The first loss of the season came on Saturday (thanks, Tigers!) and the first losing day of the season was Saturday (also thanks, Brewers and Dodgers!). Thankfully, we can turn the page like Aaron Boone reminded everyone every single day last season, and Sunday is a new day with a new slate of games.
Here are the bets for Sunday, April 10.
White Sox -125 over Tigers It’s not often you get a matchup as favorable as the White Sox have on Sunday against Tigers’ lefty Tarik Skubal.
Tim Anderson (11): .500/.546/1.200 Luis Robert (1): .000/.000/.000 Jose Abreu (11): .455/.455/.546 Eloy Jimenez (2): .000/.000/.000 Andrew Vaughn (8): .286/.375/.286 Josh Harrison (3): .333/.333/.667 Adam Engel (3): .667/.667/1.667 Reese McGuire (0) Danny Mendick (7): .500/.571/.500
Sure, it’s not the greatest of sample sizes. It’s pretty much the smallest of sample sizes. But it’s something, and the White Sox are going to roll out eight right-handed hitters against Skubal, and righties have an .824 OPS against him in his career (lefties have a .620).
The Tigers handed me my first loss of the season on Saturday and now it’s time to get it back.
Braves -170 over Reds Hunter Greene makes his major-league debut on Sunday. He was outstanding in seven Double-A starts in 2021 and solid in 14 at Triple-A. But the former second-overall pick won’t be facing Double- or Triple-A lineups in his debut, he’ll be facing the World Series champions.
I love Ian Anderson. Since his 2020 debut when he nearly no-hit the Yankees, I have been a fan. In his first start of the season he gets the exceedingly weak Reds lineup at home. It’s a perfect way for a starter to begin a year.
This line was at -235 on Saturday and now it’s down to -165 on Sunday morning. I thought maybe the entire Braves roster went on the injured list and they were playing an all-minor-league roster. But no. Just a crazy money line swing in favor of the lowly Reds.
Brewers -130 over Cubs I’m going back to the Brewers well. Even though I wrote on Saturday that I’m not as high on the Brewers as nearly every other baseball fan and observer, and every projection, I can’t fathom them getting swept by this Cubs teams to begin the season. Saturday’s game was a debacle with the Brewers getting shut out 9-0, a day after blowing a two-run lead.
Marcus Stroman is really good and is probably the reason the line has dropped from the -130 I took it at down to -120. Then more money realized the Cubs really suck and their 2-0 record is a mirage, and the line has been bet back to -130. Freddy Peralta is also really good (and to me the Brewers’ true No. 2 and at times even a 1A to Corbin Burnes), though this game is more about the overrated Brewers offense being due to break out. Coming off a shutout loss, no better time than today.
More to come for the late afternoon games!
Braves -170 over Reds Dodgers -190 over Rockies Those are the lines for this parlay today. When I took this parlay yesterday, both money lines were over -200, which I why I put the two together. Now that the Braves fell to -170, I took them straight up as well. (Again, not sure what’s going on there. Yes, Greene could be lights out in his major-league debut, but even so, I don’t know how the Reds are scoring.)
I may just have to take the Dodgers straight up as well depending on how the early Braves game plays out.
Tigers +115 over White Sox The Tigers’ starting lineup on Saturday has crushed Dylan Cease with an .876 OPS in 75 plate appearances. The White Sox’ starting lineup has only hit for a .717 OPS against Casey Mize. When I originally saw this line, the Tigers were at +130. By the time I bet it, it had dropped to +115.
The Tigers stole the first game of the series when A.J. Pollock couldn’t cleanly catch a Javier Baez ball off the wall to give the Tigers’ a walk-off win after replay review. Kendall Graveman, Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks combined to throw 76 pitches, and I’m not sure if any will be available back-to-back games to begin the season when it will be 40 degrees with a feels like of 33 at first pitch in Detroit on Saturday.
Brewers -150 over Cubs This game and this matchup was supposed to take place yesterday. I’m still on it with some added value as it was -160 when I took it yesterday.
I’m not as high on the Brewers as most, especially projections, because their lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, they have a very strong rotation and a solid bullpen, but the only hitter to fear is Christian Yelich, and it’s going on three years since he has last been feared. Unless you fear ex-Yankee legend Jace Peterson who started at third base for the Brewers in their season-opening loss to the Cubs.
