HAPPY HOLIDAYS, BUT YOU ARE FIRED!

Can you believe we are only two days away from Christmas? We hope you all have a wonderful day with friends and family. The holidays can be stressful, and something tells me it might be even more stressful for one particular person....maybe.

It didn't take long for the Yankees to part ways with bench coach Josh Bard and pitching coach Larry Rothschild....but now in late December the Yankees have fired another coach. So why did the wait so long to fire strength and conditioning coach Matt Krause?

I'm not sure, but it is a good question. Multiple sources are reporting the Yankees have parted ways with Krause, but we will go with the New York Post HERE. I was surprised when the Yankees let Rothschild go, he's not who I was expecting. After all of the injuries I was sure that the first change the Yankees were going to make would be the strength and conditioning coach. It was the logical answer after we watched 30 different Yankees land on the Injured List 39 different times. In 2018, the Yankees sent 20 different players to the Injured List 23 different times.

So clearly something wasn't working. The Yankees needed to make the change. Matt Krause was hired in 2014 and he has a lot of experience. Before his six years with the Yankees he spent 11 years with the Cincinnati Reds. In 2017, Krause was named Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association so what went wrong here?

We may never know, but when a man with this kind of experience is in charge of your strength and conditioning program the last thing you expect is for almost every player to miss time due to injury. Looking at the Yankees Opening Day roster, only Brett Gardner and Gleyber Torres did not miss significant time. The Yankees had lost seasons with Giancarlo Stanton who played in only 18 games, Luis Severino only made 3 starts and Dellin Betances faced two batters. The Yankees have been here before, anyone remember 2013?

In 2013, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter all missed time and in wake of the Yankees missing the postseason for the second time in 19 years, the Yankees fired Dana Cavalea as their strength and conditioning coach.....but they did it in October.

I wonder where the Yankees will go from here. Will there be more changes to the strength and conditioning staff? Given the amount of injuries and also setbacks, the rehab staff at the club's
Tampa spring training facility could also see some personnel changes. When you lose as many players as the Yankees did this season, something's gotta give.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @NYPrincessj