Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
By the end of this week—as they start a 10-game stretch with seven games against Baltimore—the Yankees will have played a quarter of their schedule. Okay, we’re not yet to Memorial Day and the great Sparky Anderson always considered 60 games a benchmark for where a team is headed. But with the way this team looks, it’s not too early to declare this team the best in baseball this year—with a chance to join the company of historic teams.