That season-opening loss to the Cubs is why I’m on the Brewers in Game 2 of the series. The Cubs are awful. They used their one good starter in Game 1, and used a Nico Hoerner two-run home run to help lead them to an unexpected win in a game started by Corbin Burnes. (Of course, Clint Frazier went 1-for-1 with a double in his Cubs debut. I will miss Frazier.) Back-to-back wins for the Cubs over the Brewers? I don’t see it. Especially since no one outside of Andrelton Simmons (5-for-7) hits Brandon Woodruff. I don’t expect Justin Steele to give the Cubs length on Friday (five innings would be his ceiling in an ideal scenario), so the Cubs will need at least four innings from their bullpen, and the Brewers will have many opportunities to win this one.
Yankees -155 over Red Sox The first batters in the Yankees’ lineup on Saturday are a combined 12-for-41 (.292) with five home runs against Nick Pivetta. The current Red Sox roster is miserable against Luis Severino. J.D. Martinez has a .921 OPS in 19 plate appearances, but that’s it. Jackie Bradley .533 (30 plate appearances), Xander Bogaerts .200 (25), Rafael Devers .143 (14).
I never feel confident picking these Yankees against these Red Sox, but the numbers suggest I’m foolish to feel this way. It’s Severino’s first start since Game 3 of the 2019 ALCS, and he will likely be held to even less of a pitch count than Gerrit Cole was on Friday at 75-80. Even so, I think a Yankees offense that struggled on Opening Day and got all of their runs via the home run and the automatic runner will bust out on Saturday. With Aaron Hicks sitting, Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield and Aaron Boone suddenly turning into a reliable manager in a one-game and two-day sample size, it’s lining up for a 2-0 start to the season for the Yankees.
Dodgers -145 over Rockies The Dodgers’ lineup doesn’t have very good numbers against German Marquez, but the Rockies’ lineup has abysmal numbers against Tony Gonsolin in a limited 30 plate appearances. But it’s the Dodgers against the Rockies, and there’s no reason the Dodgers shouldn’t be at least -200 every time they play the Rockies. It doesn’t matter that it’s Marquez and it doesn’t matter that it’s on the road. The Rockies suck.
Dodgers-Rockies Under 12 -115 The Dodgers-Rockies under 11.5 was cruising on Friday with two runs scored heading into the fourth. Then the Dodgers scored five times, forcing the Rockies to go to their bullpen and I figured the wager was lost cause. Needing 33 outs at Coors Field and only being able to give up four runs? Not a spot you want to be in. Thankfully, both teams put up zeros all the way until the bottom of the ninth when the Rockies scored a run.
I’m going back to the well on Saturday with the over/under increased by half a run. The Dodgers have a lesser pitcher going on Saturday in Gonsolin than on Friday in Walker Buehler, but the Rockies have a better pitcher going on Saturday in Marquez than on Friday in Kyle Freeland.
The result was there in that the Yankees beat the Red Sox, even if the way the Yankees went about getting the result was excruciating and painful.
Opening Day always puts me in a good mood, and after the way the 2021 season played out, followed by six months of no Yankees baseball, sandwiched around a three-month lockout that delayed the start of the season by a week, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday wondering how I would get through the next seven-and-a-half hours. Twenty minutes after waking up, I was reminded how I would get through the next seven-and-a-half hours when the 18-month-old down the hall woke up and let me know he was energized and ready for the day since he hadn’t stayed up watching late-night baseball like yours truly. With my pregnant wife (who’s due in less than a week) sleeping, I would be starting this Opening Day with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Even though the offseason had been a huge disappointment with the Yankees purposely choosing to gamble on their entire 2022 season, not even the penny-pinching Hal Steinbrenner or the still-whining-about-2017 Brian Cashman could damper my mood. As I sat through my 243rd career viewing of Mickey and Professor Von Drake trying to restore all the colors of the Clubhouse, I started to think about the Opening Day lineup.
Josh Donaldson has to lead off. Anthony Rizzo will bat third because Aaron Boone feels he has to break up Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. There’s no way DJ LeMahieu won’t be in the lineup. Gleyber Torres can’t play over LeMahieu.
Before I could think about how the bottom of the order would be constructed, I was being handed The Very Hungry Caterpillar to read.
