The problem is while it shouldn’t be an option or a thought, “running it back” is most likely what the Yankees do. There’s only so much that can change on the roster due to contracts and value.
It’s been almost a week since the end of the Yankees’ season and it sucks.
1. The Yankees’ season has been over for six days and it seems like 60 days. It’s bad enough the Yankees were eliminated by the Red Sox for the second time in four postseasons and the third straight time since 2004, but now it’s miserable having to watch the Red Sox (who continue to overachieve) play the Rays (who were absolutely screwed over in Game 3 of the ALDS) and the Astros (who are one win away from their fifth straight ALCS and would already be in it if Dusty Baker had called me for advice on whether or not to pitch Yimi Garcia) play the White Sox (who are comically proving why the AL Central shouldn’t get an automatic postseason berth). There isn’t a good answer on who to root for in the American League, so I guess the National League it is.
2. On CC Sabathia’s most recent podcast, he gave an outstanding summary of the difference between the Yankees and Red Sox:
“Our core lost to a team in 2018 that is not even the same Red Sox. They went on to win the World Series with Mookie, Jackie Bradley, Benintendi. They traded all them dudes. We still got the same core. We come back to Boston fucking three years later and lose to a fucking completely different core of players that they have raised up in three years. How does that happen? What the fuck are we doing wrong and they’re doing right that in a three-year span they win the World Series and then a completely different core whoop our ass in the fucking wild-card game?”
3. The Yankees’ remaining position players from 2017 are Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks. Judge was the team’s best player this season, Sanchez was on the bench for the team’s elimination game for a second straight season, Gardner was forced into an everyday role (yet again) because of injuries (to Hicks and Clint Frazier) and Hicks once again missed the majority of the season. The Yankees added Giancarlo Stanton, called up Gleyber Torres and traded for Luke Voit in 2018. They signed DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela emerged in 2019. That’s the “core.” Some of them were injured and most of them underperformed yet again.
4. The roster has to change. After the team’s wild-card loss, Gardner mentioned having the chance to “run it back” with the same roster in 2022. That can’t be an option and shouldn’t even be a thought. This team hasn’t been good enough to win for four straight seasons (not including 2017 since that was an unexpected postseason run) and they’re not even close. They aren’t getting to the World Series and losing because they’re short a starter or a big bat. They’re not one player away. They’re a-lot-of-the-roster away. No matter what Aaron Boone idiotically says about “how the league has closed the gap on the Yankees.” There has always been a gap for his Yankees.
5. The problem is while it shouldn’t be an option or a thought, “running it back” is most likely what the Yankees do. There’s only so much that can change on the roster due to contracts and value, but the parts that are changeable need to change. Judge isn’t going anywhere. Stanton still has 37 years left on his contract. LeMahieu is signed through 2026. Hicks was given a seven-year deal in 2019. (If the Yankees have the opportunity to move Hicks, they need to do it no matter the return.) That leaves Torres (who you can’t trade right now because his value is so low), Gallo, (who the Yankees have under contract for next year) and Urshela.
6. Barring an unforeseen trade, the Yankees are going to keep the 24-year-old Torres and play him at second base and see if the player from 2018-2019 and the player he was the final month of the season can return. In the most important regular-season games without LeMahieu, they did bat him leadoff after all. The Yankees love Gallo. They love his “true outcome” hitting profile and his defense. They didn’t finally successfully trade for him just to let him go after two months of him. That leaves Urshela. He’s cheap, which the Yankees love, but I think it’s time to move on.
7. Unfortunately, I think Sanchez has played his last game as a Yankee. Sitting on the bench in a win-or-go-home postseason game for the second straight year was likely the end. The Yankees (or their manager) thinking it’s best to play Kyle Higashioka who hit the equivalent of a great NL-hitting pitcher over the last few months of the season will always be puzzling. Even though I’m a Sanchez fan, and even though he had the third-highest OPS among AL catchers in what was “another down year,” at this point I hope the Yankees move on from him. Make Higashioka the starter or sign some limited-skill free agent and let the fans see how enjoyable that is. I hope Sanchez ends up somewhere like San Diego, grows out a beard and hits 35-plus home runs in helping the Padres win the World Series.
8. I thought this team’s ceiling was an ALDS appearance. Another one-and-done postseason series exit. And maybe, just maybe if everything fell into place and they got a lucky bounce here or there they could squeeze out an ALCS appearance. Their ceiling ended up being the wild-card game, and clinching their appearance in it came down to the final at-bat in the final game of the regular season.
9. Every day I sign online, I pray I see some version of the phrase: Source: Yankees expected to move on from Boone. I haven’t seen it yet and the longer it goes without me seeing it, I fear I won’t see it. The Mets announced they were moving on from Luis Rojas the day after the season ended. We’re on Day 6 over here and nothing. I understand Boone’s contract hasn’t technically expired, but if the Yankees were going to move on from him, there would be some sort of report or leak by now I would think. This seems like the type of decision that has already been made, so there shouldn’t be a hold up. Either announce you’re moving on or announce an extension.
10. If the Yankees bring back Boone, it will be an awful decision and a worse decision than when they hired him originally. He has done nothing to prove he deserves the job he was wrongfully given. Continuing to employ him as manager would compound the mistake the Yankees made nearly four years ago. If he’s around to give an end-of-the-season press conference, which should be any day now then you know he’s coming back. If only Brian Cashman gives one then the Yankees have made the right decision and the first step in fixing the team and getting back to the World Series.
