The Yankees will be playing baseball in October. The moment the postseason field was expanded to eight teams they were going to be playing baseball in October, but now it’s official.

Last season, I wrote the Off Day Dreaming blogs on every off day, but this season there aren’t many off days. There aren’t many games. So instead, I have decided to use the Off Day Dreaming format following each series. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each series this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees’ winning streak had to come to an end at some point. Unfortunately, it came to an end against the Red Sox and the Yankees finished the season series 9-1 against their “rival.” I use that term loosely now since the Red Sox were bad last season, horrendous this season and there doesn’t seem to be a timeline on when they migth be good again. For the forseeable future, the Yankees and Yankees fans will have to worry about the Rays and Blue Jays.

2. The AL postseason field is essentially set: Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, White Sox, Twins, Indians, A’s and Astros. The order of the teams isn’t set, but those are the eight teams. With only seven games left for the Yankees and six for other teams, it seems as though they will be the 4-, 5-, 6- or 7-seed, and that means they will likely not face the Astros, Indians or Blue Jays, leaving the Rays, White Sox, Twins and A’s as possible opponents in the best-of-3. My preference for the best-of-3 opponent in order: Twins, White Sox, A’s, Rays.

3. It’s crazy the postseason begins in eight days and it’s sad the Yankees’ season could be over in nine days. It feels like the baseball season is just beginning (because it pretty much is) and now it’s over. And once it’s over it will be back to an offseason hiatus after this past offseason lasted nearly nine months. The postseason is about winning a championship, but it’s also about extending the season and shortening the offseason as much as possible. A series win in the best-of-3 means at least another three games and another week of baseball. A series win in the ALDS means at least another four games and another week of baseball and so on. I’m not ready to go back to a baseball-less world after this past offseason.

4. I agree with Aaron Judge in that I also hate the playoff bubble. I get why the league has to do it and I understand that any positive test could ruin the postseason, I just hate the fact October will be decided in neutral stadiums, even if there would be no fans at teams’ actual stadiums. If the Yankees get through the best-of-3 series and get into the bubble, are they going to wear pinstripes for their “home” games? I hope not. Just wear the road grays for every bubble game. Again, if they get there.

5. Rob Manfred has alluded to the eight-team postseason format becoming a permanent thing. The second it was implemented this season, it was going to be a permanent thing. Did anyone think the owners, who proved they could care less about the actual game or the integrity or long-term future of the sport this year, were going to not want more guaranteed postseason money after 2020? If it were up to the owners, all 30 teams would make the postseason and play a month-long, bracket-style tournament to decide the World Series. They don’t care that a 16-team postseason field would render the regular season meaningless and destroy their fan base over six months as long as they get that guaranteed money in October. They don’t care if regular-season ratings and attendance (when it’s allowed again) decline. Guaranteed postseason money and the most possible postseason games is what drives their decision making.

6. As a Yankees fan, a permanent eight-team postseason means the Yankees will never miss the playoffs. Never. There’s no chance the Yankees aren’t a Top 8 team in the AL in any season. The last time the Yankees weren’t a Top 8 team in the AL was back in 1992. Even when Lyle Overbay was batting cleanup every day in 2013 or in 2016 when they sold and finally gave in to a rebuild, they were still a Top 8 team. It also means it will be signfiicantly harder for them to win a championship with the additional best-of-3 series. I hate everything about the eight-team postseason format. The one-game playoff in the current five-team format is awful enough, but letting more than half the league into the postseason is the worst possible idea.

