With Spring Training officially underway and the 2025 season set to kick off in just under
a month, Yankees fans including myself are excited to move on from the unfortunate ending to
last year’s season, and hoping this time around things will end differently. The 2025 Yankees
roster heading into Opening Day is a whole lot different from last year’s team, which made it all
the way to the World Series, but fell just short after poor play in the Best of 7 series against the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was an interesting offseason for the Yankees, who let free agent star Juan Soto walk
and sign with the cross-town rival New York Mets, on a record-breaking 15 year 765 million
dollar deal with incentives that could make it an 805 million dollar deal over time. Some other
notable leaves were RP Clay Holmes, 1B Anthony Rizzo, 2B Gleyber Torres, amongst others.
However, the Yankees brought in some valuable pieces including SP Max Fried on an 8-year 218
million-dollar deal, as well as trades for OF Cody Bellinger (former MVP) along with All-Star
closer Devin Williams. On top of that, they signed another former MVP, Paul Goldschmidt, to
replace Rizzo at first base.
While losing Juan Soto is simply irreplaceable, I think Yankees General Manager Brian
Cashman did a very good job in filling the roster and addressing some serious holes. Many
Yankees fans including myself believe that losing Soto to that massive contract was a blessing in
disguise, as it gave the franchise more money to address other issues, while also not tying them
to a player long-term, which typically never works out well toward the later years in the
contract A huge issue in the 2024 Yankees team was the defense and baserunning. I think the
Yankees’ World Series poor defense and baserunning not only cost them Game 5, but potentially
the whole series, as the defense and baserunning was something that stood out in all five games
of the dreadful series. There’s no way around it, losing Juan Soto, a generational talent and future
Hall of Famer to the cross-town rivals simply sucks. I remember the feeling, seeing the
notification from reporter Jeff Passan, tweeting that Soto has decided to sign with the Mets. I was
devastated. However, that’s how the business side of the game works, and all there is to do is
look towards the future. I believe that there’s a good chance that the 2025 Yankees roster is more
complete than last year’s team, which was just a couple of games away from raising the trophy.
I asked some students here at Monmouth University whether they believe this year’s team
going into the season is better than last year’s team. Jacob Ditzel, a die-hard Yankees fan and
A sophomore here at MU said, “I think the Yankees 2025 roster as a whole got better. Losing
[Juan] Soto is a big pill to swallow, but overall, the team is more balanced than last season. With
additions like Max Fried, Devin Williams, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger, the roster as a
whole improved. Other than Soto, Gleyber Torres was the Yankee’s biggest loss, but Jazz
Chisholm can slide over to play 2B, and Jason Dominguez is a big upgrade over Alex Verdugo in Left Field. The rotation was Cole, Fried, Rodon, Schmidt, and Luis Gil, the AL Rookie of the
Year looks great on paper”. Jacob makes some good points, as the Yankees pitching rotation
heading into this season is definitely Top 3 on paper in my opinion heading into the season.
However, staying healthy is important and will be a big factor in the success of the team this
season.
Jason LaCosta, a Junior here at Monmouth said, “I think the Yankees roster is better than
last year’s because of the improvement on defense and baserunning this time around… We [The
Yankees] have the best pitching duo in baseball this season with Cole and Fried, and arguably the
best closer in the game is Devin Williams. If they score enough runs and everyone stays healthy
they can definitely win it all”.
I agree with most of these students takes. I think the Yankees are more balanced overall
than they were last season. Health is always a huge factor in baseball as a 162-game season
brings a lot of twists and turns. With the American League wide open once again this season, the
Yankees have a real chance to win the AL again and hope for the best in a potential 2025 World
Series appearance
