The season hardly ended in the expected fashion for either player, with Ellsbury benched for the American League Wild Card Game against the Astros and Gardner slumping badly down the stretch. Despite that, the Yankees are counting on them to help set the table again in 2016.
"Those two guys, to me, are the guys that really make our offense go," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "So getting those two and keeping them on track for a whole season has a lot to do with our success."
For most of this offseason, it hardly seemed a given that Gardner would be wearing pinstripes come February.