7. After J.A. Happ laid an egg against the Phillies in the first week of August, I wrote J.A. Happ Can’t Start Another Game for Yankees and recorded a podcast titled Remove J.A. Happ from Rotation. I stand by both of those. If given enough chances, Happ would eventually turn in some good starts, and he was given those chances because of money owed and the Yankees’ refusal to let Clarke Schdmit take his rotation spot. Since that clunker against the Phillies, Happ has been very good in six starts: 37.1 IP, 27 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 5 BB, 36 K, 4 HR, 1.93 ERA, 0.857 WHIP. Now only one of those starts has come against a postseason team (Toronto), a team only going to the postseason because of the ridiculous eight-team format, and the other five have come against the Mets (2), Red Sox (2) and Orioles. Happ has been great of late, but his competiton hasn’t been, and I don’t trust him for a second come October. He could throw a perfect game with 27 strikeouts this week and I still wouldn’t feel confident in giving him a postseason start. The lineups he will face in the postseason are nothing like the four lineups he has shut down over these last six starts. Unfortunately, Jordan Montgomery has been mediocre to bad to horrible in the majority of his starts and the Yankees don’t have another choice other than to let Happ start with no days off in either the ALDS or ALCS.

8. There’s not anyone out there who still thinks Mike Tauchman is a better player or better for the Yankees than Clint Frazier, right? Unless you’re part of Tauchman’s immediate family, you can’t think that. Even if you’re a relative of his, but not in his immediate family, you can’t think that. Frazier has solidifed his role in the 2020 Yankees’ starting lineup and has likely made it so that one of Tauchman and Brett Gardner aren’t on the 2021 Yankees. (I would pick Gardner over Tauchman.) Along with DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit, he has carried the Yankees’ offense, has vastly improved his defense and has become a complete, all-around player. Now maybe the Yankees will stop batting him at the bottom of the order and several spots behind Aaron Hicks when the “A” lineup is used.

9. I have a bad feeling. A very, very, very bad feeling Hicks will bat third in the postseason against a right-handed starter. The Yankees did it last year with Gardner and it might have cost them the ALCS with his first-inning at-bat in Game 3 against Gerrit Cole with Gleyber Torres inexplicably batting fifth. The Yankees have a lot of options and different ways they can construct their Top 6 for the postseason. It shouldn’t include Hicks. It shouldn’t, but it will.

10. Erik Kratz’s inning of work on the mound was easily a Top 5 moment this season. It might even be Top 3. Everyone loves Kratz. I have called for him to be the Yankees next manager as early as next season. (The Yankees already handed over their team in the middle of a championship window to a manager with no managerial or coaching experience, why not do it again?) But I’m rescinding that wish and wish for him to be re-signed as a third catcher/reliever for 2021. Between his knuckleball and his 81-mph fastball that kept Red Sox hitters off balance (aside from J.D. Martinez who sucks so bad now he can only hit against position players), to me, Kratz is the most trusted current Yankees reliever after Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Chad Green, Adam Ottavino and Jonathan Loaisiga. I might even trust him a little more than Chapman and Ottavino. But I certainly trust him more than Jonathan Holder, Luis Cessa, Michael King and Nick Nelson. I’m not kidding. Give me that knuckleball over those four.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

Three days ago, the Yankees were barely better than the Orioles. They were barely better than the Tigers or Mariners. They were a .500 team hanging on to the eigth and final postseason spot. After five straight wins, they finally look like the team that was once 10 games above .500 with the best record in baseball.

Last season, I wrote the Off Day Dreaming blogs on every off day, but this season there aren’t many off days. There aren’t many games. So instead, I have decided to use the Off Day Dreaming format following each series. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each series this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. This weekend clinched the Yankees a postseason berth. No, not officially, and no, they shouldn’t start giving multiple players unnecessary rest per game again, but the Yankees are going to the postseason. At 26-21, the Yankees have 13 games remaining. If they were to play under .500 baseball and go 6-7 (.462), they would finish at 32-28. To pass them, the Mariners would have to go 11-3 (.786), the Orioles would have to go 13-2 (.867) and the Tigers would have to go 13-2 (.867) as well. Yes, the Yankees could only win six of their 13 remaining games given their inconsistent play this season, but it’s unlikely with six games left against the Red Sox and Marlins. It’s even more unlikely any of those three teams would win at their needed rates if the Yankees were to go 6-7.

