Hard to argue... or face... a starting rotation like the one the Yankees are sporting heading into the 2020 regular season. 

The Yankees landed Gerrit Cole via free agency this offseason to headline a rotation which already included the likes of Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino and James Paxton. That, plus a strong 2019 season despite a ton of injuries, make the Yankees the favorite for MLB's best record in 2020, according to oddsmakers. 

Odds Shark released the over/ unders for each MLB team in 2020 on Monday and the Yankees sit atop the list at 101.5 wins, the only club above the century mark. 

Steroids blew up the record books, changed the way we look at Cooperstown talent and cast a shadow of distrust and suspicion over the National Pastime.

Sign stealing has polluted the World Series, besmirched talented championship teams, cost four prominent executives their jobs - so far - and is making some wonder if technology should be banned from ballgames.

With the current uproar over sign stealing, there seems to be a natural urge to measure one modern scandal against the other. Both plunged spiny tentacles deep into the soul of the baseball, but which is worse, getting jacked up chemically to play better, or swinging based on ill-gotten electronic intel?

Th Houston Astros held their 2020 FanFest on Saturday at Minute Made Park, which gave reporters a chance to hear from the players themselves on the team's sign-stealing scandal.

The Astros recently fired manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow after both were issued one-year suspensions by MLB following the league's investigation into the team's sign stealing. 

Jose Altuve, one of the players at the center of the scandal, said that the Astros will be able to put all of this behind them, and that they'll be in the World Series again this season. 

On Friday's Baseball Night in New York, SNY's John Harper and Anthony McCarron, along with Newsday's David Lennon, revealed their 2020 ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

While Derek Jeter appears on all three ballots -- as he awaits to find out if he will join teammate Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous Hall of Famers - there were some notable differences between the three ballots, mainly due to baseball's steroid era.

The Hall of Fame class of 2020 will be announced on Tuesday, January 21. Here is a look at the complete ballot.

David Cone, currently a Yankees analyst with the YES Network, could potentially be in the mix for a spot on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team.

According to a report from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN and Cone have been in talks about a role at ESPN, which could include Sunday Night Baseball.

Marchand reports that Alex Rodriguez will remain a key part of the broadcast, and that ESPN executives liked the way Rodriguez fit in with Cone and Michael Kay during a YES broadcast this past season. 

The Chicago Cubs have reportedly considered adding former Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, per MLB Network's Jon Heyman.

Ellsbury, 36, was released by the Yankees on Nov. 20 after injuries forced him to miss both the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He signed a seven-year, $153 million contract with the Yankees in 2014, batting .264 with 39 homer runs and 198 RBI in 520 games from 2014-17.

He was under contract through the end of the 2021 season, and was set to make $21 million in 2020. The MLB Player's Association filed a grievance against the Yankees to recoup the remaining $26 million on Ellsbury's contract, including the $5 million buyout added to it.

With the Yankees entering the 2020 season as the heavy favorites to win the World Series, the ZiPS projections certainly make that seem possible.

The annual projections from Dan Szymborski/FanGraphs see Gleyber Torres hitting more home runs than Aaron Judge, another dominant season from Gerrit Cole and a bounceback season from Giancarlo Stanton.

However, their projections for Gio Urshela and Mike Tauchman see the duo taking a step back from their breakout seasons last year.

MLB threw down their punishment on the Astros for their sign-stealing scandal, but more accusations continue to fly around the team. This time, the shade is being thrown at their star second baseman Jose Altuve. 

In what was a wild news day that saw another manager in Carlos Beltran relieved of his duties with the Mets, video and images were surfacing about the Astros scandal, and how it may be deeper than just the center field cameras.

There were claims that Astros players were wearing buzzers under their jerseys that would indicate pitches to them during at-bats. Altuve, though, denied any involvement in using that method through his agent, Scott Boras. 

Former Yankees starter CC Sabathia has already voiced his frustration about the Astros sign-stealing scandal earlier this week. But, in the latest edition of his R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco, he took it a few steps further. 

Sabathia didn't hold back how he felt this time, using all of his vocabulary to express his emotions about how he believes the Yankees should have won a 28th title. 

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN

The Yankees agreed to trade LHP Stephen Tarpley to the Marlins in exchange for minor league 3B James Nelson and cash considerations, the team announced on Wednesday. 

