5 reasons Yankees will dominate the 60-game season

TAMPA, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 24: Gerrit Cole #45 of the New York Yankees delivers a pitch in the first inning during the spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Steinbrenner Field on February 24, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

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TAMPA, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 24: Gerrit Cole #45 of the New York Yankees delivers a pitch in the first inning during the spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Steinbrenner Field on February 24, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

1. Gerrit Cole will still be dominant

The Yankees are paying Cole a massive amount of cash to serve as the team’s bona fide ace. Shortening the season will rob the team’s fans of watching him make 30+ starts in 2020, but it won’t stop Cole from being a huge piece to the team’s championship puzzle.

It’s much more likely that Cole will manage to get roughly 10 starts this season. The Yankees will enter each one of those games with the expectation that they’re going to emerge victorious. That’s the kind of bravado you enjoy with a dominant ace like Cole on the mound.

Conservatively, the Yankees will project seven or eight wins in games that Cole starts. That’s a huge advantage over any team that doesn’t have a top-10 starting pitcher anchoring their rotation. His ability to deliver that kind of advantage over such a significant portion of the schedule will be huge for the Yankees’ chances to win the AL East.

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Of course, Cole’s regular-season performance is only a portion of what the Yankees hope he can bring to the organization. They want to see him give the team an upper hand in every playoff series they enter. Cole was a very expensive acquisition for the Yankees but he’s going to pay off massively in 2020 no matter how many regular-season games are played.

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