As the morning went on, Judge’s contract extension became the focal point of the day, overshadowing the start of a new season. Judge had set a soft (and fake) deadline of first pitch of the season to agree to an extension with the Yankees (since if the Yankees offer him $300 million midseason, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to tell them the deadline had passed), and he had turned down the Yankees very fair offer of a seven-year extension from 2023 through 2029 at $30.5 million per season. For someone who will become a free agent for the first time at the advanced age in the baseball world of 30, and for someone who has missed 24 percent of the Yankees’ game since his major-league debut for various injuries, Judge comes off as rather foolish to reject the deal. I’m not sure if he’s in tune with how the free-agent market has played out in recent years, but a couple of weeks ago, Carlos Correa, whose three years younger than Judge and plays the more premium position, had to settle for a contract.
Cashman openly told the media and public the terms of the deal, so that the media and public would turn on Judge for not accepting the deal rather than turning on Cashman and ownership for not getting a deal done. Three-plus years ago the Yankees didn’t even meet with then-26-year-old free-agent Bryce Harper because they had Giancarlo Stanton locked up for a billion years, had Aaron Hicks who they were close to extending for seven years, had Clint Frazier waiting for his chance to be given a full-time or regular chance in the majors and would have to pay Judge, of course. Since then, the Yankees have done everything they can to not let Stanton play the outfield, Hicks has missed 68 percent percent of games following his extension, Frazier was released for nothing this offseason and now Judge still hasn’t been paid or extended. Nearly everything the Yankees have told their fans over the last four offseasons has been a lie. But again, Steinbrenner and Cashman couldn’t ruin my Opening Day.
The only people who could ruin my Opening Day would be Gerrit Cole, or the Yankees’ offense or Boone, or some combination of the three.
Cole tried his hardest to ruin the day, just like he had ruined the last game the Yankees played, against the same Red Sox in the one-game playoff in October, and just like he had ruined September by pitching like Nick Nelson, which had forced the Yankees to play that one-game playoff on the road.
Cole walked Kike Hernandez to begin the game and none of the four pitches were even close to the zone, as he looked like 2011 Dellin Betances trying to throw strikes. Cole needed to find the zone, so he grooved a first-pitch fastball to Rafael Devers, who took it for a strike. Cole went back to his fastball, and Devers planted it in the right-field seats. Two batters and six pitches in, and the Yankees trailed 2-0.
Four pitches later, Xander Bogaerts had himself an off-the-left-field-wall single, and 10 pitches into the season, the Yankees were conducting a mound visit. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, but at the same time, I could very well believe what I was watching as Cole has always struggled against the Red Sox, even during his time with the Astros, and he has also had trouble as a Yankee pitching well against the Blue Jays and Rays, all of which is a very big problem. It felt like I was reliving the wild-card game, but worse since Cole at least got two outs in that game before it unraveled and ended the Yankees’ season. So far he had faced three batters and hadn’t recorded an out.
After four batters, Cole still didn’t have an out. J.D. Martinez doubled down the right-filed line, and the Red Sox’ lead increased to 3-0. I wanted to laugh in order to not cry, but all I could do was sit in stunning disbelief. All I could think was thankfully my wife being due at any moment had prevented me from wasting my time, money and day at Yankee Stadium for this game.
Cole eventually got out of the first, needing 27 pitches to do so. For someone on a 15-20 pitch pitch count, he had just used 34-36 percent of his daily allotment of pitches to get three outs. Entering the game, the Yankees were likely going to need 12-15 outs from their bullpen, and now they were likely going to need to get something like 15-18 outs from their bullpen, which would impact their entire weekend. The game was on the brink of becoming a disaster, not just for Friday, but for Saturday and Sunday, and leading into the Blue Jays series as well.
With my most despised player in all of baseball in Nathan Eovaldi on the mound, Josh Donaldson swung at the first pitch of his Yankees career and grounded out to second. Judge swung at the first pitch of his post-turned-down-a-$30.5 million-per-year extension and blooped a single to right. Anthony Rizzo took the first pitch of his at-bat and then sent the next one into the right-field seats. The Yankees now trailed 3-2.
Cole settled in to put up zeros in the second, third and fourth, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a Yankee Stadium special for a solo home run to tie the game in the fourth. Cole’s day was over and the game was tied 3-3. Eovaldi didn’t have much left either, and so it would become a bullpen game for the last five innings, where the Yankees would have a decisive advantage, being able to rely on the strongest facet of their team with the Red Sox needing to rely on the weakest facet of theirs. The only thing that could screw it up would be the one who would decide which Yankees relievers would be used: Boone.
