Who is your favorite Yankee on the current team?

Over the past few weeks, the Yankees’ roster has changed quite a bit. For the first time in a long time, the Yankees opted to sell at the deadline and look to the future. This decision resulted in Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman, and Ivan Nova all finding new homes on different teams. Shortly after the deadline, the roster experienced another shakeup when Alex Rodriguez announced his decision to retire.

Faced with the task of filling multiple open roster spots, the Yankees decided to call up several prospects including Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Tyler Austin. The youth movement seems to be going full-steam ahead, and it’s almost like an entirely new team. After so many recent departures and call-ups, it seems to me that a lot of Yankee fans might be in the market for a new favorite player. Soon I will be in the same boat.

My favorite player is still on the team, but not for much longer. It is no secret that Mark Teixeira is my favorite active Yankee, and has been for years. I was immediately drawn to his power, stellar defense at first base, and his goofy faces. By the start of the 2009 postseason, I had already purchased a Tex shirsey, and my photo on Pinstripe Alley has been the one of him celebrating after the Yankees won the World Series since I joined the site back in 2010.

It was disappointing to watch Tex decline after his 2013 wrist injury, but it was great fun to see his 2015 resurgence at the plate (until his season was cut short by a leg fracture). I always knew that his contract with the Yankees would expire at the end of the 2016 season, and that it was incredibly unlikely that he would re-sign with the team. Yet, I was not expecting him to retire from the game completely. As Tex enters the last few week of his career, I’ve realized that I will have to choose a new favorite Yankee to root for the first time in seven years.

Although I still expect to feel sad when Tex calls it quits, now feels like a good time to pick a new favorite player as the Yankees transition towards this apparent youth movement. The team is playing better than it had been, there is a lot of hope for the future, and it feels exciting to get rid of some of the giant, lengthy contracts that have been around for years (no offense, Tex). It is not always the wisest decision to get attached to top prospects, but I did give in and purchase our new Aaron Judge shirt. Maybe one day I’ll even be able to change my PSA photo to one of him celebrating a World Series win.

Who is your favorite Yankee left on the current team now that Miller, Beltran, Chapman (and Nova) have been traded, and now that Alex Rodriguez has retired?