Tarpley pitched in 31 games for the Yankees over the past two seasons. He didn't fare well in 2019 with a 6.93 ERA in 24.2 innings of work. He was decent in 10 appearances in 2018 where he allowed three runs in 9.0 innings. In the Marlins' rebuilding system, Tarpley has a chance to break camp with the big club to get some more time in the majors. 

Induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame isn't the only honor heading Derek Jeter's way in the near future.

According to amNew York, Vanessa Gibson and Diana Ayala, two Bronx councilwomen, are introducing legislature to rename a section of E. 161 Street as "Jeter Street," with voting expected to pass the proposal without issue. 

Jeter isn't the first Yankee to be honored with a street renaming. Mariano Rivera, who was unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame last year, saw part of River Ave renamed "Rivera Ave."

Amid all the fervor surrounding Alex Cora and the sign-stealing scandal, an old press conference video that resurfaced has gone viral, and it involves the Yankees. 

But SNY's Andy Martino reaffirmed the fact that MLB is still not investigating the Yankees. 

Following the Red Sox' beatdown by the Yankees in the inaugural London Series last year, Cora can be heard talking about then-Yankees special advisor Carlos Beltran, and he did so in an interesting way. Listen to his opening answer...

The Red Sox and manager Alex Cora have mutually agreed to part ways, the team announced in a statement Tuesday night.

"Today we met to discuss the commissioners report related to the Houston Astros investigation. Given the findings and the commissioners ruling, we collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward and we mutually agreed to part ways," the Red Sox said in their statement.

Cora was the bench coach for the Houston Astros in 2017, the year that the team won the World Series...but also the year in which the timeline of their cheating scandal occurred.

Former Yankee pitcher CC Sabathia said that he feels "cheated" by the Astros sign-stealing scandal, which has officially been confirmed by MLB after they concluded their investigation on Monday with a report detailing the cheating.

Sabathia was a part of the 2017 Yankees team that met the Astros in the ALCS that season, a series which went to a Game 7 that was played in Houston. The Astros won every game at Minute Maid Park that series, and would go on to beat the Dodgers in the World Series.

"As everything's been coming out, and the more facts that we get, it's getting frustrating, man, to sit here and know that late in my career I could've had a title, maybe '17 or maybe '18, but we got cheated out of a team kind of doing something that's not within the rules of the game," Sabathia said on Tuesday night's episode of "Inside The NFL" on Showtime.

MLB cracked down on the Astros Monday, suspending manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow through the entire 2020 season for their roles in the team's sign-stealing scandal. Houston's owner, Jim Crane, furthered that punishment by announcing both Hinch and Luhnow had been fired. 

And that's not all. The Astros have also lost the first- and second-round picks for the 2020 and 2021 MLB Draft, and finally were fined $5 million to conclude the harsh penalties. 

But, to some, it wasn't harsh enough. 

CC Sabathia is joining the Yankees front office as a special adviser to general manager Brian Cashman, according to the New York Post.

A role with the Yankees was something that Sabathia had his sights set on even before he officially retired following his injury during the playoffs.

"I want to be a part of the Yankees still, front office, whatever, however we can work that out," Sabathia told The Post last May.

Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |

Brian Cashman spent several years constructing what he hoped would be the next great Yankees team. He took a step back in the standings, traded away stars and focused on his farm system.

Those efforts created a championship window, which opened in 2017 -- also now known as the year that the Houston Astros initiated one of the most significant cheating scandals in the history of the game.

Over the next three Octobers, the Yankees lost to Houston, then to Alex Cora's Boston Red Sox, and then to Houston again. They saw a significant chunk of their window wasted by unethical opponents.

MLB handed down stunningly harsh penalties to Astros manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow on Monday for their involvement in Houston's sign-stealing scandal, suspending both of them for one year.

Shortly after the suspensions came down, Astros owner Jim Crane announced that he had fired Hinch and Luhnow.

In addition to the suspensions of Hinch and Luhnow, MLB has stripped the Astros of their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 MLB Draft and fined the team $5 million.

Yankees outfielders Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner were recognized Saturday on MLB Network as two of baseball's top 10 center fielders, making New York the only team with a pair of players to crack the list.

Los Angeles Angels star and 2019 AL MVP Mike Trout topped the list, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers' Cody Bellinger and the Houston Astros' George Springer.

Hicks and Gardner manned the position for the Yankees in 2019, with the veteran Gardner -- who previously started out in center throughout his early career -- stepping in for Hicks after he had an injury-shortened season.