First Boone went to Chad Green, who pitched a scoreless fifth. Then he went to Clay Holmes, who did his job getting three ground balls (his specialty) with expected batting averages of .170, .250 and .120. The .170 went for a double inside the third-base line. The .250 moved the runner over to third. The .120 resulted in an RBI single with the infield pulled in. Holmes had done exactly what he was expected to do and the Yankees were once again losing, 4-3.
I can’t hear Garrett Whitlock’s name without thinking of the Yankees not protecting him in the Rule 5 draft to retain Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske. And here he was, following former Yankee bust Eovaldi with scoreless inning after scoreless inning against the Yankees. The Yankees’ lineup was going down with ease over and over, and I was just waiting for the Red Sox eventually add an insurance run or two and put the game out of reach.
There has been an unnecessary amount of talk of late about whether LeMahieu or Torres should play second base regularly, and it’s been hard to hear and stomach. It’s inexplicable that Torres could play over LeMahieu. This isn’t the beginning of 2019 when Torres was coming off an unbelievable rookie season and LeMahieu was signed as a super utility player and wasn’t in the 2019 Opening Day lineup. This is the beginning of 2022, and Torres has been barely a playable option since the start of the shortened 2020 season, while LeMahieu bad been the team’s MVP in 2019 and 2020 before playing through a hernia injury in 2021.
Thankfully, Boone made the sensical decision to play the two-time Gold Glove-winning LeMahieu at second base on Opening Day. As one of the only Yankees to have success against Eovaldi, the Yankees needed both LeMahieu’s bat and glove in the lineup, not Torres and the prayer that he might ever again become the player he was in 2018-19. With one out in the eighth, LeMahieu hit a game-tying home run off Whitlock. 4-4.
The game remained 4-4, and in the bottom of the ninth, Judge doubled with two outs, and the Red Sox chose to intentionally walk Rizzo to bring up Stanton against Hansel Robles. Stanton struck out on three pitches in one of the least competitive at-bats you’ll ever see, which included him swinging at the first pitch that bounced several feet before reaching the plate.
The gimmicky automatic runner on second in extra innings rule had found its way into Opening Day for the Yankees for the second straight season, and the Red Sox plated that automatic runner to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the 10th, Boone would call on Torres to make his season debut as a pinch hitter for Kyle Higashioka, who had the kind of forgettable day at the plate that he will have most times as a now everyday catcher in the majors. Torres was able to lift a fly ball to center to tie the game at 5. (After the game on YES, John Flaherty said he was confused why Boone pinch hit Torres for Higashioka. Apparently, Flaherty has never watched Higashioka play baseball.)
In the 11th, Michael King worked a perfect inning, looking as sharp as he always has out of the bullpen. (He should never be allowed to open or start a game. Just use him out of the bullpen.) And in the bottom of the 11th, Donaldson led off with a single up the middle to score the automatic runner and win the game for the Yankees.
Cole tried to ruin the game, and nearly did. The Yankees’ offense tried to ruin the game, and nearly did. The only one of my fears who never came close to ruining the game was Boone.
From batting Donaldson first, to playing LeMahieu over Torres and batting LeMahieu fifth, to pulling Cole after the fourth and going to Green then Holmes then Miguel Castro then Jonathan Loaisiga then Wandy Peralta then Aroldis Chapman then King, to pinch hitting Torres for Higashioka and to not bunting in extra innings, it was a masterpiece for Boone. It was easily the best managed game of his time as Yankees manager. Don’t get me wrong, all of these decisions were simple and logical, but nothing comes easy to Boone, so when he does so many things right in a single day, it’s remarkable and worth praising. Boone had many chances to screw up Friday’s game and he never did.
Four batters into the game, I had been dreaming about the lockout and how glorious those three months were without the Yankees to get worked up and angry about and to lose sleep over. By the end of the game, I was celebrating a walk-off win over the Red Sox with my 18-month-old son. (OK, I was celebrating and brought him into the celebration.) He didn’t know dad had just staved off a -170 money line loss, the Yankees had avoided yet another embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Red Sox, Cole once again couldn’t pitch well in a big game against not just a division rival but the rival, LeMahieu looked like his old self and Boone had finally displayed some semblance of being able to manager a Major League Baseball team.
