Each MLB team’s season success or failure?
New York Yankees
87-75, first AL Wild Card, lost Wild Card Game
The Yankees expect to always be in contention for World Series titles, but it was easy to temper those hopes for this group coming into the season. New York featured an aging group of position players plus a rotation with both plenty of upside and massive risk, leading to some questions in the spring.
However, the Yankees put together a 48-40 first half and managed to hang on to a playoff position for the duration of the season. Toronto managed to chase down New York for the AL East crown after a trade deadline frenzy, but getting a Wild Card spot should still be considered an accomplishment for this team.
Alex Rodriguez was the biggest surprise of the year and earned some sort of redemption by posting a 129 wRC+ per FanGraphs. The rotation held up for the most part, aided by the dominant bullpen duo of Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances.
Eventually, the injuries and age caught up to New York, as it lost to Houston in the Wild Card Game. Mark Teixeira’s season-ending leg fracture was a killer, while others like Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner did not look right for large portions of the season.
The team undoubtedly has some holes to address, but the Yankees should be fairly happy with how far they made it in 2015.
Success. Expectations are always high no matter the situation, but the Yankees did really well to make the playoffs given their roster and injury situation.
Next: Oakland Athletics