Yankees Rebuilding?

As traditional as the Yankees are in American culture, the functioning of the team is anything but traditional baseball operations. The corporation operates on a different plane from most organizations, propped up with immense resources, and vested with billions rather than millions at stake. The usage of the term 'rebuilding' in baseball refers to a franchise allowing younger talent to learn on the job in hopes of developing a winning team in future seasons. For the Yankees, every year is a "must-win" and the cost of lost revenues precludes them from exploring a youth movement. In order to sell tickets, jerseys, and ads, the Yankees always need popular players at many positions. Over the years they interchange multiple parts, losing and signing free agents, but the near lack of budgetary constraint on payroll afforded the Yankees the ability to retain a nucleus of players for many years. Lineups changed in part, but were not overhauled. However, in a way, I see the changes from 2008 to 2010 as a rebuilding for the Yankees - in their own way. In the 2009 off-season they signed the top three available free agents. That was remarkable in itself, but the effect was a near complete remake of the rotation and a new defensive alignment and performance in the infield. In the 2010 off-season the Yankees acquired a couple of outfielders and allowed a couple of famous players to depart via free agency. This a major upgrade of the defensive capabilities in the outfield. It's a bit of a stretch to claim, but it looks close to a rebuild of the pitching and defense over the past two years. Offensively, it's probably no different but for a team with so many powerful bats there's not much to improve upon. The net effect is the difference from Opening Day 2008 to Opening Day 2010 is a new starting rotation and middle relief bullpen, a new outfield, and new bats at first and DH. Those are a lot of changes for a World Champion team. It feels like more of a difference than the types of changes the Yankees made in recent history.

2008
C Jorge Posada
1st Jason Giambi
2nd Robinson Cano
3rd Alex Rodriguez
SS Derek Jeter
LF Johnny Damon
CF Melky Cabrera
RF Bobby Abreu
DH Hideki Matsui

SP Mike Mussina
SP Carl Pavano
SP Andy Pettitte
SP Chien-Ming Wang
SP Darrell Rasner
MR Jose Veras
MR Edwar Ramirez
MR Kyle Farnsworth
Set-Up Joba Chamberlain
Closer Mariano Rivera

2010
C Jorge Posada
1st Mark Teixeira
2nd Robinson Cano
3rd Alex Rodriguez
SS Derek Jeter
LF Brett Gardner
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Nick Swisher
DH Nick Johnson

SP CC Sabathia
SP AJ Burnett
SP Andy Pettitte
SP Javier Vazquez
SP Joba Chamberlain
MR Damaso Marte
MR Alfredo Aceves
MR David Robertson
Set-Up Phil Hughes
Closer Mariano Rivera