Former Yankees pitching prospect Yefry Ramirez has signed with the Mets, according to a report from MLB.com's Matt Kardos

Ramirez made his debut in 2018 for the Orioles and stayed in Baltimore until May of the 2019 season, when he was traded to the Pirates. The 26-year-old has a 1-10 record with a 6.32 ERA and 89 strikeouts.

It took quite some time for the RHP to make his way up the ranks after being signed by the Diamondbacks as an international free agent in 2011. 

The Yankees might have an interesting situation brewing at the hot corner.

Or at least, they might have until general manager Brian Cashman made a definitive statement on Friday. 

That position belongs to Gio Urshela, despite Miguel Andujar returning from injury. 

There isn't a lot of room to maneuver in the Yankees' starting rotation. 

Their offseason was highlighted by the addition of Gerrit Cole to a monster contract and Cole joined the likes of Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka. 

But that's not discouraging Jordan Montgomery. 

Yankees' top-pitching prospect Deivi Garcia looked back on the 2019 Futures Game as a positive experience. 

Garcia, now 21, had a 1-2-3 first inning of action in the game which included a strikeout. 

At the time, Garcia, who was promoted to Triple-A Scranton after the game, looked back on the outing in a positive light.

The Yankees made official what SNY's Andy Martino confirmed last month, announcing that they have signed outfielder Brett Gardner to a one-year deal with a club option for 2021. Martino reported in December that the deal is worth $12.5 million, with the 2021 club option set for $10 million.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Gardner, LHP Stephen Tarpley was designated for assignment.

Aaron Hicks underwent Tommy John surgery in September, so Gardner figures to be the team's starting center fielder when the season gets underway.

Friday is the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to come to terms on a contract for the 2020 season.

The Yankees tendered contracts to all off their arbitration-eligible players earlier this offseason, with James Paxton, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez the biggest names in that group. 

If a player and team are unable to come to terms, their salary will be set during an arbitration hearing later this offseason.

John Harper, SNY.tv | Twitter |

The Yankees have been searching for an ace since CC Sabathia's last truly dominant season, 2011, when he went 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA and pitched 237 innings. Along the way they were foiled by Masahiro Tanaka's elbow ligament tear and then Luis Severino's curious inconsistency/shoulder injury. 

Into that void steps Gerrit Cole, the $324 million man, and if he delivers the greatness expected of him, he not only could get the Yankees over the championship hump, but his presence as the No. 1 starter raises an intriguing question:

How high is the ceiling on the 2020 rotation? 

The Yankees may have found their answer at backup catcher, as MLB Network's Jon Heyman reports the team has agreed to a minor league deal with veteran Chris Iannetta on Thursday. WFAN's Sweeny Murti had the Yankees close to a deal.

Iannetta brings 14 years of MLB experience to the Yankees, having spent time with the Rockies, Angels, Mariners and Diamondbacks over his career. However, being on that minor league deal, he isn't being guaranteed that backup role behind Gary Sanchez. 

Kyle Higashioka and Eric Kratz are also on the roster, and will vie with Iannetta for that spot on the 26-man roster. Iannetta, though, does have the upper hand given his experience and better numbers. 

Failed Yankees prospect Garrison Lassiter, whose minor league career ended after the 2011 season, filed a strange lawsuit against the team in December of 2018, alleging (among other things) that Derek Jeter was part of the reason why he never made the majors. He also compared himself to Dodgers star Corey Seager.

Lassiter sought millions of dollars he felt were owed to him due to his allegation that the team -- and not his poor play -- was responsible for him never reaching the majors and earning the millions that eventually would have been waiting for him there.

When filing the lawsuit while representing himself, Lassiter introduced Exhibits A and B. Exhibit A was 'COREY SEAGER STATISTICAL HISTORY' and Exhibit B was 'GARRISON LASSITER STATISTICAL HISTORY.'

One of many Yankees hindered by injuries throughout the 2019 season, Giancarlo Stanton had his second year in New York cut short as he battled back from several ailments.

Stanton played in only 18 regular-season games, slashing .288/.403/.492 with three home runs and 13 RBI while missing 144 games because of a handful of injuries to his biceps, shoulder, knee and quad.

After the injuries wiped him out for all of May, July and August, Stanton enters Year 3 with the Yankees hoping to bounce back -- and New York manager Aaron Boone believes the power-hitting OF/DH can do so.