The result was there in that the Yankees beat the Red Sox, even if the way the Yankees went about getting the result was excruciating and painful. It was a big win since every win is big, as proven by last year’s standings tie, which forced the Yankees to play the one-game playoff on the road, and it was mostly made possible by the decisions of Boone. What a way to start the season.
It’s Opening Day! (For the Yankees that is, and that’s all that matters, right?) OK, so it’s Opening Day 2.0. (To me, it’s the real Opening Day.) There are 13 games on the Friday schedule before we get our first full 15-game slate of 2022 on Saturday.
It’s Opening Day! (For the Yankees that is, and that’s all that matters, right?) OK, so it’s Opening Day 2.0. (To me, it’s the real Opening Day.) There are 13 games on the Friday schedule before we get our first full 15-game slate of 2022 on Saturday.
Here are the bets for Friday, April 8.
Yankees -170 over Red Sox If I weren’t a Yankees fan, I would be all over the other side of this pick. But I am a Yankees fan and it’s Opening Day, so there’s no way I’m sitting this one out, even though I don’t have a good feeling about this game (just like I didn’t have a good feeling about the same matchup in last season’s wild-card game), and I’m going against my own rule of taking a team straight up at -170 just because it’s the Yankees. I’m setting myself up for a very depressing Friday night if the Yankees lose since they will not only lose on Opening Day, but they will lose to the Red Sox of all teams, and cost me financially. Oh well!
Cole has always had trouble with the Red Sox dating back to his time with the Astros, and as a Yankee, whether he’s been using sticky stuff or not, his troubles have continued against them. (To make matters worse, the Yankees’ ace also has a problem pitching well against the Rays and Blue Jays. No big deal.) The last time he pitched against them was just over six months ago when he single-handedly ended the Yankees’ season four batters into the first inning. Cole was thoroughly embarrassed in the last game the Yankees played, and injured hamstring or not, he chose to take the ball and has to live with the fact that his performance, both in September and in the one-game playoff ruined the Yankees’ season. It was his September collapse that forced the Yankees into playing that one game on the road, and it was his one-game playoff performance that ended the season.
“Sick to my stomach,” is what he said following the Yankees’ elimination a little more than six months ago. He has had to wear that effort for the last half-year and now he has a chance to begin redeeming himself against the Yankees’ rival. It doesn’t mean he will, it just means he can, if he pitches well. And with his knack for deep counts and elevated pitch counts, and with an expected pitch count of about 75-80 on Friday, it’s not hard to see Cole lasting only four innings in this game. Not great! (Again, this is a very ill-advised wager.)
I despise Nathan Eovaldi. He is the face of my last few All-Animosity Teams after a bust of a Yankees tenure that has led to him becoming the pitcher the Yankees thought they acquired from Marlins, except for the Red Sox. He has dominated the Yankees as a Red Sox, while also playing an important role in the Red Sox’ 2018 championship. It makes me sick. Not metaphorically “sick to my stomach” like Cole said after Eovaldi outpitched him to end the 2021 season, I mean actually, violently sick. I get hives thinking about Eovaldi and body aches and fatigue watching him mow down the Yankees.
These Red Sox have owned Cole, and Eovaldi has owned these Yankees. It’s foolish of me to know all of this, write all of this and still wager actual money on the other side of everything I think about this matchup, especially at -170 and especially with Cole supposedly not being allowed to get close to 100 pitches. But like I said, it’s the Yankees and it’s Opening Day, and I can’t sit this one out, even if that’s the sensible thing to do. If Cole only lasts four or five innings, at least the Yankees’ bullpen is the biggest edge they have over the Red Sox.
Brewers -160 over Cubs I’m not as high on the Brewers as most, especially projections, because their lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, they have a very strong rotation and a solid bullpen, but the only hitter to fear is Christian Yelich, and it’s going on three years since he has last been feared. Unless you fear ex-Yankee legend Jace Peterson who started at third base for the Brewers in their season-opening loss to the Cubs.
