The big question in the spring camp of the defending world champions is “What can the Yankees do for an encore?”
The Yankees swept the board last year when they won 125 games, the most ever during one season. Can they do it again?
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Probably not. One miracle is the usual limit.
Wise man that he is, manager Joe Torre wasn’t saying one way or another before departing last week to undergo treatment for prostate cancer.
“Our goal is to get to the playoffs,” Torre said. “Once you do that, it’s Russian roulette time.”
Winning a third title in four years in the American League East shouldn’t be all that difficult. The Yankees lapped the field last season, finishing 22 games ahead of the pack.
Torre conceded it is a plus to have last season in the Yankees’ memory book but what he may never forget is that, despite the club’s big lead, none of his players “ever called in sick.”
Still, Torre and his coaches understand owner George Steinbrenner’s desire to improve on perfection.
That explains why the Yankees traded for Roger Clemens, a move that strengthens what was easily the most effective pitching staff in the league. Clemens, a five-time Cy Young winner, heads a rotation that includes David Cone, Andy Pettitte, Hideki Irabu and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, a Cuban defector who joined the club in June and finished the regular season with a 12-4 record and a 3.13 earned-run average. Opponents batted only .212 against him.
The Clemens deal was costly. To get him, the Yankees gave up three players, pitchers David Wells, 18-4 last season, including a no-hitter; middle reliever Graeme Lloyd and second baseman Homer Bush, an excellent prospect.
“Wells did a good job for us but I haven’t heard anybody say we didn’t make a very good trade,” said bench coach Don Zimmer, who will manage the team in Torre’s absence.
Torre agreed.
“I don’t want to get rid of my guys,” he said. “But when I knew we could get Roger Clemens it wasn’t a hard decision to make, not for me.”
The loss of Wells leaves the Yankees with only one left-handed starter, Pettitte, who was 16-11 last season. He’s a Kenny Holtzman clone with an almost identical delivery. But when Pettitte is pitching, opposing managers are expected to pack their lineup with left-handed hitters who will be taking aim at the Yankees’ short right-field porch.
“That could be our only weakness,” conceded the straight-talking Cone. “We need another left-handed starter and another left-hander in the bullpen” to go along with Mike Stanton, the Yankees’ only lefty reliever.
But as Zimmer, who is starting his 51st season in a major-league uniform, said, “Who would you rather have, Clemens? Or a mediocre left-handed starter? Clemens, of course. He has won 41 games in the last two seasons, 20 last year when he led the league in victories.”
Otherwise, the Yankees didn’t make any significant changes. All the front-line position players are back with the exception of Tim Raines, an aging left-fielder. Ricky Ledee and Shane Spencer, a late-season sensation with 10 home runs in September, are likely to platoon in left. Darryl Strawberry is also in the mix.
Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill, both among the best players in either league, will be in center and right. The infield is also first-rate. Tino Martinez is at first, Chuck Knoblauch at second, the brilliant Derek Jeter at short and Scott Brosius at third. Jorge Posada will catch with Joe Girardi in reserve. Chili Davis is the DH.
Torre, who will start his fourth season as the Yankees’ manager, is expected to return in time for the opening of the championship season. He’s like an old shoe: comfortable. Though his teams have won the World Series two of the last three years, he doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur.
This will be his 18th managerial season. Before joining the Yankees he had had only modest success.
“I’m the same as that jockey who has been riding quarterhorses who all of a sudden wins the Kentucky Derby,” Torre said. “You can’t win the big race if you don’t have the thoroughbred to do it.”