sitting comfortably in the 89-92 range.

How much we can believe these figures is unclear. On the one hand, here’s Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York saying not to trust the YES gun:

And on the other, here’s Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News citing a scout who also had Sabathia in the 89-92 range:

So yeah. But the good news is that, no matter which way you look at things, Sabathia’s velocity readings are very much encouraging.

Even if Sabathia only topped out at 92 miles per hour, that’s still good. He hit 92 only twice in 798 total pitches in 2014, so to see him hitting 92 already is a good sign.

If Sabathia was in fact sitting in the 89-92 range, that’s even better. FanGraphs put his average fastball velocity in 2014 at 88.8 miles per hour, and he was sitting in the 86-88 range early last spring. Relatively speaking, 89-92 mph is him coming a long way.

The difference  between last year and this year? The easy answer is that Sabathia is a lot heavier, as he came into camp at 305 pounds after entering camp at 275 pounds last year.

And according to the man himself, this weight is good for something.

“I feel like this is a good weight,” the 6’7″ pitcher told Feinsand. “I feel a little stronger. I feel my legs under me, being a lot stronger, and being able to push off the mound.”

Good velocity isn’t the only positive to take away from Sabathia’s debut. He also showed that he still has a slider capable of missing bats, notably getting Josh Donaldson swinging at one in the dirt for the first of his two strikeouts. MLB GIFs has the moving picture:

With a hard(er) fastball and a good slider, there were thus some moments in which Sabathia looked more like the guy who pitched to a 3.22 ERA in his first four years with the Yankees. It’s only spring training, but the Yankees will surely take it.

So long as they’re also willing to take the bad with the good, of course. And there was also some of that on Tuesday.

Sabathia’s first inning was as clean as can be, as he retired Jose Reyes, Donaldson and Jose Bautista in order. But his second inning was significantly less clean, as he served up hits to Dioner Navarro, Dayan Viciedo, Devon Travis and Josh Thole.

It’s hard to call any of the four hits cheapies, and Sabathia has himself to blame for that.

Navarro’s hit was a sharp single to left field that came on a fastball that was up in the zone. Viciedo‘s was a double to right center that came on a slider that caught way too much of the plate. Travis’ hit was a sharp single to left that came on a heater right down the middle. Thole’s hit was a double to left field that came on a slider that also caught too much of the plate.

In short, the four hits Sabathia gave up all came on bad pitches.

He didn’t throw too many of those, mind you. I don’t have an exact count, but the majority of his pitches seemed to find Brian McCann’s glove precisely where he was putting it. It was on those pitches that Sabathia looked like the guy who had a very sharp 4.8 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2014.

The other pitches, however, were the ones that made him look like the guy who got battered around the tune of a .301 average and .528 slugging percentage. Those figures overruled his strikeout-to-walk prowess, and the main force in creating them was his futility within the strike zone.

Hitters hit .405 with a .766 slugging percentage against Sabathia’s in-zone pitches last year, easily his worst marks of the PITCHf/x era:

That’s what it looks like when a pitcher has a margin for error roughly equivalent to zero.

And while you’d hope that Sabathia’s margin for error would increase with improved velocity, his second inning raises obvious doubts about that. It indicated that he still can’t beat hitters in the strike zone, which for a major league pitcher is a concern big enough to overrule any positives.

Of course, this is where we grant that Sabathia is far from categorically doomed based on one bad inning in one spring training start.

And there is indeed a bright side, as you’d much rather have a guy struggling with command during the spring than struggling with stuff. One of those things is a lot easier to fix than the other. With more reps, perhaps Sabathia will slowly reinvent himself into a Cliff Lee-type pitcher who simply doesn’t make mistakes within the strike zone.

Either way, the Yankees surely have their fingers crossed. Given how thin and volatile their starting pitching depth is, it’s hard to disagree with general manager Brian Cashman’s assessment, per ESPN New York‘s Wallace Matthews, that Sabathia is a “vitally important” part of the club’s rotation. If he’s ineffective and/or injured again, the Yankees will be faced with filling a hole that they don’t look prepared to fill.

For now, they wait and see. They can take heart in how Sabathia’s right knee didn’t buckle and how his arm produced some encouraging radar gun readings, but they should also be wary that the 2014 Sabathia doesn’t look like a thing of the past just yet.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The New York Yankees offense is an interesting bunch. The group features immense levels of talent, but question marks pop up throughout the lineup in the form of injury and production concerns.

