Yankees know that running it back means nothing if it doesn’t lead to the World Series title

TAMPA — Some of the first days of spring training can serve as a meet and greet.

But Wednesday at Steinbrenner Field might as well have been a big family reunion — and that’s even with most position players still across the street at the player development complex before reporting this weekend.

While the continuity of the Yankees’ roster from 2025 to 2026 has left much of the fan base confused due to a lack of change, the players themselves don’t appear to share the same concerns about rolling back the roster with largely the same group intact from their 94-win team.

‘We’ll turn it back, because halfway through [last season]we thought we built a team that was going to the World Series and we still believe that with all our hearts,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said Wednesday as pitchers, catchers and WBC competitors reported for camp.

“So for me, I don’t see a problem with running it back with four MVPs on your team.”

Some might argue that the problem is that those MVPs – Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Paul Goldschmidt – will be playing this season at ages 34, 30, 36 and 38, respectively.

And while Judge has won the MVP in three of the past four seasons, the only other MVP to come from that group this decade was Goldschmidt’s in 2022.

That said, the Yankees are counting on more than just that quartet to fuel another strong season that ends with a chance to play for the championship in October.

They return 24 of the 26 players who were on their ALDS roster last year when they were handed their lunch by the Blue Jays, who later came within inches of winning the World Series.

“If we play well, that’s a good thing,” Goldschmidt said of the running back. “If we don’t do that, that’s probably going to be the reason people say we’re not playing well. To me, the expectations of this organization, whichever players are there, is to win a championship. That has to be the mentality.”

“The camp hasn’t even started yet, but everyone knows what the Yankees are about. Everyone knows the expectations of the fan base, the ownership, the front office, the players. This is an organization that wins or goes bankrupt every year. That won’t change anything, whether it’s a similar group to last year or a completely new group.”

“We have to prepare, we have to do our best and that’s the most important thing. What we did last year, even if it’s a similar group, doesn’t matter. None of those wins carry over, none of those losses. So we’re starting from scratch and trying to build a team that’s going to play really well and hopefully win a championship.”

Of course, the team taking to the Steinbrenner Field this week is very different from the team that was here this time last year.

In that case, Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco were about to make a combined 15 starts, Gerrit Cole was about to make none, Cam Schlittler was headed to Double-A, Stanton was dealing with dual elbow issues and Ben Rice was still largely unproven as a mid-level threat.

It didn’t have the group of trade deadline additions — Ryan McMahon, José Caballero, Amed Rosario, David Bednar, Camilo Doval and Jake Bird — who now have their feet back under them and are more ingrained in the organization.

It also had what seemed like a more established bullpen, even if it didn’t always lead to better results.

But Goldschmidt’s comments about a fresh start echoed those of Aaron Boone, who will likely repeat some version of that message when he addresses the entire team ahead of Monday’s first full-squad practice.

“You’re starting over, so you don’t end up taking anything from last year with you,” Boone said. “It’s all a clean slate.”