Ask most anyone around baseball, and they'll say the Yankees should soon re-establish themselves as the Evil Empire. A deadline firesale has helped give New York an outstanding farm system. Expensive commitments to CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez will expire, leaving the team with financial flexibility in the face of an unprecedented free agent class.
Yet the team is still a year away, the conventional wisdom goes. Uber prospects like Gleyber Torres and Clint Frazier haven't made MLB debuts, while other young talents like Aaron Judge and Greg Bird have strikeout and injury concerns to iron out, respectively.