Keefe To The City

There was a time last year when a large faction of Yankees fans wanted Austin Romine to be the everyday starting catcher for the Yankees. The same Romine who entered 2018 with a career .220/.263/.314 batting line and seven home runs. The same Romine who had previously been designated for assignment by the Yankees and went unclaimed by the rest of baseball in the process. The same Romine who had lost his job seemingly to every other catcher in the Yankees system and a bunch of journeymen catchers they had picked up throughout his time in the organization.

That’s how bad things were for Gary Sanchez in 2018. Despite finishing second in Rookie of the Year with only 53 games played in 2016 and then hitting 33 home runs with 90 RBIs as an All-Star in 2017, the Austin Romine Fan Club (the Rominers) were quick to forget Sanchez’s talent level and abilities. Sanchez struggled to a .186/.291/.406 line in only 89 games, while battling injuries, but still managed to slug 18 home runs and drive in 53 runs. But the perception of the one-time face of the franchise prior to Aaron Judge’s emergence had become that he was lazy, fat, lacked hustle, was poor defensively and didn’t give 100 percent. At the same time, there was a perception that Romine was better than him defensively, could hold his own offensively and was the type of player the Yankees needed. Mike Francesa went as far to say Austin Romine deserved to start somewhere in the league, if not with the Yankees.

It was bad enough the Yankees front office continued to believe Romine was the best possible option as a backup for the team that having fans and the media think he was better than Sanchez was unfathomable. The 2018 perception of both players was completely wrong. Thankfully, 2019 has fixed it.

Sanchez has returned to his pre-2018 form this season, batting .263/.336/.653 with 14 home runs and 30 RBIs, even after a two-week absence for a leg injury suffered in Houston in April. He is winning games and breaking open games the way he did for the last two months of 2016 and all of 2017. He’s once again the power threat he was against the Indians and Astros in the 2017 postseason and the game-wrecking force he was when he single-handedly won the only game of the ALDS last season. As the President of the Gary Sanchez Fan Club, and someone who stuck by him through last year’s lost season, I couldn’t be happier to have the Yankees’ biggest advantage back.

Sanchez presents such a huge advantage offensively at his position over every other team it’s inexplicable any fan could have wanted to bench him or trade him for someone like the overly-coveted J.T. Realmuto, who is two years older than Sanchez, and through today has 20 career home runs less in 1,072 more plate appearances. During Monday’s game YES relayed the fact that since arriving in August 2016, Sanchez has the most home runs in baseball for a catcher, and that was before he went deep again on Tuesday. Since Aug. 3, 2016, Sanchez has 85 home runs and Yasmani Grandal has 65. That stat is impressive even before you realize Sanchez missed a month of 2017 and 45 percent of 2018.

The Romine over Sanchez “debate” has completely halted this season, not only because Sanchez is mashing home runs and has tightened things up defensively, especially when it comes to passed balls, but also because Romine has been nearly unplayable, hitting a paltry .191/.203/.265. Fortunately for Romine, the only other catching option is Kyle Higashioka and he’s not an upgrade. Romine isn’t going anywhere because there isn’t another option and because the organization loves him, which they have proven by bringing him back time and time again, turning down better options. The Sanchez-Romine controversy was never about Romine though, he just happened to be the subject idiot Yankees fans were defending. I want Romine to succeed and always have, and I would like for nothing more than for him to be a serviceable option at the plate on days when Sanchez is off.

Now that the unintelligent idea Romine ever deserved to play over Sanchez has been put to rest, I think every Yankees fan who ever said Romine should be the starting catcher for the Yankees should send a handwritten formal apology letter to Sanchez. Then they should shut up, sit back and watch the Yankees’ biggest lineup advantage and appreciate that one of the best hitting catchers of all time is on their team.

***

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

I feel bad for Miguel Andujar. He successfully dodged trade rumors in both 2017 and 2018 and then went on to bat .297/.328/.527 with 27 home runs and 92 RBIs as a 23-year-old rookie, finishing second to in Rookie of the Year voting to an unprecedented freak who’s both dangerous at the plate and dominant on the mound. His defense was more than questionable at times with his cannon-like arm unable to make up for his sloppy footwork and poor positioning. His inconsistent and untrustworthy defense forced him to the bench in the late innings as the season progressed and out of the lineup completely in the final game of the 2018 Yankees season.

With Manny Machado no longer a long-term option for the Yankees, Andujar was going to be the guy in 2019 and beyond, and he spent the offseason working to prove he could handle the hot corner. Both he and the Yankees desperately want his future to be at the hot corner and not at first base or in left field or simply as a designated hitter. Three games into thus season, he dove back to third base (why he was leading so far off third base with two outs to begin with is a story another day) and tore the labrum in his right shoulder. The initial diagnosis was possible season-ending and career-altering surgery, and just like that, all of his hard work in the offseason would possibly be erased.

Andujar and the Yankees went the rehab route, and 34 days after he tore his labrum, he was back in the lineup, playing third base and batting fourth. He beat Aaron Hicks (hurt his back on a 35-minute bus ride on February 27), Giancarlo Stanton (bicep strain on March 31) and Troy Tulowitzki (calf strain on April 3) back to the team despite having what one would think is a much more severe injury.

During Andujar’s 34-game absence, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela, the former Cleveland and Toronto defense-first infielder. Now 27, Urshela is no longer a prospect, and after batting .225/.274/.315 in 167 major league games had been type-casted as a utility infielder or late-game defensive replacement. Urshela claimed he fixed his approach and mechanics at the plate over the offseason to make himself a more well-rounded player, but how many other hundreds or thousands of baseball players have claimed the same only to maintain the numbers on the back of their baseball card?

Whatever Urshela actually did in the offseason worked. While Andujar was getting healthy, Urshela batted .338/.405/.492 and played Gold Glove defense at third base. Since Andujar’s activation from the injured list, Urshela hasn’t slowed down, going 5 for 10 with a double , a home run and 2 RBIs. That home run, of course, being the ninth-inning, game-tying, two-run home run to Monument Park on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, Andujar has looked like a player who missed more than a month at the plate (2 for 15) and a pair of errors in his only start at third since his return.

Now, the same way a lot of Yankees fans turned on Gary Sanchez last year, calling for Austin Romine to be the team’s starting catcher (a group of people I refer to the as the Romines), there is the same call for Urshela to be the Yankees’ starting third baseman, even when the entire roster is back at full strength, if that ever happens.

For now, injuries make it possible for both players to play with Andujar DHing and Urshela starting at third most of the time. But if the Yankees do ever get 100 percent healthy, there will come a time when there are too many players and not enough spots in the lineup and on the roster. I realize that’s a great problem to have, and we might never be presented with it with the way the injuries have piled up and keep piling up this season and the way the Yankees slowly bring back their players.

If the 2019 Yankees were 100 percent healthy, here is who would be the candidates for a spot on the 25-man roster.

Gary Sanchez
Luke Voit
Gleyber Torres
Miguel Andujar
Didi Gregorius
DJ LeMahieu
Gio Urshela
Troy Tulowitzki
Aaron Judge
Aaron Hicks
Giancarlo Stanton
Brett Gardner
Clint Frazier
Cameron Maybin
Austin Romine

Luis Severino
Masahiro Tanaka
James Paxton
J.A. Happ
CC Sabathia
Domingo German
Jonathan Loaisiga
Aroldis Chapman
Dellin Betances
Adam Ottavino
Zack Britton
Tommy Kahnle
Jonathan Holder
Luis Cessa

That’s 15 position players and 14 pitchers for 29 total players, which means four players would have to go.

