On Sunday, Derek Jeter symbolically passed the torch to a new era of Yankees. That may be creating a narrative in my head based on future events that haven’t happened yet, but it sure felt like it. Then again, it felt like a passing of the torch after Jeter’s last game at Yankee Stadium, and both the 2015 and 2016 seasons feel like fever dreams that in many ways were never truly wiped from my amygdala.
This time, though, I have something to back this up. While 2013 through 2016 was a drudgery of mediocrity (except for the latter part of last year), 2017 both feels and looks different.