Yankees' Opening Day roster is far different than what team brass had envisioned

Aaron Boone has a handful of go-to topics when he addresses his team at the start of spring training.

Dealing with “adversity” is chief among them.

“It’s coming for you,” Boone, in his eighth year as Yankees manager, often says, both to the players and, later during a given season, to the media.

It came for the defending American League champion Yankees early in 2025.

So much so that the club taking the field Thursday afternoon at the Stadium against the Brewers in its season opener is far different from the one team hierarchy envisioned when spring training began some six weeks ago.

“Obviously, the roster changes all the time,” longtime general manager Brian Cashman said toward the end of spring training. “So it’s certainly a different roster this year than how it ended last year. We’re learning a lot about the new guys. Had some injuries to some of the previous guys left over.

“So I think we have a talented team, and some of them will be left behind as they rehab. But there’s been some guys that have stepped up and given us some comfort at the same time. I think we have a good team, and we look forward to testing it when we deploy it on March 27.”

Because of injuries to the rotation — leading with ace Gerrit Cole, who was lost for the season because of Tommy John surgery — lefthander Carlos Rodon gets the Opening Day start. He will be opposed by Brewers righthander Freddy Peralta.

“There’s been a lot going on, but guys going down is part of the game of baseball,” Rodon said of the injury bug that hit the Yankees from the first day of camp and never really let up.

Indeed, the Yankees will begin the season with 11 players on the injured list, and Cole isn’t the only headline name on it.

There’s last October’s offensive MVP Giancarlo Stanton sidelined indefinitely with tendon tears in both elbows. The veteran DH by all accounts is not all that much closer to swinging a bat than he was when position players reported for camp in mid-February.

There’s DJ LeMahieu, whom the Yankees had penciled in as their starting third baseman when camp began but who instead went down early in the Grapefruit League season with a left calf strain. His return, much like Stanton’s, is anyone’s guess.

Before Cole suffered his injury, AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil was lost for three months minimum because of a high-grade lat strain and Clarke Schmidt remained in Tampa dealing with shoulder fatigue. His injury isn’t thought to be serious and the righthander is expected back by the third week of the season.

There’s also righty relievers Ian Hamilton, Scott Effross and Jake Cousins. And though none of them are anticipated to be out deep into the season, all were expected to be part of the bullpen at the start of camp.

Their injuries, and the ones to others who might have added bullpen depth (lefty Tyler Matzek is one example), were among the reasons the Yankees signed experienced lefty reliever Ryan Yarbrough toward the end of camp.

And the club was still in the market for a righty bat leading up to Thursday (a pursuit that will likely continue right up until the July 31 trade deadline).

The latter need is because a Yankees lineup that led the majors in homers (237) last year and the AL in runs (815) enters the season particularly vulnerable to lefty pitching (and a lineup, notably, without Juan Soto, who signed a record free-agent contract with the Mets).

The injuries received most of the attention throughout the spring, but camp was not without reasons for optimism. New first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, though 37, showed signs of being able to recapture the form that made him a seven-time All-Star, and former NL MVP Cody Bellinger’s smooth lefthanded swing appeared primed to take aim at Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right.

Second-year catcher Austin Wells looks as if he’s been hitting leadoff his entire life. First baseman/catcher/DH Ben Rice added some 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason and spent the spring bludgeoning baseballs. Jasson Dominguez, after a rough go at the start of the spring in the field, seems as if he’ll be able to handle left (hitting has never been a question for the 22-year-old).

Even with the injuries, the bullpen, led by new closer Devin Williams, has the look of a standout unit, and the lineup still has two-time AL MVP Aaron Judge, coming off a 58-homer, 144-RBI season.

“Like I’ve kind of been saying all camp, the injuries are tough, especially the big guys that kind of got hit,” Judge said Tuesday in Miami where the Yankees wrapped up the spring. “But it’s a good opportunity for a lot of young guys to step up and kind of show us what they got.”