That said, where there’s bust potential, there also tends to be boom potential. This holds true for the Yankees offense as well.

The Yankees will bank on players remaining healthy this year, and if they do, the team could easily surpass what are seemingly modest win-total projections for the 2015 season.

So the Yankees offense presents us with two contrasting paths for the 2015 season. One could bring about their first playoff appearance since the 2012 season, while the other could drop the Yankees all the way to last place in the American League East.

With both scenarios set, let’s take an in-depth look at how both can come about and what results they might produce for 2015.

Worst-Case Scenario

Let’s get the bad out of the way first.

To be fair, there’s plenty of cause for concern with the Yankees. That projected roster I linked above is riddled with injury possibility.

Take a quick look at the Yankees projected lineup and their games-played totals over the last four years.

Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Chase Headley, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran all have extensive injury histories (you can view those histories by clicking on their name and scrolling to the end of their Baseball Prospectus pages) and it’s totally fair to question whether or not these six players will be able to remain healthy over the course of the 2015 season.

If they don’t, there’s not a lot in the way of big league-ready minor league talent in the system. In fact, according to Bleacher Report’s Mike Rosenbaum, the only position players in his his top-10 rankings with ETAs during the 2015 season are Rob Refsnyder and Gary Sanchez.

Refsnyder could be called up to play outfield if the team finds themselves in dire straits, and depending on what point in the season he’s called upon, Sanchez could prove a viable option behind the plate.

Beyond that, though, things get a little cloudy.

If the Yankees lose Teixeira, Headley, Ellsbury or McCann, the season could go south in a hurry.

Carlos Beltran, in his age-38 season, is an ever-present injury concern, and his 2014 season could serve as a precursor for further decline as he nears the end of his stellar career.

Injury concerns aside, there’s reason to be concerned about the production the team will receive from the bottom three in that projected lineup, as well as Beltran. 

Rodriguez, Beltran and Drew are all coming off of seasons they’d rather soon forget.

Drew posted career-worst numbers across the board, and his 44 wRC+ last season was the worst among 263 players with at least 300 at-bats last season. Beltran clocked in with a much more respectable mark of 95 (just five points below average) but his advanced age could bring about further decline.

Rodriguez is arguably the biggest question mark in the lineup. The 39-year-old was serviceable when he last played, but that was back in 2013.

The possibility of injury, along with the uncertainty surrounding many of the team’s main contributors, could prove a disaster for the Yankees. Providing some combination both, the Yankees could suffer through another year of mediocrity and production fitting for a team near the bottom third of the league.

Assuming this scenario holds true, the Yankees will likely fail to reach that 80-82 record PECOTA predicted for them.

Best-Case Scenario

Where there’s legitimate reason to fret over the Yankees offense, there’s also some room for optimism. After all, the Yankees are healthy—for now.

So long as the team stays healthy, there’s plenty of room for them to surpass those modest win projections we talked about early. Providing the team stays moderately healthy, they’ll benefit greatly from a full season of Headley, Teixeira, McCann and Beltran.

Consider those four players and their ZiPS projections for the 2015 season:

These are solid seasons the ZiPS model has projected for Headley, Teixeira, McCann and Beltran. All four are projected for double-digit home run totals, and, aside from Headley, all of them are projected to exceed their WAR totals from the 2014 season.

Last year, Teixeira, McCann and Beltran managed seasons worth just 0.8 WAR, 2.3 WAR and -0.5 WAR, respectively, per Fangraphs.com. Their projected improvements for 2015 should go a long way toward bolstering the team’s overall output, but they aren’t the only concerns.

At the bottom of the order, it’s tough to figure out what to expect from the combination of Gregorius and Drew.

With Drew, it’s pretty safe to say that he can’t possibly be as bad as he was last season. We highlighted his disappointing 2014 effort up top, and fortunately, in 2015, his ZiPS projections show a much-improved yet still very flawed player.

Per Fangraphs.com, the ZiPS model has Drew projected for a .211/.285/.360 batting line with nine home runs, 18 doubles, 40 RBI, 36 runs scored and 0.8 WAR. It’s not a good season, but it’s certainly much better than last year.

Realistically, Drew should still surpass those projections if he displays even a glimpse of his former self. Prior to being sent to Oakland, between 2006 and 2011, Drew averaged a .270/.330/.442 triple slash and, per-162 games, averaged 16 home runs, 12 triples, 38 doubles, 71 RBI and 84 runs scored. 