Despite my love for Johnny Lasagna, he would go back to Triple-A and remain a starting option.

Unfortunately, even though I have always been a Cameron Maybin fan and feel he’s a better player than Brett Gardner in 2019, he would also lose a roster spot.

I think the Yankees would cut ties with Troy Tulowitzki, considering he’s on a one-year deal at the league minimum and is barely hanging on to a career.

Since the Yankees seem so set on having a 13-man pitching staff (though I have no idea what would happen with their rotation since you can’t demote German to the bullpen or minors with the season he’s had, so I guess they would go to a six-man rotation, which might be helpful given the fragility of their rotation), then the last roster spot would get taken from a position player, and I have no idea who that player would be.

Even deeper than that, how would you fill out a lineup card? How do you not play LeMahieu? Who plays third? How do you keep Frazier out of the lineup? Who becomes the DH?

The Yankees could potentially have a great problem with too many players worthy of a 25-man roster spot, and not enough spots for everyone. Thankfully, this decision doesn’t have to be made today, and it most likely will never have to be made. If it does have to be made, I hope the roster and lineup decisions are based on performance and not history, money owed or seniority.

***

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

You didn’t need to go to the bathroom or take a shower or get a beer. If you blinked, you might have missed Masahiro Tanaka erase a four-run lead in the fifth inning on Thursday night in Anaheim. Two starts ago, Tanaka blew a four-run lead to the White Sox by giving up a grand slam and this time he blew it with a pair of two-run home runs.

Tied 4-4 heading to the bottom of the sixth, Aaron Boone let Tanaka put two more baserunners on and with two outs, he finally went to his bullpen. With runners on first and second and a right-handed hitter up, I expected to see Adam Ottavino. Ottavino had made only two appearances and thrown 46 pitches over the last six days and this might be the highest-leverage situation the game would have. His slider repertoire against a light-hitting, right-handed 8-hitter? It was about as perfect of a matchup as you could ask for to get out of the inning. Boone didn’t think so, most likely opting to save Ottavino for later in the game, once again allowing the inning and not the situation determine which reliever he uses. Boone instead went to his personal favorite: Jonathan Holder.

Holder quickly got ahead of David Fletcher 0-1. Gary Sanchez then called for a slider and flipped his glove over expecting a slider low and away, but Holder threw a fastball, surprising Sanchez and getting by him to allow the runners to move up to second and third. A single now didn’t mean one run, it meant two, and sure enough, Holder missed his spot on the 2-2 pitch and gave up the inevitable two-run single.

I wasn’t surprised Holder allowed both inherited runners to score, effectively losing the game. I expected it. The moment YES panned to him walking out of the bullpen I knew what was going to happen. I feel like you shouldn’t expect the worst out of a reliever the organization continues to trust with games on the line, but there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense with the Aaron Boone Yankees.

Last season, Holder blew the the third game of the season when he allowed an inherited runner to score and followed that up by allowing six earned runs in his next two appearances over 2 1/3 innings, which forced him to Triple-A. Upon his return, Holder pitched to a 0.88 ERA over his next 35 games and 41 innings with hitters batting .148/.196/.230 against him.

Holder’s stock dramatically rose on May 9 when he entered in the eighth inning against the Red Sox at the Stadium with the Yankees trailing 6-5. Chasen Shreve left Holder with runners on second and third and one out (because of course he did) and Holder was able to get out of the inning unscathed. The Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to win 9-6.

Despite Holder’s improbable run, I still didn’t trust him in a big spot, even if Aaron Boone and the organization did. On August 2 in Boston, my feelings toward for Holder were justified.

In the first game of the pivotal four-game series in Boston, the Yankees held a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth. CC Sabathia had labored through three innings, throwing 77 pitches and putting seven runners on base, so Boone made the right decision to go to his bullpen to begin the fourth inning, but made the wrong decision of who he was going to: Holder.

Holder’s three-month stretch had earned him important innings and none to date would be more important than the ones he was about to pitch. The Yankees were trailing the Red Sox by 5 1/2 games in the division, needing to win the series to even think about winning the division over the final two months of the season.

Holder entered and walked the nearly-impossible-to-walk 9-hitter Jackie Bradley on five pitches. After that, what unfolded was the single worst relief appearance I have ever seen and will likely ever see in a Major League Baseball game. Including, the walk to Bradley, here’s how Holder’s appearance went:

Bradley walks
Mookie Betts doubles, Bradley to third
Andrew Benintendi reaches on fielder’s choice to pitcher, Bradley scores, Betts to third
Benintendi steals second
Steve Pearce three-home run
J.D. Martinez doubles
Ian Kinsler singles, Martinez scores
Kinsler steals second
Eduardo Nunez doubles, Kinsler scores

Holder faced seven batters and didn’t retire one of them, giving up four extra-base hits and seven runs and likely needed to change his underwear after being consumed by the Fenway Park crowd in the biggest game of the season. With a chance to get back in the division race for the last time, Holder rewarded the Yankees with a performance fitting of his level of trust to everyone outside the organization. His line for the game: 0 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.

This season, Holder has been his usual self, which is the self the Yankees don’t feel he truly is. Rather than recognizing his three-month run last season as an unfathomable overachievement like we have seen in the past from a reliever like Brian Bruney or starters like Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon, the Yankees believe Holder is their next elite reliever, and they keep treating him as if he’s already one.

Holder’s line this season: 13.1 IP, 15 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 5.40 ERA, 1.350 WHIP. He has made nine appearances this season, giving up earned runs in six of them and allowing four of six inherited runners to score.

I don’t trust Jonathan Holder, but it’s not his fault. The reason I don’t trust him is because I’m forced to in big spots and high-leverage situations, and he’s not that kind of reliever, rarely ever coming through. He’s good (at times), but he’s certainly not great, and he’s certainly not worthy of the spots Boone keeps using him in.

With Chad Green being sent down after Tuesday’s win, the Yankees are already down one formerly trustworthy reliever, leaving them with only Ottavino, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman until Dellin Betances returns. Unfortunately, there will be high-leverage situations in which Boone won’t go to his best relievers (for illogical reasons, like trying to prevent injuries which aren’t preventable or continuing to manage to the inning and not the situation), but he can’t go to Holder. Tommy Kahnle has started to look more like his 2017 self and Luis Cessa has proven he’s better suited as a reliever than a starter in the majors, and I now trust those two more than I do Holder.

Eventually, Boone and the Yankees will realize Holder isn’t their next 2017 Green and he’s nowhere near the level of Ottavino or Britton, let alone Betances. They just need to realize it before it costs them more games.

***

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

I wasn’t upset when the Yankees lost on Thursday night, destroying the momentum they built with a two-game sweep of the Red Sox and falling to 3-7 at home against the Orioles, Tigers, White Sox and Royals. As I wrote on Thursday, I have tempered my expectations when it comes to these Yankees, and it’s hard to expect much, let alone winning streaks, until some combination of Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar and Didi Gregorius return to the lineup.