The Yankees made a minor move to add to their pitching staff on Tuesday, reportedly agreeing to a minor-league contract with right-hander Nick Tropeano.

The deal, reported by MLB Network's Jon Heyman, includes an invite to 2020 spring training in Tampa, Fla.

For the 29-year-old Tropeano, agreeing with the Yankees is a New York homecoming, as he grew up in West Islip on Long Island and attended Stony Brook University.

Baseball America has released its Top 10 prospects for the Yankees heading into the 2020 season, and while some prospects make perfect sense on the list, one certain omission stood out. 

Estevan Florial, once the Yankees' top prospect, has fallen off the Top 10 list. This came after a down year in High-A ball with a .237/.297/.383 slash line with eight homers and 38 RBI over 74 games. 

So, with Florial off the list, here's how it looks:

There are always questions surrounding the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot every year, but maybe none are bigger than whether or not Derek Jeter will be a unanimous inductee when all the ballots are handed in. 

So far, that's the way things are trending. 

Thanks to Hall of Fame ballot tracker Ryan Thibodaux, we know that all 138 public ballots -- and four anonymous ballots that have been revealed -- have Jeter's name checked off on them. 

Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |

On Sept. 15, 2017, Major League Baseball fined the Boston Red Sox an undisclosed amount for using Apple Watches to convey signs stolen from the Yankees.

MLB also fined the Yankees a lesser amount, leading to a common misconception that both teams engaged in espionage at that time.

At the time, the league announced that the Yankees had "violated a rule governing the use of a dugout phone." What MLB didn't say was that no one had accused the Yankees of cheating.

Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar has been rehabbing his way back from his torn labrum surgery, and he looks to be right on track for the start of Spring Training.

Manager Aaron Boone said on MLB Network Radio Tuesday that Andujar is throwing and taking ground balls in the Dominican Republic at the moment, and should be good by the time Spring Training rolls around. 

"We believe he's going to be totally healthy as he enters Spring Training and good to go," Boone said. 

Sign stealing has been a big bugaboo for the MLB in the wake of the Astros cheating scandal, but as SNY's Andy Martino found out, Houston believed other teams were using technology to decode signs as well.

On Tuesday, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich reported that the Yankees biggest rival, the Red Sox, were allegedly using a video replay room to steal signs during the 2018 season.

To give some context, the Red Sox -- and the Yankees -- were both fined back in 2017 "for conduct related to electronic sign stealing." Those video replay rooms, which were implemented to help managers get information quickly in potential challenge situations, were being used to steal sign sequences.

The 2020 MLB season is a lot closer than we think, with pitchers and catchers reporting in about a month to their respective camps to gear up for the long 162-game journey. And Yankee fans might be counting down each day until the new season after taking a look at the roster that is absolutely stacked yet again. 

Gerrit Cole might really be that one missing piece the Yankees need to make their return to the World Series. Their only omission from their starting lineup is Didi Gregorius, and his production can easily be matched by Gio Urshela if he can replicate his breakout season in 2019.

Then, there's still Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, Gary Sanchez, and more making a World Series worthy team that many will be scared to face this season. 

The Yankees were the most injury-riddled team in baseball during the 2019 season, and now the team is making huge changes to its training staff.

According to Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, the Yankees are making a number of drastic changes to their training and performance staff. Steve Donohue, who has been with the organization since 1979 and with the major league staff since 1986, will be transitioned to "a status akin to trainer emeritus, though it's expected he'll remain involved with the club."

Additionally, the Yankees are hiring Eric Cressey, who runs Cressey Sports Performance and hosts an Elite Baseball Development podcast, to oversee their training and strength and conditioning staff. 

Aside from 16-year-old wunderkind OF Jasson Dominguez, who is viewed as a future star, the Yankees are lacking sizzle when it comes to most of their top 10 prospects.

RHP Deivi Garcia is one of the names to keep an eye on as far as potential impact in 2020 is concerned, with him being a potential option in the starting rotation or bullpen at some point.

As far as a breakout candidate for 2020, MLB Pipeline gives that honor to RHP Clarke Schmidt, who was the Yankees' No. 5 prospect entering last season.

As a New York native who was in the Yankees organization since 2006, Dellin Betances opened up about his time wearing pinstripes coming to an end.

After more than a decade in the organization, the Yankees passed on re-signing Betances, who ultimately inked a one-year deal with the Mets. Betances suffered a right shoulder impingement and had a lat strain that kept him on the injured list to start the 2019 season, and partially tore his left Achilles during Sept. 15's debut, effectively ending an eight-season run with the Yankees.