That season-opening loss to the Cubs is why I’m on the Brewers in Game 2 of the series. The Cubs are awful. They used their one good starter in Game 1, and used a Nico Hoerner two-run home run to help lead them to an unexpected win in a game started by Corbin Burnes. (Of course, Clint Frazier went 1-for-1 with a double in his Cubs debut. I will miss Frazier.) Back-to-back wins for the Cubs over the Brewers? I don’t see it. Especially since no one outside of Andrelton Simmons (5-for-7) hits Brandon Woodruff. I don’t expect Justin Steele to give the Cubs length on Friday (five innings would be his ceiling in an ideal scenario), so the Cubs will need at least four innings from their non-Mychal Givens/David Robertson relievers, and the Brewers will have many opportunities to win this one.
Mets -160 over Nationals The Mets were the first bet of the season, and I wish I had wagered more. Sure, the Nationals have the best hitter in baseball in Juan Soto, but after Soto and Nelson Cruz (who I will always fear even if he’s still playing at age 50), that’s it. They are a really bad team destined for an abundance of losses and a last-place finish in the NL East. I will enjoy betting against them all season.
Dodgers -210 over Rockies Braves -180 over Reds Yeah, yeah, I know parlays are for suckers. Well, I’m a sucker on Opening Day. After six-plus months without Yankees baseball, five-plus months without any baseball and a three-plus month lockout that nearly destroyed this season, I’m putting together a parlay. I don’t care.
The Rockies’ roster is atrocious, like 90-plus losses atrocious. Charlie Blackmon has had exceptional success against Walker Buehler in 56 plate appearances (.385/.411/1.045), and Brendan Rodgers (.308/.308/.769) and C.J. Cron (.429/.429/.571) have done well against the right-hander in a limited 27 plate appearances, but that’s it. The rest of the current Rockies team hasn’t hit Buehler. Buehler hasn’t pitched well in 65 career innings at Coors Field (4.98 ERA), but a lot of those innings came against a Rockies team that had Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story and still-in-his-prime Charlie Blackmon. The innings on Friday won’t come against that Rockies team.
Kyle Freeland is a solid pitcher, who has a remarkable 4.20 career ERA in 654 innings given that he’s only ever pitched for the Rockies. The problem for him is his inability to record strikeouts. It’s not that a career 7.0 K/9 is something to scoff at (7.8 last season), it’s that it’s 2022 and in this era of baseball, not having a 1-to-1 strikeout-to-inning ratio as a starter is shocking. The Dodgers’ collective team numbers against Freeland aren’t anything special (.731 OPS), but the right-handed hitters have done well against him, and you can expect a right-handed heavy lineup against him. At most, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger will be the only lefty starters, and Bellinger has an .821 OPS against Freeland.
Even if Freeland is able to hold down the Dodgers’ two times through the order, the hooks are going to be quick on all starters because of the shortened spring training and their inability to be fully stretched out. That brings in the Rockies’ X-factor of manager Bud Black, who is arguably the worst manager in all of baseball. He makes Aaron Boone look like Joe Torre, and Black coupled with a bullpen that flat-out sucks at Coors Field is how you get a run total sat at 11.5 in a game started by Cy Young contender Buehler.
As for the Braves-Reds games, I have never liked betting on Braves game. They (along with the Cardinals) are the team that will screw me either way I go. But after losing their first game of the season to the Reds, I don’t think they lose back-to-back to a Reds team that is horrible simply because their front office is actively trying to lose this season.
Dodgers-Rockies Under 11.5-115 It seems like no Coors Field under is ever a good idea. I have been crushed many times on 13.5s there, but 11.5 is a lot of runs in a game in which Buehler will start. The Dodgers could cover this on their own against the Rockies’ bullpen, but there’s too much value in being able to 1.28 runs per inning with someone as good as Buehler pitching against a lineup as bad as the Rockies’.
Unfortunately, as a Yankees fan, the roster the Yankees have put the together is the one I have to root for. After months of writing and talking about the missed opportunity the franchise purposely created for itself, this week I need to put that aside and pray that what changes the Yankees did make will be good enough to win in 2022.
This offseason sucked. There’s no other way to look at it. The Yankees had an opportunity to completely upgrade their roster, change the comfortable-with-losing culture their manager has instilled within the clubhouse and become the clear favorite to win the American League and get back to the World Series. They instead chose to make marginal-at-best roster upgrades, extend the manager for three more years (with an option for a fourth year) and you would have to be a Steinbrenner, a good friend of Brian Cashman or the biggest Yankees apologist of all time to consider them the favorite, as of now, to win the pennant.