If I were a betting man, I’d put the 2015 version of Drew somewhere right in between his ZiPS projections, and his 2006-2011 averages. That makes for roughly a .240/.305/.400 batting line and a solidly average second baseman.

At short, Gregorius is entering his age-25 season, and his confidence is as high as ever. The young shortstop spoke with Bleacher Report earlier this month and told Mike Rosenbaum that “I’m just going to relax and play the game right and be the best I can be whenever I go out there. Don’t worry about anything else; just go game by game.”

Calm, cool and collected, Gregorius will be looking to fill some rather large shoes at shortstop, but if his demeanor is any indication, he appears to be up to the task.

Gardner and Ellsbury are much smaller question marks, and entering their age-31 seasons, they should find themselves in prime position to continue leading the offense.

That brings us to the biggest question mark of them all: A-Rod.

After a year on the shelf after a PED suspension, Rodriguez has a lot to prove. And at 39 years old, that may prove easier said than done.

Rodriguez struggled against inside fastballs during his limited 2013 showing, and age, combined with numerous injuries could cause him to struggle with those same pitches again in 2015.

That said, Rodriguez is making a strong statement with his play this spring. Over 21 plate appearances, Rodriguez owns a .353/.476/.588 slash line with a homer, a double, two RBI, a run scored and a 3-4 K/BB ratio. 

If Rodriguez hits and is able to produce anything close to what he did in 2012, he’ll help to make the offense a formidable one in the AL East.

When everything comes together, the Yankees could be one of the top-five offenses in the American League. This, combined with what looks like a rather strong starting rotation, could make the Yankees a viable candidate for one of the two American League wild-card spots.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Advanced stats via Fangraphs.com.

Tyler Duma is a Featured Columnist for the New York Yankees on Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @TylerDuma.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The New York Yankees are just a week into spring games, but several players have already started to create some buzz in camp.

The “buzz” we’ll look at here is good buzz, of course. No A-Rod bashing, no harping on health issues, just standout performances that are starting to gain some extra notoriety.

Though there are a number of very deserving candidates, I narrowed this list down to six players who have all put up exemplary performances down in the Grapefruit League. 

The group features a nice mix of pitching and offense, but one thing most of these players have in common is their lack of MLB experience. The early portions of spring training are dominated by prospects, and this article is no exception, as five of the six players included are void of any MLB experience.

So, to keep you up on all things spring training, here’s a look at six players turning heads early on in the New York camp.

All stats are current through play on March 8, 2015, courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Officially, Alex Rodriguez is more than one week into his return. Unofficially, we have learned nothing.

Rodriguez returned to New York Yankees spring training camp—and Major League Baseball—last week after a yearlong suspension stemming from his involvement with Biogenesis. He has been in camp for about two weeks, but Yankees position players did not have to officially report until Feb. 25.

Since making his way to the team’s complex in Tampa, Florida, A-Rod has angered the brass by not telling them he was arriving at camp, acknowledged his use of performance-enhancing drugs, skillfully danced around other questions, played in a couple of games and shown no clear signs if he will truly be able to contribute to the team’s lineup this season.

None of this is really news.

Then again…

Good morning, Alex Rodriguez. From your friends at the @nypost: pic.twitter.com/wAWaW52yZB

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) March 5, 2015

Just about everything A-Rod does is backpage fodder in New York. A hoard of reporters documents his every movement, what he eats for breakfast and lunch, how many practice swings he takes in the on-deck circle and how long he stands in a parking lot and answers questions. Oh, and of course, his wardrobe—a University of Miami track suit on Day 1, if you were wondering. 

But what have we learned that is actually newsworthy over the last dozen days?

For starters, Rodriguez’s acknowledgement of playing the game dirty was not his first. And he has clearly been well-coached on how to field related questions, which is why his answers were not a surprise, but they were better than a “no comment.”

Rodriguez was asked on his second day in camp about playing without a PED boost, and he managed to take on the question as much as one can while also ducking it.

“I think I’m fine, yeah,” Rodriguez told reporters. “But only time will tell.”

What his time in Tampa will not tell, though, is if he is ready for regular-season major league at-bats. This is a man who looked beat the last time we saw him in a batter’s box, and then he took a full year off, plus he’s had two hip surgeries and will hit 40 this summer. So unless he is completely overmatched during the Grapefruit League, it won’t be possible to make an accurate judgment.