Thankfully, the Orioles were able to beat the Rays in extra innings and being swept by Tampa Bay to keep the Yankees at 5 1/2 games back in the division. I don’t expect the Yankees to go on any sort of extended run while they continue to bat four Triple-A to major-league-backup-at-best players in their lineup each day. The most important thing they can do right now is avoid being buried in the division race before their real everyday players return.

I don’t know what to expect from the Yankees for the rest of this four-game series against the Royals. I would like to think even these Yankees could easily handle this Royals team, but it’s hard to know which Yankees will show up on a given night? Will it be the Yankees who can’t hit Homer Bailey or Ivan Nova or will it be the Yankees who had a lead against Justin Verlander, beat Chris Sale and ruined Ryan Brasier?

The Yankees are now 8-10, but if I were to pick a time for these Yankees to play with some consistency and “turn Aaron Boone’s corner” for even three games, it would be this weekend. Because while the Yankees are hosting a very, vey bad Royals team, at the same time down in Tampa, the Rays are playing the Red Sox. There is potential for ground to be made up on the Rays or further separation from the Red Sox to occur in the standings with a winning weekend from the Yankees.

The question for Yankees fans is who to root for in Tampa? The answer is just no sweep. If the Yankees can win three straight, and there isn’t a sweep in Tampa, they will gain ground on Tampa and continue to create separation from Boston. No sweep, short starts and a lot of outs needed from both bullpens to poorly set them up for after this series. That would be the ideal weekend.

Eventually, we are going to need other teams to beat the Rays. The Red Sox? They’ll beat themselves. The Rays are the team I’m worried about in the division this season, not the Red Sox. If the Yankees are to end their division-winning drought and avoid the wild-card game for the fourth time in five years, they are going to have to beat the Rays to do so.

The Red Sox aren’t the Yankees’ biggest threat in 2019. They are who I believed them to be in 2018 before they put together an improbable season, winning 108 games and easily handling the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers in the postseason. The Red Sox have a built-in excuse for this season after winning the World Series last year and they are playing like it. There’s no 17-2 start, no weekly magical six-run, ninth-inning comebacks and there’s running away and hiding with the division.

Chris Sale, the most dominant pitcher against the Yankees other than Cliff Lee (at least to me), has to be hurt; David Price is his usual inconsistent self; Rick Porcello, the worst Cy Young winner in history, is once again pitching like the guy the Tigers gave up on; Nathan Eovaldi has reverted back to the Nathan Eovaldi who is on his fifth team despite being 29 years old and able to throw 101 mph; Eduardo Rodriguez continues to prove the Red Sox should have gotten more than they did for Andrew Miller.

J.D. Martinez still scares me, Xander Bogaerts is solid and Rafael Devers is very good for 22; Mookie Betts, for as great as he is, is no longer playing like Mike Trout; Steve Pearce is a few big games against the Yankees and a good week against the Dodgers from being out of baseball and hopefully sentimentality will continue to waste a roster spot and at-bats for the Red Sox; Eduardo Nunez sucks; Andrew Benintendi is hurt; Mitch Moreland isn’t an everyday player; Christian Vazquez only hits at Yankee Stadium and Sandy Leon wasn’t good enough to be on the Opening Day roster.

The 2018 Red Sox bullpen featured the second-best closer in history, but the bridge to him was so untrustworthy the starting rotation became the bullpen in the postseason. The Red Sox returned to the same bullpen this season minus its only valuable piece.

It’s no surprise the Red Sox aren’t any good. They just lost to a Yankees team missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, center fielder, shortstop, third baseman, ace and best reliever. They certainly aren’t .316 winning percentage bad, but they aren’t 108-win good either. It took every below-average- and average player playing well, every good player playing great and every great player playing at an MVP level for their 2018 season to happen and they all did in what was one ridiculously improbable parlay that couldn’t be stopped. Screw the 1967 Red Sox. The 2018 Red Sox were the Impossible Dream.

The Rays won 90 games last year and didn’t need anything extraordinary to post that win total. They revolutionized the way a starter is used and a bullpen is managed with their “opener” strategy. They added Charlie Morton and have Tyler Glasnow for a full season to go along with the reigning Cy Young winner in Blake Snell and a pair of openers in Ryne Stanek and Yanni Chirinos, who have the ability to dominate for two-plus innings. Their lineup lacks any household name and it would take a miracle for the Rays to be represented in the All-Star Game by a position player. Their offense consists of .240 and .250 hitters up and down the order, who seemingly only gets hits with runners in scoring position and only hit home runs when there are men on. Their offense is centered around situational hitting and creating runs, not launch angles and exit velocity. The Rays are built on the postseason success blueprint of pitching and timely hitting, and everyone expects one of the two to fall off at some point, but they didn’t last year, and they haven’t this year. This isn’t just a 19-game sample size for the 14-5 Rays. This is now a 181-game sample size, and the Rays are 104-77 since the start of 2018.

I will be rooting for the Yankees to win all three from the Royals this weekend and for no sweep in Tampa. For now, Yankees fans don’t have to root for the Red Sox, but eventually we will.

***

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

For the second straight game, I didn’t have to look back and wish the game had been postponed due to inclement April weather, rescheduled for later in the season when Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Luis Severino or Dellin Betances might be back. Tuesday and Wednesday’s wins over the Red Sox felt like I was watching the Yankees.

Aaron Boone didn’t have to spend his postgame press conference trying to find the positive in yet another loss. He didn’t have to give some bullshit cliche about how he feels his team is close to getting in a groove and that their focus and energy are in the right place. He didn’t refer to “the corner” he has frequently mentioned his team “turning” at some point.

I didn’t think the Yankees’ first home series win would come in their fourth home series — a two-game set — against the Red Sox after having dropped two of three to the Orioles, Tigers and White Sox. I didn’t think they would find a way to beat Chris Sale, given his career against the Yankees, and win a game started by J.A. Happ, given what he has done since Game 1 of the ALDS. I didn’t think Mike Tauchman was capable of hitting a ball as far as he did on Tuesday night and I didn’t think Brett Gardner had the ability to turn around a 97 mph fastball on 0-2 for a grand slam on Wednesday night.

These Yankees are confusing. Not the 2019 Yankees, but the team filling in for the 2019 Yankees. There are nights when they look listless at the plate, leaving you to wonder if they will ever get a hit with runners in scoring position, and lost in the field, appearing as though the beverages in the dugout are being kept in brown paper bags. Then there are nights when you forget they are missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, third baseman, shortstop, center fielder, ace and best reliever because they play as if they aren’t missing anyone.

I have tempered my expectations for the time being with the current roster. I accept Gardner is going to bat leadoff until Hicks is back. I realize some combination of Austin Romine, Kyle Higashioka, Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, Tyler Wade and now Mike Ford are going to be in the lineup every night. I recognize there isn’t a guaranteed win every five days the way there is when Severino is in the rotation. I understand close games are going to feel even closer with Betances unavailable in the bullpen. I have come to accept these Yankees aren’t good enough to fulfill the preseason requirement of ending the soon-to-be-decade-long World Series drought. For now, I have adjusted my nightly expectations to grinding out wins in an attempt to stay afloat and within striking distance until the All-Star injured list returns.

Maybe these Yankees have “turned the corner” in that they won’t look completely overmatched at the plate and make careless mistakes on the basepaths and on defense. It’s quite possible the rotation will contribute more than four to five innings per night moving forward and the bullpen will serve as the trustworthy strength everyone anticipated it would be. But the corner won’t really be turned for good until the Yankees, the real Yankees return.

