Going into Spring Training 2017 and the Grapefruit League season, the Yankees had two starting positional battles: Right Field and the last Starting Pitcher role. Luckily, two players shone through and took the jobs, Aaron Judge and Jordan Montgomery respectively.

This year, the Yankees have a bunch more positions up for battle this year, most importantly second base, third base, and center field. Likewise, they have two back-up infield jobs (first and the infield) along with looking for an emergency starting pitcher and final relief arm.

As we are now 10 days into the Grapefruit league season, let’s quickly look at how each position is shaping out to be:

Emergency Starting Pitcher: Chance Adams vs. Luis Cessa (vs. Chad Green)

After his brilliant rookie season, Jordan Montgomery will be given the final starting pitcher role for this season, locking up what is going to be a very solid rotation along Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, and CC Sabathia. However, no team ever makes it through the season with only their five starting pitchers, and Brian Cashman has been on record stating that he’s been looking for an extra arm for the rotation. All of this makes sense given the much increased workloads of Severino and Montgomery; injury possibilities to Tanaka, Gray, and Sabathia.

Staying in-house for this final/emergency rotation piece seems very likely at this point, so let’s see how each of Adams and Cessa have done with their time on the mound:

Chance Adams: 3 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 1 R, 0 K, 3.00 ERA, 1.66 WHIP

Luis Cessa: 4 IP, 6 H 1 BB, 5 R, 4 K, 9.00 ERA, 1.75 WHIP

Like with many of these battles thus far, it’s impossible to see who is really ahead in this battle. Both are still projected to start future games, and as they continue through the games we’ll see how they keep doing. Likewise, after yesterday’s start by Chad Green, Aaron Boone has said he is going to move him back to the bullpen…which leads us to:

The Final Relief Pitching Spot: Giovanny Gallegos vs. Domingo German vs. Ben Heller vs. Jonathan Holder vs. Wade LeBlanc vs. Chasen Shreve

The 2018 Yankees also have a very solid bullpen around Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, and Adam Warren. It is yet to be known whether or not they are going to go with a 7 or 8-man bullpen to open up this season, but regardless they have plenty of options available.

Giovanny Gallegos: 3 IP, 2 H, 4 BB, 2 R, 5 K, 6.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP

Domingo German: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 R, 5 K, 1.80 ERA, 1.4 WHIP

Ben Heller: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 4 R, 10 K, 5.69 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

Jonathan Holder: 4 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 3 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

Wade LeBlanc: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 R, 3 K, 2.84 ERA, 1.26 WHIP

Chasen Shreve: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 1 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.20 WHIP

It seems as though Chasen Shreve is going to be destined for the bullpen this season, especially given that he is without minor-league options this season and he is a left-handed pitcher. (They will always be wanted on a big league team.)

Along with that, it seems as though German, Heller, and LeBlanc (all who’ve seen big-league time) are the best bets to be the teams last/extra reliever.

Starting Second Base: Gleyber Torres vs. Ronald Torreyes vs. Tyler Wade

Gleyber Torres is a very interesting case with how the team is going to handle him: do they keep him down to gain an extra year of control? Heal the injury? Etc. etc…if you’ve payed any attention to the Yankees this offseason you know these ideas have been beaten into the ground. So, we’ll leave it there.

However, Torreyes vs. Wade is an interesting case. Torreyes has been able to prove his worth taking over both full time and bench duties for the Yankees last season but Wade features much more promise for future output. Wade is also a much better defender, but his offensive output at the big-league level has been anything but productive. This spring could very well settle this debate:

Gleyber Torres: .125/.176/.250 (.426 OPS), 16 AB, 2 H, 2 2B, 2 R, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K, 0 SB

Ronald Torreyes: .400/.429/.500 (.929 OPS), 10 AB, 4 H, 1 2B, 0 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, 0 SB

Tyler Wade: .357/.444/.429 (.873 OPS), 14 AB, 5 H, 1 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 SB

Like I said, Torreyes vs. Wade will be very interesting over the course of the next few weeks here. In what I have watched of all three of these players through Spring Training, it seems as though Torres could use a quick tune-up in Triple-AAA, and the battle between Torreyes vs. Wade will decide who starts Opening Day. Torres should have better numbers- and he will due to his massive promise- so I wouldn’t worry about these poor numbers so far.