However, looking at Rodriguez’s first spring training game Wednesday, pre and postgame, there were some interesting comments from the once-surefire Hall of Famer.

The first came prior to that game, and was the kind of admission A-Rod usually does not lay out.

“I’ll be a little nervous,” Rodriguez said about being back on the field. “I haven’t been in front of my—our—fans, for a long time. I’m excited about that. I have some challenges ahead.”

A new, more humble Rodriguez then went out and tallied a single and a walk in that first spring training game as the Yankees’ designated hitter. Afterward, there was another snippet that no one is used to coming from such a once-confident hitter.

“I was happy I just made contact,” Rodriguez said. “I was pleasantly surprised it was a base hit.”

This is not the A-Rod we have come to know and love/loathe, this one with the humbleness, meekness and modesty. And if we ever happened to hear it in the past, we all knew he was saying it to portray himself as an everyday man of the people, which he most certainly was not.

But this time felt more genuine, as if Rodriguez actually were surprised he singled in a spring training game.

A-Rod from even two years ago would not have been “pleasantly surprised” about anything he achieved on a baseball diamond. But now, a routine spring training base hit registers as such.

So, if we learned anything over Rodriguez’s first 12 days at Yankees camp, it is that he is just as curious as all of us to find out how he matches up with other major leaguers at this point in his career.

He understands where he was before the suspension, more than any analyst or player or coach, and that he is older now and with a season missed recently behind him. He knows he is no longer the greatest hitter ever to play the sport and that it’s not going to come flooding back to him. Ever.

And this is really all we could have learned in this short time. Rodriguez was either going to come back cocky and defiant, or he was going to be humble. With some advice from his PR people, undoubtedly, Rodriguez made the right decision this time.

There is still about a month to go in this camp. We will wait and see if this Rodriguez sticks around, and if we can ever glean anything from how he performs while knowing he is a mere mortal.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Yankees will take the field March 3 for the first spring game of their 2015 season. 

The team is hoping to rebound from a disappointing 2014 season which saw it finish second in the AL East by a whopping 12 games. To do that, the Yankees will have to deal with a new crop of players, injury concerns and the departure of longtime shortstop and surefire Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, as well as the big dark cloud hanging over Alex Rodriguez.

There is room for optimism with this team though, and so long as they can stay healthy, the Yankees are candidates to surpass their modest PECOTA win projections (projected for an 80-82 record) for the 2015 season.

But, before the first spring game takes place and the media circus sets in, let’s take a look at who will make up the Yankees’ 25-man roster and what we might expect out of that group over the course of 162 games.

So, without further ado, I give you your 2015 New York Yankees.

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TAMPA, Fla. — Routinely in the early days this spring, the Yankees haven’t started workouts until late morning. Nobody begins their workdays this late in the spring, ever. Not in Florida. Not in Arizona.

Why did manager Joe Girardi do it? Was it because:

A. He wanted to outwait the thick morning dew and make sure the fields were dry.

B. The Yankees needed an extra couple of hours each morning to ensure that Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow was still in one piece, and to get CC Sabathia weighed in.

C. Alex Rodriguez thought it would be a fabulous team-bonding exercise to hold FaceTime sessions each morning with retired icon Derek Jeter.

Correct answer? A.

But the fact there is even a remote chance that “all of the above” could be accurate tells you how weird things have gotten around here.

“The [pitching machine] got yelled at for not covering first,” Girardi quipped.

Yet ol’ Iron Mike still was more nimble than Michael Pineda.

From the time A-Rod walked in wearing a lime green polo shirt and holding a cup of coffee at 10:08 a.m. Monday until the last Yankees straggled out midafternoon, there was every chance of spotting a flying monkey, or an intrasquad game featuring pitching machines instead of real, live pitchers.

Wait. That last thing was something else that really happened, one more odd twist in a spring full of them. Girardi explained that it was easier to control things with the pitching machines because the point of the exercise was to work on baserunners’ reactions, and cutoffs and relays.

These are different times and different faces for the Yankees, who are steaming toward a transformational summer that could be spectacular or disastrous, with little chance for anything in-between.

Disastrous, though, currently is the odds-on favorite.