2. The Yankees’ five-game winning streak has them a 1/2 game back of the Blue Jays for second in the AL East and an automatic postseason berth. It has also moved them ahead of the Indians and into seventh place in the AL postseason standings. As of now, the Blue Jays would be the 5-seed and play the 4-seed Twins. The Yankees would be the 7-seed and play 2-seed Rays. I don’t think any Yankees fans needs to be told the difference in magnitude in playing a best-of-3 against the Twins versus playing a best-of-3 against the Rays.

3. It’s still impossible to know which seed to root for the Yankees since the postseason standings change daily, though if I had to rank the seven other AL teams in order of which I want the Yankees to most play to least play, it would go like this:

Twins
White Sox
Blue Jays
Indians
Astros
A’s
Rays

Nothing needs to be said about the Twins. I don’t care that the White Sox are currently in first place in the AL. They’re not the best team in the AL and they’re certainly not the best built or the most feared. They have a solid rotation, an OK bullpen and a free-swinging lineup. The Blue Jays’ pitching sucks. After those three teams, I wouldn’t feel confident against any of the other four.

4. Supposedly, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton will return next week, in time to get a week’s worth of at-bats before the postseason. How much a week’s worth of at-bats will be is unknown since I could see the Yankees playing them on alternating days as the designated hitter in the organization’s latest attempt to prevent injuries. When asked on Sunday about how the return of Judge and Stanton will affect Clint Frazier, Boone said, “I think Clint is very much in the mix.” What? “Very much in the mix?” Frazier is the mix. He has been the one that has actually played this season. He has been the one that has stayed healthy. He has been the one that carried the offense along with DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit.

5. As I said last week, if Frazier doesn’t play because two guys who never play finally return, I will actively root against the Yankees. That’s not a joke. I will root as hard as I normally do for them to win, for them to lose. I will go as far as to buy apparel for whichever team they face in the playoffs if I have to.

6. If Judge and Stanton do come back (and I will believe they are back when I see them playing in real games), the Yankees will have some lineup decisions to make. They’re not hard decisions to make. At least not to me. However, I could see the Yankees struggling to make these decisions and inevitably making the wrong decisions.

7. This should be the Yankees’ postseason lineup if the entire offense is healthy:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Luke Voit, 1B
Gleyber Torres, SS
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Clint Frazier, LF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B

But I think the Yankes will either do this:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Luke Voit, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gleyber Torres, SS
Clint Frazier, LF
Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B

Or this:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Luke Voit, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Gleyber Torres, SS
Clint Frazier, LF
Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B

A left-handed hitter doesn’t need to bat third. I repeat: A left-handed hitter doesn’t need to bat third.

8. I know it doesn’t mean much, but Gary Sanchez’s at-bats have been much better the last few games. It has nothing to do with his two-game benching since he looked horrible immediately after that. He has looked more confident at the plate, is drawing walks, and the outs he puts in play seem to be rockets lined right at fielders. Sanchez can’t finish the shortened season with respectable numbers. All he can do now is focus on having the best possible postseason he can have because everyone gets a clean slate in October, and a big October from Sanchez will make all of his critics forget and forgive his regular season.

9. It was nice to see Gerrit Cole pitch like Gerrit Cole on Friday. I said on the Yankees Podcast on Friday that Cole needed to go out and pitch all seven innings of the first game of the doubleheader, and he did just (7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K), dominating the Orioles in a game the Yankees had to win. The win was Cole’s fifth of the season and the seven shutout innings lowered his ERA to a more Cole-like 3.20. It’s going to be tough for him to cover my preseason prediction that he would have a sub-2.50 ERA this season since he will only get two more regular-season starts, but I don’t care about that. I care about him building off this start and continuing to pitch like that before he gets the ball in Game 1 of the best-of-3.

10. J.A. Happ can keep pitching the way he pitched against the Blue Jays and the Orioles and it doesn’t matter, he’s not getting a postseason start. He can’t get a postseason start. Under no circumstances is he getting a postseason start. Shutting down the Orioles is nice. Who would feel good about Happ against the offenses of the White Sox, Astros or A’s? Cole in Game 1, Masahiro Tanaka in Game 2 and Deivi Garcia in Game 3. As of now, that’s what it has to be.

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Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes after every game throughout the season.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!