***

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

For the first 18 years of my life, I enjoyed the fact no Red Sox fan could say anything to me regarding the rivalry with the Yankees. Nothing. Not one word.

That all changed in October 2004 in a week, a series, a month, a season, a calendar year I wish I could permanently erase from my memory. The comical “Yankees suck” chants suddenly had meaning as the “1918” were gone forever. The world, not just the baseball world, felt weird, in a bad way.

I will never get over what happened nearly 15 years ago. Never. But I certainly didn’t want new a memory like that. I didn’t want the Yankees to play the Red Sox in the 2018 playoffs, for the fear of a new memory like the traumatizing old one to be created. I wrote about it prior to the start of the ALDS.

***

I won’t feel well walking into Fenway Park on Friday night. Even though I have been to countless Yankees-Red Sox games since it happened, this is different. It being Monday, Oct. 18, 2004.

Over the last nearly 14 years when I enter Fenway Park, I glance over toward the Pesky Pole, where I sat on that miserable night, and the memories come rushing back. I can still see Bernie Williams’ solo home run clearing the wall in right field and Derek Jeter’s bases-loaded, bases-clearing double rattle around in the corner. I see David Ortiz’s solo home run flying over the Green Monster and Dave Roberts tagging up to score on Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly to center. I can see the old left-center field scoreboard to the right of the Green Monster at Fenway Park that would display both team’s lineups and it would place an asterisk next to the batter that was up in the game and I can see the asterisk changing places a sI counted how many names the asterisk had to go before reaching “Manny Ramirez” and “David Ortiz” in extra innings. I can see Tony Clark’s should-have-been go-ahead double bouncing over the fence right in front of me and Ruben Sierra being forced to hold up at third. And of course, I can see David Ortiz’s walk-off line drive floating in the air towards center field wondering if Williams will get to it in time.

Sometimes I like to think about what the baseball world would be like if Joe Torre had brought in Mariano Rivera for a two-inning save rather than waiting to use him until after Tom Gordon had already ruined the game. Would I enter Fenway Park and glance over toward the Pesky Pole and have memories of watching the Yankees celebrate the American League pennant on the field rather than the memories I do have? Would the Red Sox still be without a championship? Would “1918” T-shirts still be relevant? Would this October be the 100th anniversary of the Red Sox’ last World Series title?

After Alex Rodriguez’s retirement in 2016 and Ortiz’s in 2017, no one from either team remains from that game and that series. No one on either team has any connection to the worst collapse or greatest comeback, depending on how you look at it, in postseason history. No one but the fans. This is a new era of Yankees-Red Sox on the field. In the two cities and in homes around the Tri-State area and New England though, it’s a continuation of the storied rivalry and just the next chapter in a history that took a 14-year hiatus.

After Wednesday’s easy AL Wild-Card Game win, I’m unusually confident about the ALDS. I know it’s not wise to be, but I am. Since before the season started and all season long, I have felt that when both teams are healthy, the Yankees are better than the Red Sox.

Unfortunately, during the most important series of the season, the Yankees weren’t healthy. They were without Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez for the four-game series in Boston in August and newly-acquired J.A. Happ, who the Yankees traded for mainly because of his AL East resume and his success against the Red Sox, was unavailable to pitch due to a rare illness. The Yankees were swept in four games, and the division race was over.

But now the Yankees are completely healthy with their full lineup, rotation and bullpen available. Judge is back, Sanchez is back (though really just physically present and not back as the best offensive catcher in baseball) and Happ is lined up to start Game 1 and a potential Game 5. The team is coming off their season-saving win on Wednesday, while the Red Sox haven’t played since Sunday and haven’t played a meaningful game in over a month. The Yankees couldn’t be better set up to not only steal a game in Boston this weekend, but to steal a series against a team that is trying to not be the latest regular-season success story to not get the job done.

The Yankees will see Chris Sale in Game 1 and David Price in Game 2, and those two pitchers will see a lineup that boasts eight right-handed hitters with Didi Gregorius being the lone lefty. The Red Sox traded for Sale to win games like Friday’s and they gave Price the biggest free-agent contract for a pitcher in history win games like Saturday’s. The two have combined for zero postseason wins despite their regular-season accomplishments. Last season, Sale lost as the team’s Game 1 starter and took the loss as a reliever in Game 4, responsible for his team’s elimination, while Price, wasn’t even a member of his team’s rotation, pitching out of the bullpen against the Astros. The amount of pressure on the two this weekend in Boston can’t be described. The team’s best pitcher and the team’s highest-paid player have to prevent the Yankees from winning one of the first two games in Boston.

I should be able to sit back, relax and enjoy this series knowing that the Yankees are the true underdog in the series, facing the best Red Sox team in regular-season history with their 107 wins. But because it’s Yankees-Red Sox, there is no sitting back or relaxing and the only enjoyment will be if the Yankees are still playing baseball next Saturday in either Houston or Cleveland.

When I enter Fenway Park on Friday and Saturday, I will glance over to the Pesky Pole and all the visions of 14 Octobers ago will come back. Next season, when I enter Fenway Park and look around I want to envision the moments from this October, from this series and I want the memories to be winning ones.

***

My worst fear came true. The Yankees were set up to win the series after stealing home-field advantage, and instead were run out of their own building, suffering the worst postseason loss in team history coupled with the worst two-game bullpen management performance baseball has ever seen.

The Yankees suck right now and so do the Red Sox. I keep hearing how the Yankees have an excuse with all their injuries, but the healthy Red Sox have no excuse. What?! The Red Sox have the biggest built-in excuse of all time. They won 108 games last year, won the division, embarrassed the Yankees in the ALDS, crushed the Astros in the ALCS and made everyone question if the National League should even get to play in the World Series after what they did to the Dodgers in five games. The Red Sox can suck all they want. They are the defending world champions.

The amount of laughter and sarcasm from Yankees fans at the Red Sox’ poor start to the season is sickening and the amount of mentions of the Red Sox’ record by YES is humiliating. The next time any Yankees fan, Yankees player or any person or entity associated with the team should comment on the state of the Red Sox is when the Yankees either beat them in the playoffs or win the World Series.

***

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

There is a commercial frequently playing during Yankees games this season in which Aaron Boone jokes about not really doing anything during games other than pointing to the field and touching his face. The commercial is clearly made in jest, but I’m not so sure it’s far from the truth.

I have joked in the past that since Brian Cashman is so good at trades and so bad at free agency, the Yankees should have Cashman conduct the trades and have a second general manager handle free agency, the way some NFL teams have a kicker for kickoffs and another for field goals. I think the Yankees need to follow this setup for their manager as well. Boone can be the clubhouse manager since he was hired for his personality and ability to communicate with the players. He can be the one who jokes in the room and keeps things loose with his impressions of the team’s roster. He can go out drinking with the guys after games, set up dinner plans on road trips and lead the card games on the team plane. Then, the Yankees can hire an actual game manager because after 174 major league games and another two months of spring training games, it’s clear Boone can’t handle in-game strategy and management.