In order to avoid utter catastrophe, old-timers Mark Teixeira (wrist), Carlos Beltran (elbow) and Rodriguez (yearlong suspension) must reverse their declines. And with Teixeira turning 35 on April 11, Beltran 38 on April 24 and A-Rod 40 on July 27, Father Time may be tougher to hit than Indians Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.

Tanaka (small tear in his elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament) must become the outlier from a group of many other pitchers—Chad Billingsley and Dylan Bundy among them—who have tried to avoid surgery by rehabbing, only to eventually need Tommy John surgery anyway.

Sabathia, who intentionally regained some of his old weight and expects to pitch at around 305 pounds this season (he’s 6’7″, so it’s not as bad as it sounds), must also rebound. And he turns 35 on July 21.

Even Brian McCann, who declined last year, is 31. Brett Gardner is 32 on Aug. 24.

In other words, the Yankees’ only hope is for a group of aging, veteran players to all bounce back together.

And of that group, how many? Four? Five? Six?

“I’ve never looked at it that way, you know?” Girardi says. “What’s important is everyone contributing. To win, you don’t need everyone having career years.

“Sometimes, what you need is nine or 10 guys having really good years. Sometimes, what you need is having three or four guys having career years.

“Whatever the combination is, we need to find it.”

With a fat payroll expected to check in at around $230 million and attendance expected to plummet now that we’re past the Jeter and Mariano Rivera farewell tours, you also wonder whether the conversation soon could turn from A-Rod’s sins to the futures of Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman.

It’s hard not to see a scenario coming soon in which both Girardi and Cashman move onto the griddle, unless you’re a fervent subscriber to the YES Network who believes in unicorns and the Easter Bunny.

If things go south, look out.

“The body’s perfectly fine,” Tanaka says through an interpreter. “I understand everybody’s worried about the elbow, and I understand, too, that I have to be cautious about it as well.

“But so far, it’s been good.”

Neither Tanaka nor Sabathia will see Grapefruit League action before next week.

“If I worry about every pitcher, it’s going to drive me crazy,” Girardi says. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild is clinging to the belief that there are many pitchers who currently are throwing with small tears in their elbow that we just don’t know about yet, and they’re all doing fine.

“So I’m not sure how much actual knowledge we have,” Rothschild says. “You can draw conclusions.”

But his point is, those conclusions might not be accurate.

So the Yankees continue to believe.

At least, in the clubhouse.

Outside, with Jeter, Rivera and the rest of the icons now gone, it appears to be a different story. The Yankees already are dipping back into their past this summer in retiring the numbers of Bernie Williams (51), Andy Pettitte (46) and Jorge Posada (20), moves largely viewed as a means to create a few blockbuster days in a schedule that could be devoid of them.

In Tampa, the Yankees have scheduled some giveaway days during their spring schedule to help attract fans. And anyone wanting to purchase tickets for the Boston Red Sox visit on March 11 is required to also purchase two tickets to two other Grapefruit League games.

Never heard of that before in the spring.

Meanwhile, the new guys blend in, one pinstripe at a time.

“[S]tarting times were earlier in Arizona,” says shortstop Didi Gregorius, who has his work cut out for him in replacing Jeter at whatever time is go time. “That’s the biggest difference.”

Well, that and the clown show known as A-Rod. And, honestly, right now that could be a blessing for some of these guys. Because as he’s swallowing up all of the attention, the rest of the Yankees can work in peace. Gregorius doesn’t have 30 people asking him about Jeter every day. And Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances aren’t being sized for tabloid headlines looking to stoke a closer war.

“It’s been great,” third baseman Chase Headley says. “It hasn’t been an issue at all with Alex.”

And that’s where this entire misdirection play is coming from with the Yankees: While we’re all watching A-Rod, the real issues are a few more miles up the road.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. 

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After Derek Jeter’s retirement, one of the biggest questions heading into Major League Baseball’s offseason was how the New York Yankees would replace The Captain at shortstop.

Based on previous years, the assumption was that the Yankees would sign an aging free agent such as Hanley Ramirez. However, general manager Brian Cashman decided to take a different route, acquiring Didi Gregorius from the Arizona Diamondbacks in early December as part of a three-team deal.

“I was a little surprised about the trade, I’m not going to lie,” Gregorius recently told Bleacher Report. “Because, you know, it’s the Yankees.”

To be pursued by the Bronx Bombers clearly meant something to the 25-year-old. Meanwhile, that the Yankees traded for Gregorius, of all people, was particularly appropriate.

