Erik Boland: Yankees are breaking camp with organization-wise optimism
Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole gets high-fives from teammates after his outing against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday in Mesa, Ariz. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
MESA, Ariz. – The “running it back” Yankees officially start to run for real in 2026 Wednesday night against the Giants.
And, despite the irritation much of the fanbase expressed throughout the winter – and continue to express as the season is set to begin – it’s been at least a decade since the Yankees’ organization collectively has felt as good about a team breaking camp as they do this one.
“I’m excited. Look, I caution that it’s only camp, but we’ve had a hell of a camp,” Aaron Boone, entering his ninth year as manager, said before his club wrapped up the spring with an 8-3 victory over the Cubs at Sloan Park. “We’ve had a lot of the answers we were hoping to get; knock on wood, a lot of really good health; a lot of guys that are on their way back trending in a really good direction with their rehab. I feel like the young players that are going to be future cores of this, maybe sooner rather than later, really showed well.”
One of those players “trending in a really good direction” is ace Gerrit Cole, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery last March. The righthander will start the season on the IL but his rehab has been seamless. That process included Tuesday when Cole made his second start of the spring. He allowed one hit, a solo homer to Alex Bregman, and struck out three over 1 2/3 innings. The typical recovery time for Tommy John is 14-18 months and Cole reiterated Tuesday, regardless of how many raves he’s received after each time he took the mound the last six weeks, his return won’t be fast-tracked. It still will be in late May or early June.
“I felt good coming into camp, I feel good now,” said Cole, who likely will re-enter the rotation after another rotation member whose rehab has sailed along without blemish, Carlos Rodon, returns from the IL (perhaps as early as late April).
As he spoke to a handful of reporters outside the Yankees clubhouse here on Tuesday, Cole later extracted a bat and knocked on the barrel when addressing his thoughts on the team as it departs for San Francisco.
“Remarkably healthy spring,” Cole said. “That’s really encouraging. The balance of the roster is good. The depth of the roster is good, especially the starting pitching, especially position player depth… all-around looks really promising… but at end of the day, you’ve got to play, you’ve got to execute. We’ll see where it takes us. But as far as what we can do right now, everybody’s healthy, everybody’s feeling good. That’s a great place to start.”
Even longtime general manager Brian Cashman, who often says it’s his job to see “the problems” with a given roster, struck an unusually optimistic tone (for him).
“I think we have a good, strong, deep roster of players that are capable of great things,” he said toward the end of the spring. “We look forward to testing that theory.”
After tying for the AL’s best record at 94-68 last year, the Yankees brought back 24 of the 26 players from the roster that fell flat in a four-game ALDS loss to the Blue Jays. This reliance on the same core fueled a "running it back" narrative that has persisted since mid-January. No fan needs reminding how the Yankees fared in the regular season against Toronto (5-8),
The AL East, weak a year ago, appears as beefed up as it has been in years, and the same is true for the entirety of the American League.
It’s fair to question how the Yankees, with a similar roster, will fare against a deeper division and league. There are questions, as there always are with every team, even with a superpower like the Dodgers.
For the Yankees, some revolve around a bullpen that, though appearing to have a slew of quality arms, has no established roles other than David Bednar at closer. Can Trent Grisham come close to duplicating his career-best 2025, which included 34 homers? Will Cam Schlittler and Will Warren, both of whom threw darts all spring, build on last year? Is Ben Rice, drafted as a catcher, ready for everyday first-base duties? Is the overall roster depth really what it seems?
“Sure, there’s some questions,” one rival manager said of the Yankees during the spring. “But from here, I don’t see many. Look, they’re good. Might be really good.”
Boone, a third-generation big-leaguer, clearly agrees, though he struck an appropriately cautionary note.
“I feel like camp-wise, hard to go much better than it did,” Boone said. “But that’s camp. Nobody cares about camp 10 days from now into the season. It’s about the 162 now, and we’re excited to get after it.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