I thought things would be different for Boone in his second season. At times last year, it appeared as though Boone was new to baseball rather than soon someone who has spent his entire life not only in baseball but in Major League Baseball. The combination of oddly-constructed lineups, poorly-timed scheduled off days for regulars and disastrous bullpen management received anywhere from average to failing grades from the fan base, even though he received “A’s across the board” from Brian Cashman. But if you were the one who replaced Joe Girardi with an unknown at manager to lead a championship-caliber team, you would be hesitant to criticize your managerial selection as well.

Boone’s shaky rookie season came to a head at the worst possible time: the postseason. His bullpen decisions in the final two games of the ALDS made those two games the final two games of the season as his moves were far from questionable and more irresponsible than anything. After initially defending his idiotic and egregious moves in the two losses with excuses which nearly made Girardi’s 2017 ALDS Game 2 non-challenge excuse look good, Boone returned for his end-of-the-season press conference and recognized he could have made better choices. It was the first time all year he acknowledged screwing up rather than citing one of his overused positivity phrases to summarize an embarrassing performance. That alone gave me promise his second year might be different.

Unfortunately, 2019 has been a continuation of 2018 for the entire team, including Boone. The lineup is still using the home run-or-nothing approach with an inability to hit with runners in scoring position or even put the ball in play. After setting the Yankees record for strikeouts through the first five games of a season with 47, the offense stuck out a franchise-record 18 times in the sixth game. While injuries are a major part of the team’s mediocre start, Boone’s managing hasn’t helped matters.

Boone isn’t the reason the Yankees are 3-4 this season and against the lowly Orioles and Tigers, two teams which will finish in last place in their respective divisions. He’s not failing to hit with runners in scoring position or striking out or throwing away balls or misplaying line drives in the outfield, and he’s not on the injured list. But it’s his job as a manager to put his players and the team in the best possible position to succeed and he hasn’t done that.

The Yankees haven’t been routed and they have yet to lose one of the many games they will inevitably lose this season in which it just wasn’t their day. Rather, their four losses have all been close games and all very winnable games. That’s not to say if Boone made different decisions the Yankees would be 7-0 instead of 3-4, but it’s not outrageous to think they could be 4-3 or 5-2 if he manages a little differently and the moves pan out.

Each of the four Yankees losses could have been wins. Not only because they were against crappy teams the Yankees are supposed to beat, but also because the Yankees were in all four of the games with a chance to come back, tie or take the lead. They didn’t, and Boone deserves some of the blame in three of them.

LOSS 1
This is the only one of the four losses in which Boone gets a pass. After loading the bases with walks in the first inning, Miguel Andujar decided he would swing away at a 1-0 pitch and grounded into an inning-ending double play. From there, the Yankees never really had a chance. Boone brought in Chad Green and Jonathan Holder and they allowed a tie game to become a loss. This game could be chalked up as missed opportunities and the exact type of performance the 2018 Yankees gave us too many times.

LOSS 2
On Sunday, J.A Happ put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole early in a start which was eerily similar to his ALDS Game 1 start. But the Yankees fought back and by the seventh inning, they were trailing 5-3.

Boone had Zack Britton up in the bullpen with a two-run deficit, but never brought in the lefty. When the Yankees got within a run at 5-4, he still didn’t bring in Britton. Instead, he brought in Stephen Tarpley, who immediately served up a three-run home run to destroy the Yankees’ chances at completing the comeback. Why was Britton warming up with a two-run deficit, only to not come in once it became a one-run game? Did Boone think his offense couldn’t score one run over the course of two innings against the vaunted Orioles bullpen if the bullpen were able to hold the deficit at one run?

To make matters worse, in the ninth, the Orioles loaded the bases with no outs against Tommy Kahnle, and Boone got Chad Green up in the bullpen. Green, apparently, is able to warm up and come in for mop-up duty in the ninth inning of a four-run game, but is unable to come into a one-run game? This is the type of bullpen management Boone nonsensically used in 2018 and the type of bullpen management which helped eliminate the Yankees in four games in the ALDS.

LOSS 3
On Tuesday, a day after the Yankees put Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar on the injured list to join Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks and Dellin Betances, Boone posted this lineup:

Brett Gardner, CF
Aaron Judge, RF
Luke Voit, 1B
Gleyber Torres, SS
DJ LeMahieu, 3B
Mike Tauchman, LF
Clint Frazier, DH
Tyler Wade, 2B
Austin Romine, C

Boone decided being down 119 home runs from 2018 in his lineup wasn’t enough, so he had Gary Sanchez and Troy Tulowitzki on the bench as well. He picked Tuesday to give Tauchman the start in left field and have Frazier, Wade and Romine all make their season debuts, creating a formidable 6 through 9 in the order. With this lineup, the Yankees scored one run over nine innings and lost 3-1.

The icing on the cake came in the ninth when Boone allowed the bottom of the order to bat, electing not to use his bench, which included Gary Sanchez and Troy Tulowitzki.

LOSS 4
On Wednesday, the Yankees’ once again managed to score a single run in the game. That run was a product of DJ LeMahieu, who should be leading off every game until Aaron Hicks is back, getting on base and being driven in by Aaron Judge. (It’s amazing how when the leadoff man is actually on base, the Yankees are able to score runs.) LeMahieu was only leading off because Brett Gardner, who will apparently be the Yankees’ leadoff hitter in the absence of Hicks no matter what, had a scheduled day off.

Trailing by a run in the eighth, Luke Voit reached base to lead off the inning. Immediately, David Cone said Gardner should be in the game to run for Voit, but Boone stayed with Voit, and then after an out was made, Voit remained on first. It wasn’t until two outs were made that Boone decided to use Gardner a pinch runner. And then with two outs, Boone had Gardner attempt to steal second and he was thrown out to end the inning.

Why wasn’t Gardner jogging onto the field to run for Voit the second Voit’s foot touched first base? At that point, Gardner’s presence on first alone might have led to a mistake pitch for extra bases in which Gardner would have scored. Or maybe his presence creates a wild pitch and he moves into scoring position. Or maybe he can attempt to steal second when the Tigers aren’t sure when he will run. The possibilities were endless with no outs, but with two outs the Tigers knew Gardner was in the game to steal, and they had no trouble throwing him out.

When Gardner didn’t come into the game, I thought maybe Boone was in the bathroom taking a dump or in the tunnel being told by the analytics team exactly what to do. But when Cone mentioned bringing Gardner in to run, the YES cameras showed Boone in the dugout, so the only explanation is he didn’t think to do it. Needing Voit if the game were to go into extra innings isn’t a valid reason since you have to actually get to extra innings before you can manage for them. Boone simply froze with the leadoff man and an opportunity to create offense to tie the game.

Maybe the Yankees are 3-4 even if Boone changes the way he managed in the four losses, but there’s a good chance their record is better.

I didn’t think Boone could be worse in 2019 than he was in 2018, and it’s possible he isn’t, but he’s certainly not any better. The Yankees, these Yankees, in the middle of a championship window need their manager to be better. Boone has to be better.

***

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

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. 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, 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.

It’s nearly impossible to predict who will and won’t perform in the postseason, with the goal being to get there and then hoping things go your way. The Yankees are built to get there even if they exceeded the luxury tax only to not sign either of the two 26-year-old generational stars or the top pitcher on the free-agent market. The optimal way to get there and succeed is to avoid the wild-card game, which the Yankees have played in back-to-back seasons and three of the last four. That can’t happen again. No more coming up short in the regular season. No more one-game playoff to decide the team’s fate.