Unfortunately, as a Yankees fan, the roster the Yankees have put the together is the one I have to root for. After months of writing and talking about the missed opportunity the franchise purposely created for itself, this week I need to put that aside and pray that what changes the Yankees did make will be good enough to win in 2022.
No one expected the 2016 Yankees to be any good. And they weren’t.
They got off to a 9-17 start, and it was obvious they had to tear apart the team and play prospects, and by this time every fan wanted them to do just that. Free agency had been the Yankees’ strategy since the early 2000s and a way for the team to plug holes on their sinking ship. It worked at times as they were able to tread water, have winning seasons and reach the playoffs, but over the previous 15 years, they had won one championship. Eventually you need to start over. Eventually you need a new boat. The game had changed too much and the Yankees needed a new boat and Yankees fans wanted a new boat.
At the end of play on July 6, 2016, the Yankees were 41-43 and it looked like they would certainly be sellers at the deadline in three weeks, but ownership wasn’t on board. The Yankees then went on an 11-5 run through July 26, and were now in striking distance of a wild-card spot — only four games back — and ownership hadn’t budged on selling and giving up on the season for future seasons.
The Yankees then lost their next four games, one in Houston and a three-game sweep in Tampa Bay. It was the best thing to happen to the organization since the Astros, Indians, Expos, Orioles and Reds passed on Derek Jeter in the 1992 draft, allowing the Yankees to select him with the sixth overall pick. The losing streak pushed the Yankees out of reasonable contention, ownership gave Brian Cashman the green light to trade his veteran assets and begin the transition into “rebuilding mode.”
Andrew Miller (Indians), Aroldis Chapman (Cubs), Carlos Beltran (Rangers) and Ivan Nova (Pirates) were all traded, and Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira announced their retirements. Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge were called up to become everyday players, and in the process, Brian McCann was relegated to backup duty, which would lead to his offseason trade to the Astros. (A trade in which the Yankees would pay McCann to beat them in Game 7 of the ALCS). The Yankees had finally decided to show off the depth in their farm system, and thanks to that four-game losing streak at the end of July, the depth only got deeper with the top prospects they received in return.
The 2017 Yankees weren’t supposed to be good either, picked by many to finish near or at the bottom of the AL East in what was certainly going to be a rebuilding season. But there ended up being no “rebuilding.” The Yankees seemingly hit on every prospect who reached the majors and the team went from preseason dud to postseason bound, winning 91 games and putting up a plus-198 run differential.
The 2017 Yankees overcame a 3-0 first-inning deficit in the wild-card game. They overcame an 0-2 series hole to the 102-win Indians to advance to the ALCS. They overcame another 0-2 series hole to the Astros to bring a 3-2 series lead to Houston for Games 6 and 7. Ultimately (to use Aaron Boone’s favorite word), they came one win shy of reaching the World Series for the first time in eight years.
For 2018, the Yankees essentially replaced Chase Headley, Starlin Castro and Jacoby Ellsbury with Giancarlo Stanton (the reigning NL MVP), Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres and the Aaron Hicks who was drafted in the first round. But once again, they came up short in the postseason.
The 2017 postseason loss wasn’t crushing. Rather it was an exhilarating ride, being back at a raucous Stadium seemingly every night in October and watching a young, homegrown core get within a game of the World Series. The 2018 postseason loss, on the other hand, was crushing. After once again winning the wild-card game, and taking a game in Boston, the Yankees became the favorite in what had become a best-of-3 with two games at the Stadium where they didn’t lose. Not only did they lose both, they were embarrassed in every facet of the game, especially managing, and their rival celebrated on their field en route to a championship season.
Because of the way the season ended and the team it ended against, 2018 is viewed as a disaster, and rightfully so. But if you go back to 2016, 2017 and 2018 were never supposed to be about the Yankees. They were supposed to be about the Indians and Astros and Red Sox and Cubs and Dodgers, and they were. The timeline Yankees fans were given and expected prior to Opening Day 2016 was always 2019, these Yankees just happened to arrive early. The 2017 and 2018 Yankees gave us two unexpected years of championship contention even if it didn’t end with a championship.
Going back six years, 2019 was always circled as the first season the Yankees would truly contend for a championship, and they did. But in what has become a decade-long trend, the team fell short with inconsistent starting pitching in October coupled with an inability to get a timely hit. Two years after losing to the Astros in the ALCS in seven games, the Yankees lost to them again, this time in six games, losing four of the final five games of the series for the franchise’s fourth ALCS in 10 years. Ultimately (I’m trying to use this word as often as Boone does in one of his postgame press conferences), the first season of the Yankees’ championship window came and went without a championship.