Starting Third Base: Miguel Andujar vs. Brandon Drury

After trading two prospects for Drury a few weeks ago, it seemed as though the Yankees were effectively saying that Andujar is headed back to Scranton to fix his mediocre defense. However, Andujar has been fantastic for the Yankees while he is donning the pinstripes, and has carried over the success into this year’s Spring Training season…along with his biggest competitor for the third base position. Both of whom are hitting over a 1.000 OPS, which is absolutely insane.

Miguel Andujar: .421/.421/1.158 (1.579 OPS), 19 AB, 8 H, 2 2B, 4 HR(!!), 5 R, 8 RBI, 0 BB, 4 K, 0 SB

Brandon Drury: .286/.375/.714 (1.089 OPS), 14 AB, 4 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K, 0 SB

If Drury continues to hit as he is, I think he is going to be the Yankees Opening Day third baseman. They obviously see something Andujar needs to work on at Triple-AAA (if not, it could be service time manipulation) and the Drury trade makes this semi-obvious. If Andujar is able to crack the big-league roster from his spring training play this year, it would only make sense to see Drury become the either the second baseman or the back-up infielder due to his experience at every infield position.

Back-up Infielder: Danny Espinosa vs. Jace Peterson

Now, the thing is it could very well be neither of these two who actually make the roster. Not only do they have to beat out each other, but also one of Ronald Torreyes/Tyler Wade and potentially also Brandon Drury (if Andujar makes the team). That being said, they are both good options to have stashed away in Triple-AAA, and at this point may be playing with the Yankees while auditioning for another club elsewhere.

Danny Espinosa: .222/.364/.444 (.808 OPS), 18 AB, 4 H, 1 2B, 4 R, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 9 K, 1 SB

Jace Peterson: .111/.429/.111 (.540 OPS), 9 AB, 1 H, 2 R, 0 RBI, 5 BB, 3 K, 0 SB

If these two were truly fighting for the bench, it’s pretty easy to see that Espinosa is much more likely to take the spot. However, given the rest of the field also fighting for other positions, it seems likely that neither of these two will make the team.

Starting Center Field: Jacoby Ellsbury vs. Aaron Hicks (vs. Clint Frazier)

Neither of these two have had a good first 10 Spring Training games, but as they are both destined to make the roster it’s really just about who is going to start (spoiler alert: It’s going to be Hicks). Unless Ellsbury starts to swing a crazy good bat through the rest of spring training, I think he is locked into the 5th Outfielder role on this team, mostly subbing for Gardner or Hicks maybe 3 times a week.

Jacoby Ellsbury: .100/.182/.100 (.282 OPS), 10 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 0 SB

Aaron Hicks: .214/.313/.500 (.813 OPS), 14 AB, 3 H, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 SB

Hicks is doing much better this spring, and Ellsbury is sidelined with an injury, but an interesting question if neither of these two really pop comes to mind: How would Gardner do in Center Field for a season? You could get Judge and Stanton in the corners, Gardner in CF, Ellsbury as the #4, and Hicks could probably fetch a fair amount in a trade. Obviously, this wouldn’t happen, but it seems like something that could be explored if these two don’t perform as expected.

(Clint Frazier would’ve found himself in this battle as well- given how he feels about his ability to play center field- but he suffered a concussion during a game. He’s been dealing with it, and found himself on the stationary bike yesterday, which is good news that he could return to action relatively shortly.)

Back-up First Base: Tyler Austin vs. Billy McKinney (vs. Adam Lind)

To finalize the post, we come to the position of the back-up first baseman. Greg Bird will start the season for the Yankees, and everybody is hoping that he will be able to stay healthy for the first time at the major league level. Beating those health/injury problems are key to a good season by the Yankees, but they have some options available just in case. In addition to our selected players here, Brandon Drury and Austin Romine have played some first base at the big-league level, so the Yankees could theoretically not pick any of these guys to bring with them to Toronto.

Tyler Austin: .153/.353/.615 (.986 OPS), 13 AB, 2 H, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 5 K, 0 SB

Billy McKinney: .231/.444/.692 (1.137 OPS), 13 AB, 3 H, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI, 4 BB, 3 K, 0 SB

Adam Lind: N/A (just signed a minor-league deal to the Yankees with a Spring Training invite)

Of the battles going on, I’d say this one will probably be settled relatively quickly in relation to the rest, as I’d imagine McKinney is going to go back to Triple-AAA for the reps at first and Tyler Austin has had injury problems of his own. My pick here to make the roster (if they even take a back-up first baseman) would be Lind. He did hit .303/.362/.513 last season and seems to be the best option to back-up Bird.

(All Stats came from the Yankees.com Spring Training stats webpage, here)