The grace period with these Yankees is now over. This season is the first season of the window of opportunity for this core to win a championship or championships. 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. There’s no more excuses and no more “Next year”. These Yankees were expected to truly contend in 2019 and 2019 is now.

The championship grace period is over. It’s long over. This October will be 10 years since the Yankees last reached the World Series and last won it. From here on out, every season with this group which doesn’t end with a championship will be a missed opportunity.

***

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

Tomorrow there will be Yankees baseball. Real baseball that counts. The offseason is such a grind, but we made it. We’re here!

In honor of the MLB Over/Under Win Total Predictions blog from Monday, I decided to come up with a variety of over/under predictions for the Yankees this season.

Gary Sanchez: 13.5 passed balls
Last season, Gary Sanchez led the majors with 18 passed balls despite only catching 76 games, 74 which were starts and 67 which were complete games. The year before, he led the league with 16 passed balls in 104 games caught, 99 which were starts and 91 which were complete games. Somehow, Sanchez increased his passed ball total despite appearing in 28 last games. No, that’s not ideal.

On a scale of 1-10, I care about Sanchez’s passed balls a 4, and I realize that’s definitely on the low end and might be the lowest anyone is willing to go there. There are people, like Michael Kay, who are definitely at or near a 10, but not me. Considering Sanchez’s arm and framing abilities, his passed balls are much less of an issue than they are made out to be. I’m more concerned with Sanchez returning to his offensive form, being the .284/.354/.568 hitter he was in 2016 and 2017 than I am about him blocking pitches from Masahiro Tanaka in the dirt.

But I’m optimistic when it comes to Sanchez and think he will be better behind the plate in 2019, as long as he isn’t struggling offensively since I believed that affected his defensive work either. It would be nice to see him less, let’s say lazy, when he’s got his gear on and not letting fastballs go by him to advance base runners. Sanchez has to be better in 2019. I can’t go another season of listening to idiots call for Austin Romine to be the team’s starting catcher. Under.

Miguel Andujar: .299 batting average
Like Sanchez’s passed balls, I’m not overly concerned with Miguel Andujar’s defense at third base. Last season, he was a 23-year-old in his first full season in the league. Defensive issues should expected. As long as there is progress and improvement in the field, this should be a non-issue in 2019. Unfortunately, the first time he boots a ball or bounces an errant throw to first, the mainstream media will eat it up.

When you finish second in AL Rookie of the Year voting and rack up 47 doubles and 76 extra-base hits, drive in 92 runs from the bottom of the order and bat .297, you’re allowed to be less-than-stellar in the field, in my book.

Andujar no longer has to live with the idea Manny Machado will be a Yankee at some point and take his position and force him to the outfield or first base. The Yankees proved they do believe in him and it wasn’t just a lie to buy them time until they could sign Machado, they really do believe in him. And so do I.

For a long time, having a .300 hitter on the Yankees wasn’t unusual, considering they had Derek Jeter for two decades and during his years also had some pretty good players. But since Jeter aged and Robinson Cano left, it’s been a while since you could look at the big screen in center field at the Stadium and see .300 next to a Yankee late in the season. Andujar’s rookie season and his contact ability are the perfect combination to believe that will change. Over.

Aaron Hicks: 145 games played
Everything about the Aaron Hicks contract extension is great except that he could be playing center field for the Yankees as a 36-year-old in 2026, and I’m not about to go back to 2013-16. The good news is if he sucks then or really at any point in this deal, it’s not an overwhelming amount of money the Yankees owe him or would have to eat. At $10 million per season for a starting center fielder in this center field climate, it might be the best contract the Yankees have ever had on their payroll.

The biggest problem with Hicks is that he can’t stay healthy, which he is showing once again as he won’t be ready for Opening Day and probably not for more than a week into the regular season. Hicks needs to find a way to avoid his one to two injured list stints per seasons. It’s the last piece of the puzzle for a player who saved his career and was awarded life-changing money.

Hicks’s 137 games played last season were the most of his career, and he still missed time due to injury. He’s not going to play in every game this season since no one does that anymore, and certainly not a Yankee, and because he will miss at least the first few series of the season. Given his past and the fact he will already be dipping into his cushion on this number, I don’t think he will get there. Under.

Gleyber Torres: 25 home runs
The Yankees have Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and their best player in 2019 and possibly beyond might be Gleyber Torres. The 22-year-old middle infielder was an All-Star in his first season, carrying the Yankees for the first few weeks of his arrival before hitting a wall in the dog days of the season.

Torres finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year of voting behind Shohei Otani and Miguel Andujar though he would have won it seemingly any other year than 2018. Despite missing the beginning of the season to get more at-bats in Triple-A (and so the Yankees could circumvent the service time calendar) and a few weeks around the All-Star break, Torres still hit .271/.340/.480 with 24 home runs as a 21-year-old. He was reportedly asked for in every deal Brian Cashman tried to make or did make, and was deemed “untouchable”, even if the Yankees supposedly don’t believe in such a word, and rightfully so.

As excited as I am for this Yankees season and the first season in what was always expected to be the first season of this window of opportunity, I’m especially excited to see how Torres grows and adjusts to a league that will certainly have adjusted to him after what he did last year. A sophomore slump for Torres? I don’t see it. Over.

James Paxton: 160 1/3 innings
When you look at James Paxton’s numbers, you see a pitcher with not a lot of miles on his arm and just 582 1/3 innings as a now 30-year-old. The reason there isn’t a lot of miles on his arm is because there’s other problems with his arm, and his shoulder and his back, and so on.

Did I want the Yankees to trade for James Paxton? Eh. I was hoping if Justus Sheffield were to be traded he would be traded in a deal for a better starting pitching option, but I have to assume Paxton was the best option.

In theory, Paxton is a great fit as a power left-hander pitching half of his games in Yankee. The problem is Paxton’s career high for starts is 28 and innings is 160 1/3, and they both came last season. It would be a miracle if Paxton were to get through the 2019 unscathed to start 32 times and give the Yankees 200 innings. Until he has a season in which he’s able to avoid the injured list even once, it’s hard to believe it will happen. Under.

Aaron Judge: 118.5 walks
The number most people care about when it comes to Aaron Judge is home runs. and rightfully so. But after that it should be walks.

Judge led the league with 127 walks in 2017 and was on a 110-walk pace last season if not for the broken wrist (he ended up with 76). When Judge is getting his walks, you know he’s going right, and he’s setting the table for the guys behind him and tiring the pitcher on the mound for Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez.

If were up to me, I would bat Judge leadoff. I get that Aaron Hicks is a solid leadoff candidate, but he’s not Judge. Judge has a .409 on-base percentage over the last two seasons and seems to always be in full counts. He’s not going to give away an at-bat or swing at the first pitch and ground out to short. I want the best hitter on the team to get the most at-bats over the course of a season and the best hitter on the team is Judge. It’s certainly not Brett Gardner. Over.

Masahiro Tanaka: 13.5 wins
Masahiro Tanaka has never thrown 200 innings in the regular season for the Yankees. He came within one out (199 2/3 innings) in 2016, but aside from that his best season was 178 1/3 in 2017.