When the Diamondbacks acquired Gregorius prior to the 2013 season, Kevin Towers, the team’s general manager at the time, said the shortstop reminded him of a young Derek Jeter.

Now, Gregorius is poised to play the same position in the same park occupied by Jeter for the better part of the last 20 years. It goes without saying that he has big shoes to fill, and it’s almost a guarantee that expectations will be unreasonably lofty.

As Jeter’s successor, Gregorius is fully aware he’s in a special and unique situation.

“I don’t look at it as being a long-term replacement, because I’m not really replacing him,” said Gregorius with a chuckle. “It’s not like he’s moving to second or third base.

“But it’s amazing to be playing shortstop for the Yankees after Jeter. I’m pretty sure he’s coming out here [spring training] to talk to the team, and I’m sure he’ll have advice for me, and I’ll be asking him questions.”

I broke down Gregorius’ chances of being the Yankees’ long-term fix at shortstop back in December:

Gregorius has always drawn rave reviews for his defense at shortstop, which is more or less the reason he’s now been included in two separate three-team trades in the last three years.

Gregorius has impressive range in all directions as well as natural fluidity at the position, and the defensive metrics support his reputation as a strong defender at shortstop.

Specifically, FanGraphs’ overall defensive rating (3.9 Def, min. 1,000 innings) for Gregorius over the last two seasons places him ahead of guys like Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Adeiny Hechavarria and—wait for it—Derek Jeter.

While Gregorius has already received high praise for his slick glove, the Yankees are hopeful his bat eventually will catch up.

There’s something to be said for Gregorius’ ability to consistently post an extra-base hit rate above 50 percent (he posted a 51 percent clip in 2013 and followed it with 58 percent last season). But with 13 career home runs in 724 plate appearances, Gregorius is unlikely to offer much over-the-fence power in his career.

Yet as a left-handed hitter who hits a lot of fly balls, it’s possible that Gregorius might enjoy a slight power spike playing at Yankee Stadium, which, coincidentally, was the scene of his first MLB home run on April 18, 2013.

“I’m looking forward to hitting at Yankee Stadium,” said Gregorius. “Everybody talks about the short porch in right field, but I’m not going to become a dead-pull hitter. Maybe I’ll hit a line-drive home run, you never know; but I’m planning on using the entire field.”

One area of focus for Gregorius moving forward will be improving against same-sided pitching, as he enters the 2015 season with a .184 batting average, zero home runs and 25 percent strikeout rate in 180 career plate appearances against southpaws.

“I focused on that this offseason because I’ve really never seen a lot of left-handed pitching, and you can’t get comfortable against them if you’re not seeing them,” stated Gregorius.

“I worked with Giants hitting coach Henry Meulens, and he helped me learn to stay closed against lefties, and I’ve already been talking about it with the hitting coaches here, too. So we’re making improvements.”

The Yankees’ decision to gamble on Gregorius’ age and upside was a healthy risk, as he’s a guy with five years of team control who can offer modest power from the left side of the plate to go along solid baserunning and defense.

From Joel Sherman of the New York Post:

A person familiar with the way the Yankees rate players say they add points to a player’s offensive ability based on how much he helps on defense, and that is why they had such interest in Gregorius. Plus, the Yankees feel it is hard to find offense in this market, particularly at shortstop. A team can improve by scoring more or giving up less. The Yankees believe Gregorius will help them give up less while still having the chance to grow into a competent hitter.

Gregorius knows the unavoidable comparisons to Jeter are likely to follow him through his first season in New York, and he’s eager to distinguish himself on the field from the future Hall of Famer. However, he also has a realistic grasp of the situation.

“I’m not going to put pressure on myself,” he said. “I’m just going to relax and play the game right and be the best I can be whenever I go out there. Don’t worry about anything else; just go game by game.”

For Gregorius, succeeding Jeter at shortstop for the Yankees is an afterthought to proving he’s an everyday player.

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The New York Yankees‘ Alex Rodriguez is expected to make his 2015 Grapefruit League debut in spring training Wednesday.

What are realistic 2015 expectations for A-Rod? How has Rodriguez looked thus far in spring training? How has he been received by his Yankees teammates?

Watch as Stephen Nelson and Bleacher Report National MLB Columnist Scott Miller discuss expectations for Rodriguez in the video above. 

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