When he was introduced Thursday at Citi Field by general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, Betances was asked about if there were any regrets with how his Yankees chapter closed.

Major League Baseball is suspending Yankees RHP Domingo German for 81 games. The news was first reported by Hannah Keyser of Yahoo Sports. 

The suspension is retroactive to Sept. 19, when German was first placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball under the joint MLB-MLBPA Domestic Violence Policy at the end of the 2019 season. The ban was extended Sept. 25 into the postseason.

It includes the nine regular-season games in 2019 and subsequently into the playoffs, where the Yankees logged nine games between the Minnesota Twins (three-game ALDS) and Houston Astros (six-game ALCS). So German will miss the first 63 games of the 2020 season.

Don Larsen, who has pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, passed away Wednesday at age 90.

According to Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, Larsen died while in hospice care in Idaho, due to esophageal cancer.

Larsen pitched five seasons with the Yankees from 1955-59, and his career in pinstripes is remembered for his perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Larsen needed just 97 pitches to finish the game, striking out seven Dodgers along the way. 

As 2019 comes to a close, we're reminiscing about the sports moments that affected New York over the past 10 years. So we decided to rank them.

Here are the Top 10 sports moments of this decade...

10) No-Han: Johan Santana throws first no-hitter in Mets history

John Harper, SNY.tv | Twitter |

Perhaps the 2010s can be explained simply as the law of averages catching up with the Yankees, a reminder of just how remarkable it was to navigate the postseason so flawlessly while winning four championships in five years two decades ago. 

More likely the teams of this decade simply weren't quite as clutch or complete as those Joe Torre ballclubs that remain the last dynasty we've seen in baseball.

Either way, this decade will be remembered dubiously in the Bronx as the first one in 100 years in which the Yankees didn't make at least one World Series appearance. 

We've collected some of our end-of-year content as we start 2020. A version of this story originally published on Nov. 18, 2019.

Danny Abriano, SNY.tv | Twitter |

Most experts view the Yankees' farm system overall as middle of the pack, with many of their most exciting prospects -- including 16-year-old wunderkind Jasson Dominguez -- in the lower levels.

John Harper, SNY.tv | Twitter |

For a franchise that brands itself as championship or bust, the Yankees' failure to reach the World Series over an entire decade for the first time in 100 years made the 2010s hugely disappointing, despite seven postseason appearances.

Still, it had its moments, linking the nostalgia of its Core Four-past with the promise of its Baby Bombers-future. 

When the Yankees open up spring training in Tampa, Fla. in Febuary, manager Aaron Boone expects to have Miguel Andujar at full capacity. 

"[Andujar] is doing really well,'' Boone said Friday. "I expect him to be ready to go for spring training.'' 

Boone made an offseason trip to the "office" Friday, handling duties for the opening coin toss of the Pinstripe Bowl, played at Yankee Stadium.

From firsthand experience, Bernie Williams knows what it feels like to face pressure -- and thrive -- in New York with a big contract.

The former star CF from 1991-06 -- all in New York -- was a five-time All-Star and four-time World Series champion with the Yankees, signing a seven-year deal worth $87.5 million along the way.

So when Williams was asked about the Yankees' new deal for RHP Gerrit Cole, who recently signed a nine-year contract worth $324 million, he offered his advice.

The Yankees and Edwin Encarnacion have officially parted ways, as the slugger has reportedly signed with the Chicago White Sox on Christmas Day.

Multiple reports have confirmed that Encarnacion will head to Chicago on a one-year, $12 million deal that has a $12 million club option for the 2021 season. Encarnacion gets $11 million outright and another $1 million as a signing bonus.

The DH now joins Didi Gregorius and Dellin Betances as players who have left the Yankees this offseason for new opportunities.

We've collected some of our end-of-year content as we approach 2020. A version of this story originally published on Dec. 11, 2019.

With the Yankees landing Gerrit Cole and transforming their starting rotation in the process, the question becomes how Cole will perform in 2020 and beyond.

Cole became a dominant force after joining the Astros, posting a 2.68 ERA/2.67 FIP and 0.96 WHIP with 602 strikeouts (13.1 per 9) in 412.2 IP in 2018 and 2019.

So how will Cole fare in 2020 during what will be the first year of his nine-year deal?