The 2020 season was to be the Yankees’ best chance at ending their championship drought, but things started to unravel in spring training with Luis Severino going down for the season, James Paxton needing a back procedure, and the entire starting outfield of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks expected to miss as much as the first half of the season. The shutdown in mid-March allowed for Paxton, Judge, Stanton and Hicks to heal, but it turned a 162-game season in which the Yankees’ depth would separate them from the rest of the division and likely league into a 60-game season mess. A second straight injury-filled season led to a mediocre 60-game performance from the Yankees, and in the postseason, the bats once against disappeared and Boone did all he could to eliminate his team in five games against the Rays.
The Yankees were the odds-on favorite to win the American League in 2021. They got off to a 5-10 start, were 12-14 at the end of April and 41-41 on the Fourth of July. A 13-game winning streak in July and August saved their season, only to be followed by losing 12 of 15 in August and September. The odds-on favorite to win the AL finished fifth in the AL, third in their own division and their postseason was over after nine innings.
The night the Yankees lost Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS I wasn’t upset. The series loss and losing both chances to advance to the World Series was disappointing, but the future of the team was so bright and so promising that losing to the eventual champions in seven games in a season in which the Yankees weren’t supposed to even be part of the postseason race didn’t hurt the way many other postseason eliminations have. Then again, I didn’t think the Yankees would be here having played four seasons with nothing to show for it other than embarrassment (2018), frustration (2019), humiliation (2020) and disaster (2021).
The grace period with these Yankees ended after 2018. (Unless you’re Cashman and believe the Yankees actually won the 2017 World Series, then the grace period is still going.) The 2022 season is now the current core’s fourth season in their “window of opportunity” to win a championship, and the window has closed much faster than expected, if it’s even still open. The season-crippling injuries to Severino, Judge, Stanton, Hicks and Luke Voit coupled with the underperformance of players like Sanchez, Torres, Sonny Gray and James Paxton over the last four years have caused the championship drought to continue. Only two players remain from the Game 7 lineup from the 2017 ALCS: Judge and Hicks.
There’s no more consolation prize for coming within a game of the World Series or winning 100 games and then getting blown out by your storied rival or losing in five games in the first round or eeking your way into the playoffs on the final pitch of the regular season. There’s no more excuses and no more “next year”. These Yankees were expected to truly contend in 2019 and it’s now 2022.
The Yankees set themselves up for the most second-guessed roster construction of all time if their 2022 creation doesn’t work out. Before and after lockout, they passed on every star, passed on every starting pitcher and passed on the A’s firesale. At the team’s end-of-the-season press conference on Oct. 19, Cashman said he would be making “upgrades” and that he would use the “free-agent marketplace” and “trade market” to acquire the available “legitimate options” for said upgrades. The “legitimate options” will be playing for the Dodgers, Braves, Rangers, Mets, Red Sox, Twins and Padres in 2022. None of them will be playing for the Yankees.
This is the team Yankees fans were given to root for and to get behind. This is the roster we are being asked to support and follow and invest our time and money into for the next six (and hopefully seven) months.
A year ago on Opening Day, Gerrit Cole couldn’t get through the sixth inning against the Blue Jays (a trend that would continue all season for the Yankees’ ace against the Blue Jays, Rays and Red Sox). Boone went to Nick Nelson, of all relievers, for the 10th inning in a 2-2 game with the automatic runner on second, and he promptly allowed Randal Grichuk to break the tie with a double. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th, Boone’s No. 3 hitter Hicks took three pitches, all strikes, for the first out and Stanton took two strikes then swung through the third pitch of his at-bat before Torres struck out on five pitches. I wish I had turned off YES after the last pitch of that game and not turned it back on again for the rest of the season. Hundreds of wasted hours, dangerously high blood pressure, heartache and mental and physical fatigue would have been avoided.
I don’t want to look back on the 2022 season like I do the 2021 season and regret having wasted so much time. With the roster Cashman has created, it’s a real possibility. It’s not just a possibility, it’s the most likely outcome. For now, I will do my best to believe this roster can win. As a Yankees fan, I don’t have a choice.
