beyond the back page How far can the Yankees’ infusion of young and homegrown talent take them? By Ryan Dunleavy Published April 30, 2026, 7:41 a.m. ET The Yankees' Elmer Rodriguez delivers a pitch during his major league debut against the Rangers on April 29, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect For every “Core Four,” there are multiple Flopped Crops.
But just because the Yankees of Gary Sánchez, Miguel Andújar, Greg Bird, Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge only produced one superstar plus three sustained major leaguers — if you count Sánchez before his production fell off a cliff — doesn’t mean that the next generation of top prospects will fail.
Young faces mean hope in sports. Especially when it involves pitching.
Pause here for the Mets fan who survived “Generation K” — Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson — to roll eyes. Or for the younger Mets fan to gripe about the “Four Horsemen of Queens” rotation — Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz — never living up to its potential despite accounting for all five starts in the 2015 World Series.