Another thing Tanaka hasn’t done is win more than 14 games. He’s won 13, 12, 14, 13 and 12. And while I’m not big on pitcher’s win totals since it’s more of a team effort and a lot more is needed that the pitcher simply going at least five innings and pitching well, it’s definitely shocking Tanaka has been unable to reach even 15 wins in what has been a very good career in the majors (64-34 with a 3.59 ERA in 132 starts).

I expect a big season out of Tanaka. Why? Well, the Yankees need him to have a big season. With Luis Severino out for at least the first month of the season, James Paxton coming off a career high in innings last season with 160 1/3, which is worrisome that that’s his high and also that he’s coming off of it given his injury history and CC Sabathia starting the season on the injured list and knowing he will only pitch 150-160 innings at most. J.A. Happ might be the Yankees’ most reliable starting pitcher at this time, and he’s a 36-year-old, who relies heavily on a 92-mph fastball, and the last time we saw him the Red Sox were having their way with him at Fenway Park.

Tanaka needs to give the Yankees quality starts (and starts period), especially at the beginning of the season with two-thirds of the rotation out. If he does that, with this offense, against the crap teams they will see in April, Tanaka will be well on his way to crushing this win total. Over.

Brett Gardner: .340 on-base percentage
Brett Gardner was pretty much the Yankees’ everyday leadoff hitter through the end of August. Sure, there were a few games sprinkled in where he didn’t hit at the top of the order, but it wasn’t until September when he became the team’s No. 9 hitter … when he played.

Gardner looked finish last season. He finished at .236/.322/.368, which are catcher-like numbers for a guy who was given the chance at the most at-bats by the team for the first five months of the season. I didn’t want Gardner back in 2019 and wanted the team to go in a different direction like Michael Brantley, who the Astros signed, and will undoubtedly have a big hit or hits against the Yankees in the postseason. Because Clint Frazier would need time to get back to playing baseball every day after losing most of the 2018 season, the Yankees couldn’t go into 2019 thinking he would be a full-time Major Leaguer. So they  brought Gardner back on a one-year, $7.5 million deal, thinking his veteran leadership and clubhouse presence were needed and that his sharp decline last season wasn’t indicative of what he has left in the tank.

Gardner was supposed to be part of an outfield rotation, which would limit his playing time and save his legs over the course of 162 games. But now with Hicks out, Gardner is the team’s starting center fielder, and likely leadoff hitter since Aaron Boone is petrified of having Aaron Judge lead off and giving the most at-bats to his team’s best hitter.

Gardner is no longer a small piece to the puzzle and role player on the 2019 Yankees. At least for the beginning of the season, the team needs him to be pre-2018 Brett Gardner. I just don’t see that happening. Under.

Bullpen: 1.5 losses with a lead after six innings
Once again, the bullpen is the strength of the Yankees. With a healthy Dellin Betances, the bullpen also boasts Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino and Chad Green. No other bullpen in the league could lose David Robertson and get better, but the Yankees might have (even if I wanted the Yankees to bring Robertson back). Jonathan Holder would be a Top 3 reliever on most teams in the majors, but on the Yankees he’s at best sixth.

Last season, the Yankees hadn’t lost a game all season in which they led after eight innings until the Sunday Night Baseball disaster in Boston to cap off the four-day sweep at the hands of the Red Sox and officially take the Yankees out of the division race. A four-plus month run of not losing late games is an impressive feat, but this year I’m upping the ante.

I’m taking the under on this one and giving myself a one-game cushion for the bullpen to blow a lead with nine outs to get. (The number was initially 1, but I adjusted it due to Betances’ early-season absence.) That’s how good I think this bullpen will be. Under.

Giancarlo Stanton: 200 strikeouts
Giancarlo Stanton was OK in his first season as Yankee. Yes, a .266/.343/.509 hitter with 38 home runs and 100 RBIs was just OK.

Stanton was bad with runners in scoring position (.241/.322/.379) and pretty much just bad with anyone on base (.236/.315/.429). His problems were magnified at the Stadium since he was a .229/.311/.468 hitter at home, opposed to a .300/.374/.547 hitter on the road.

I can count Stanton’s big hits from 2018 on one hand, and possibly even have a couple fingers left over. Opening Day in Toronto, his two home run game against Dallas Keuchel and his walk-off home run at the Stadium against the Mariners. That’s it? I remember his 2018 season for what he didn’t do, which was anything with runners on in a truly big moment. He was nowhere to be found in the wild-card game until the game was out of reach, and then he hit a 443-foot home run, which was the hardest postseason home run hit in the Statcast era, and in the ALDS he couldn’t have been worse, going 4-for-18 with four singles and leaving a small village on base in the series.

Here are the most common excuses from the Stanton fan club heard last season:

1. He’s with a new organization
2. He’s in a new league and has to learn new pitchers
3. He’s playing his home games in colder weather at the beginning and end of the season
4. He needs to get acclimated and adjusted to living in a new city

Maybe some or all of those are true, but they are no longer valid. Not in Year 2, not in 2019. Unfortunately, we can’t go back and redo what happened in October, we only know it can’t happen again. As a Marlin, Stanton would supposedly go to Europe during the MLB postseason since it was too painful to watch. Well, he better change his approach at the plate and with runners on or he’s going to being going to Europe a lot during the World Series as a Yankee. Under.

***

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

Leading the 2017 ALCS 3-2, the Yankees needed a win in either Game 6 or Game 7 to advance to the World Series for the first time in eight years. Instead, the Yankees lost both games in Houston, scoring just one run over 18 innings and the team’s deepest postseason run since their last championship in 2009 ended.

The 2017 Yankees arrived ahead of schedule. After a disappointing 2016 season led to the dismissal of every tradable asset at the deadline, the team was expected to be a non-factor in the AL East and postseason picture for at least the next two seasons. But the team’s 91 regular-season wins, wild-card win, incredible comeback against the 102-win Indians in the ALDS and seven-game series against the eventual champion Astros in the ALCS changed the perception of the franchise. The so-called “rebuild” took roughly the last two months of 2016 and the Yankees were back to being the Yankees.

I had expected the window of opportunity for these Yankees to begin in 2019 and now they were providing two extra years of unexpected contention. I couldn’t be upset with the way the 2017 ended because all I could think about was 2018 and beyond. I was ecstatic about 2018 and that was with Jacoby Ellsbury, Chase Headley and Starlin Castro set to return to the team.

Meanwhile, the new ownership group in Miami was ready to trade everyone and anyone to cut payroll and hit the reset button on the franchise. Suddenly, NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, who was coming off a 59-home run season, was available. He had reportedly given the Marlins front office a list of four teams he would waive his no-trade clause for and those four teams happened to the final four teams in the 2017 postseason: the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers and Cubs.

On Dec. 11, 2017, the Yankees landed Stanton in a surprise move that sent Castro to Miami. The following day Headley was traded was traded to San Diego. The Yankees had come within one game of the World Series and had essentially just turned Castro and Headley into Giancarlo Stanton and top prospects Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar waiting for their to turn to join the young core full time. The last time I had been this excited about the Yankees was when Mariano Rivera induced a ground ball off the bat of Shane Victorino to clinch the 2009 World Series.

Let’s go back to December 2017 for an oral history of the trade which landed the Yankees the reigning NL MVP with quotes from the prominent people involved in the actual deal.

