By Eli Harris
The 2019 Yankees are one for the books. This past year has been one of the most interesting and exciting seasons for the Yankee organization. Plagued with injury and controversy, the team was able to persevere and win the American League East division, guaranteeing themselves a spot in the postseason and clinching the second seed. They fought all year, yearning for this spot that they so desperately lost the year before.
The beginning of the season was uncertain for the organization. All position players were healthy, but their ace, Louis Severino, would be out for a longer period of time due to a shoulder injury at the end of the previous season. The hitting would be there, but nobody knew what would happen without the help of quality pitching. As the season started, the Yankees began to win a majority of their games. The pitching problems didn’t seem to phase them, especially with the help of the unsung hero starter, Demingo German. He won an astounding nine straight games, helping to push the Yankees further and further. These good vibes would not last long enough. As the season went on, the players began to drop like flies. Injury after injury, the next man up would attempt to fill the position of the one before him. Players like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were out for long periods of time. Minor League players were called up, names that nobody had ever seen before. To the surprise of many baseball fans, the team continued to win games, jumping to first place in their difficult division, leapfrogging the defending champs, the Boston Red Sox, and outplaying the talented Tampa Bay Rays. Game after game, they would keep thrilling their fans.
As the end of the season neared, the Yankees continued to impress, eventually clinching their first division title since 2012 even with a crippled roster full of Minor League players. The postseason looks exciting yet uncertain for this unpredictable team. It is difficult to win a World Series without the help of a fully healthy team and full-strength from pitchers. There are teams that they will need to push past throughout the postseason, like the power-hitting Minnesota Twins, whom they will face during the American League Division Series, and the record-setting Houston Astros, who will play the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. This Yankees team is very unpredictable. They have had it rough this year playing through just about everything, but that could be the reason they could go far. A team who knows how to persevere knows how to win, and that team is the 2019 New York Yankees.