BT is trying a different approach going into the 2024 season.
Sure, the expectations are for the Yankees to get back to the playoffs and make a run, but he is not putting hard expectations on what the Bombers need to do this season.
“I’m gonna have to evaluate the season through an entire prism,” BT said. “Until Gerrit Cole is on the bump, I’m going day by day. I’m not thinking World Series in late March, not while Gerrit Cole is hurt.
“You don’t run from the expectations…I’m choosing to view this season in a different light. I’m tired of these grand proclamations.”
Sure, the expectations are big after getting Juan Soto, but in the parity that is the MLB playoffs, it’s important to remember that sometimes the best teams don’t win.
“The pressure is there. It’s the Yankees,” BT said. “Like Duke basketball, Michigan football, the Celtics or Lakers…but I look at this season, and while I expect the Yankees to be very good…it’s not gonna be easy. I understand that. I relish that.
“Watching the Yankees for the better part of a decade just annihilate and steamroll baseball because of the payroll disparity…in a lot of ways, it became too easy. For me, given my age and early Yankee fandom, that was very foreign to me.”
BT would even go as far as to say the Yankees could have a bit of an “underdog” persona entering the season, as many have tempered expectations amid injuries to key players during spring trainng.
“While I’m not running from it, I know it’s gonna be a different feeling,” BT said. “In a weird way, they’re kind of underdogs. Without Gerrit Cole, even though they’re expected to win a lot, the Yanks are dogs.”