***

Derek Jeter, Marlins CEO and minority owner/Yankees legend: This is an organization that’s been losing money for quite some time, so we have to turn it around. How we do that? It’s not clear. It’s easy to point the finger at [Giancarlo Stanton] because he makes the most money, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the move that’s going to be made.

Brian Cashman, Yankees senior vice president and general manager: I put my toe in the water down at the GM meetings. During the Ohtani sweepstakes, we needed to keep the DH spot open for the two-way player in the event that he came our way, but despite that, I did engage the Marlins a little bit in the GM meetings about a month ago.

Derek Jeter: Michael Hill has been in contact with [Stanton]. Michael has spoken with him. That’s Michael’s job. He’s the president of baseball ops, so he has spoken to him. It’s not like it’s radio silence coming from the organization. If you get into the practice of reaching out to every time there is a rumor to every player, you’d be spending 95 percent of your time on the phone trying to dispel rumors.

Michael Hill, Marlins president of baseball operations: The one thing I know, and Giancarlo has said as well, is that there was complete transparency, and if anything, overcommuncation as we went through the process with him. So he was fully aware of what was going on every step of the way. But we knew, ultimately, that it was his call. He had the no-trade and it was said to him face-to-face that ‘We understand that you have a no-trade and you if to choose to not waive it, we are prepared to have you here and you to be a Miami Marlin for the duration of your contract.’

Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees outfielder: We had a meeting, yes. We spoke about the direction of the team. I wanted us to go forward and have an advance with the pitching staff. I thought our lineup was legit and we needed help with our pitchers. We needed to add rather than subtract. The way they wanted to go was subtract, so I let it be known I didn’t want to be part of another rebuild, another losing season, and that’s almost a guaranteed losing season taking away what I thought was a great lineup.

Michael Hill: But at the same time, he understood that there were changes that needed to be made. We didn’t have a deep minor-league system. We weren’t in a position to compete because we just didn’t have enough depth. Changes needed to be made and we were open and honest with him. He was open and honest that he didn’t want to be a part of it.

Giancarlo Stanton: I gave my list of teams prior to and they went to San Francisco and the Cardinals and struck deals with them.

Brian Cashman: With certain parameters needing to be met with the Marlins it didn’t seem like it was something that was viable from their perspective. They had better deals from their assessment elsewhere. I don’t know what those deals were, so that’s how it led to the Giants and the Cardinals having deals in place and then trying to convince Stanton to waive it to go those routes.

Giancarlo Stanton: I didn’t want to be part of a rebuild. I gave my list of teams prior to and they went to San Francisco and the Cardinals and struck deals with them. I was open to listening to them, but those were not my teams and those are great people they were great meetings and great organization and great culture there but it just wasn’t the fit for me.

Michael Hill: Whenever you’re making a trade when a full no-trade is involved there are going to be challenges.

Brian Cashman: I stayed engaged as of Wednesday of last week. I thought there was no chance of anything happening and actually wished the Marlins luck, Michael hill, specifically, the GM, my counterpart, and (said) ‘Let’s talk about anything else you have on your roster.’

Michael Hill: Ultimately, it happened where one of the teams where he wanted to go, on the third try, we were able to come to an agreement and get him moved.

Brian Cashman: And then he reengaged Thursday of last week about 4 in the afternoon maybe. and then we worked the rest of the evening deep into the night. him rejecting my ideas, me rejecting his until we finally settled. but it was on Thursday by him reengaging me more along the parameters that we had in place to make it fit that I was like ‘Wow this might really have a chance here.’ And that night, Thursday night, we had an agreement.

Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees managing general partner: It happened fairly quickly. I think Cash has been working on this for a week or two, but there’s been ups and downs along the way … really the last three or four days has been pretty hectic.

Michael Hill: I’m very realistic. I understand that when you have a no-trade in place that you’re at the mercy of the player and ultimately I think that was the case because we had two other potential trades in place for him that he didn’t want to go to those two places. So it was incumbent to try to give him where he wanted to go or to welcome him back. It works out where we were able to make a deal with the Yankees.

Brian Cashman: Friday we dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, got baseball involved, Saturday  the physical in Tampa.

The Yankees sent Starlin Castro and minor-league players Jose Devers and Jorge Guzman to the Marlins. The Marlins agreed to pay $30 million ($3 million per years for the 10 years) to the Yankees if Stanton doesn’t opt out of the contract after the 2020 season.

Giancarlo Stanton: This is what I’ve always wanted. This is what I’ve dreamed of. You always want to be in competitive games where they mean something and your performance means something to the team and the city. It’s going to be a fun challenge and I’m looking forward to it.

Brian Cashman: I want to be the New York Yankees again and that’s a team that you can count on competing for a world championship in the upcoming season.

Derek Jeter: This was the best move and the best deal for the organization. It gives us flexibility. We’re going to invest in building this organization the right way.

Michael Hill: The no-trade was a challenge, but it was one where thankfully we were able to work it out and we got good players back in return.

Derek Jeter: We’re not going to turn this organization around overnight. It’s going to take some time.

Brian Cashman: There’s trepidation on every decision I make. It doesn’t matter, even the ones right now we get praised at for working out and stuff. Every move I make, you always get buyer’s remorse. I think it’s a natural part of the process. What you try to do is make the right decisions you think will serve this franchise well in the present and the future and obviously the goal is to win. Ultimately, every effort we try to make is to get as close to the next championship team that we can be proud of.

Giancarlo Stanton: The city has been waiting for another World Series, another playoff run and they got close enough this year, but hopefully with my addition, we’re going to advance and be a better team.

Brian Cashman: You have to credit the Steinbrenner family for taking on the type of commitment because it is a big one and 10 years is a long time, and that’s why we’re getting $30 million on the back end of the contract offsetting the Stanton commitment as well as [the Marlins] taking $22 million on the Castro contract.

Hal Steinbrenner: I don’t think five days ago I really would have imagined this.

Giancarlo Stanton: When I signed up in Miami, I wanted things to work out. I had a good vision there, but sometimes things just spiral out of place and you have to find a new home.

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Things didn’t work out as I thought they would in 2018. The Yankees were 61-31 on July 12, but would go just 39-31 the rest of the way. Yes, the team won 100 games, but in a season in which there were seven competitive teams in the AL, it wasn’t much of an accomplishment. The Yankees lost the division by eight games and had to settle for the wild-card game for the third time in four years before getting flat-out embarrassed by the Red Sox in the ALDS thanks to rookie manager Aaron Boone’s irresponsible managing.

As for Stanton, he was just good, not great, and that was because of what he had done in 2017 and the expectations placed on him. When I was sitting in Rogers Centre in Toronto on Opening Day and watched him hit two majestic home runs, I started making plans for the Canyon of Heroes parade for the fall. But that day ended up being one of about four of five great days for the new Yankee. He finished the season with a respectable 38 home runs and 100 RBIs and those very solid numbers only represented a decrease of 21 and 32 from the year before. His .266/.343/.509 line checked in well below his .281/.376/.631 from the previous season. No one expected Stanton to put up 59 again, but I don’t think anyone expected him to swing at every single slider thrown to him either.

There were times when I thought he might hit a ball to Connecticut and there were times when I wasn’t sure if he would ever make contact again. For a player on a new team in a new league learning new pitchers, he had a good season. But for Stanton standards it was just OK. Luckily for him, he has nine more seasons with the Yankees to change the perception of him.

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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!