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4. New York Yankees (94-68, second in AL East, 821 runs scored, 680 runs allowed).
Wednesday night, ESPN’s Jeff Passan referred to the “run-it-back rhetoric” around the Yankees, which stuck in my craw. This isn’t some made-up narrative. The Yankees return their top 11 players from last year by playing time, including every single hitter who played during their postseason run. (Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez didn’t make the Opening Day roster.) Every starting pitcher they used in the playoffs comes back, as well as ten of the 12 pitchers the team used. Hell, the other two, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, stayed within the city limits. Those are facts, not rhetoric: The Yankees are running back last year’s team as much as any team this century has.