1. The Yankees are a health risk for their fans. There have been many times this season when I thought I might not make it, but somehow after 159 games, I’m still here. And somehow after 159 games, the Yankees are still here.
The Yankees are going to the postseason. Well, they’re most likely going to the postseason. If they don’t, it will be one last parting gift from a team that has found new ways to disappoint their fans all season. But I don’t see that happening. (OK, I’ll knock on wood.)
1. The Yankees are a health risk for their fans. There have been many times this season when I thought I might not make it, but somehow after 159 games, I’m still here. And somehow after 159 games, the Yankees are still here.
The highs and lows of this season have been emotionally, physically and mentally draining, and thankfully, there are only three games, one series and one weekend left in the regular season. And in those three games, one series and one weekend, the Yankees have a chance to do something they only had a 29 percent chance of doing as recently as 12 days ago: clinch a postseason berth.
This entire season has played out like the extremes of Giancarlo Stanton at-bats. When the Yankees opened the season 5-10 or lost 11 of 13 immediately after winning 13 straight, they looked like Stanton when he’s guessing wrong and flailing at pitches that bounce in the other batter’s box. With moments like the 13-game winning streak or their current 8-1 run with the season on the line, they have looked like Stanton did last weekend when he was trying to single-handedly destroy the Red Sox’ season with moonshots. Like Stanton when he’s off, you wonder if the Yankees will ever be good again. And like Stanton when he’s on, you wonder if they will ever lose again.
2. DJ LeMahieu recently called the Yankees the streakiest team in baseball and he wasn’t exaggerating. Here are the Yankees’ streaks this season:
5-10 23-9 5-13 7-2 1-7 35-11 3-12 12-4
3. This season has been mostly a disappointment (so far). The Yankees were favored to win the American League and get back to the World Series for the first time in 12 years. For a team expected to the best in the league, they will instead play in the wild-card game for the fourth time in six years and the third time in the last four seasons in which the game has been held.
For as hot as the Yankees have been over the last 10 days and for as good as they have looked against the Red Sox and Blue Jays over the last week, they will play one game for their season on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium or somewhere else. It’s not a great spot to be in.
Sure, playing in the wild-card game is better than not playing in the playoffs at all, but that doesn’t make me feel better as a Yankees fan. For the Red Sox, an overachieving roster which has no business even being in contention for a postseason spot, it would be an accomplishment. For the Blue Jays, a young team whose window hasn’t even really opened yet, it would be an accomplishment. For the Mariners, the team with the longest postseason drought in North American major sports, of course it would be an enormous accomplishment, considering they had a 2 percent chance just five days ago and boast a minus-48 run differential. For the Yankees, it’s a disappointment.
4. The Yankees will start Gerrit Cole in the wild-card game and in theory it’s about as well as any team could be set up from a starting pitcher standpoint. That’s in theory. In actuality, Cole hasn’t looked like himself in exactly a month, and my confidence in him has waned following his hamstring injury on Sept. 7 and his five starts after the injury.
Sept. 7 vs. Toronto: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR Sept. 14 at Baltimore: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K Sept. 19 vs. Cleveland: 5.2 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 HR Sept. 24 at Boston: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR Sept. 29 at Toronto: 6 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 2 HR
The Sept. 7 start was cut short due to the hamstring injury and while Cole says he’s healthy now, it’s hard to believe him. In the four starts he made before Sept. 7, he allowed two earned runs in 24 2/3 innings (24.2 IP, 17 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 39 K, 1 HR). Since Sept. 7, he has allowed 42 baserunners, 18 earned runs and six home runs in 26 1/3 innings.
5. The Yankees got Cole to win this exact game: a must-win game in the truest sense of the phrase. A game literally with the season on the line. In Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, he started the elimination game on three days rest and couldn’t protect a minuscule 1-0 lead over his 5 1/3 innings in the team’s eventual season-ending loss. This season, outside of his complete-game shutout of the Astros in Houston in July, Cole has failed every other important assignment. After his clunker on Wednesday against the Blue Jays, he’s lucky he’s going to get to pitch again in 2021.
I really don’t know what to expect from Cole on Tuesday night. Will we see the Cole who threw that complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win in Houston? The Cole who was good, but not great in Boston this past weekend, allowing three runs over six innings? Or the Cole who was knocked around by the Rangers, Mets and Indians this season and who was lit up over his last five starts in September? I honestly have no idea. No one does. And if you think you do, John Sterling would have a good laugh in your face.
6. The problem with being the wild-card winner is that 48 hours after your season-saving win, you’re playing on the road against the well-rested best team in your league without your best starter until the third game of the series. If the Yankees survive Tuesday, they will go to Tampa for the first two games of the ALDS at Tropicana Field (a place they rarely play well at) against the Rays (a team they never seem to beat). It’s a bad spot to be in, but it’s the best spot you can be in when you’re 41-41 on July 4 or when you go 24-30 against the Rays, Red Sox and Blue Jays or 23-22 against the Orioles, Mets, Angels, Tigers and Indians or when you lose 13 of 16 from late August to mid-September.
After Cole, I don’t know what the Yankees do. I guess they go with Jordan Montgomery and Nestor Cortes in some order for Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS? Corey Kluber could be an option, though I would only want him to be an option if he were to have a two-times-through-the-order limit, though with Aaron Boone managing the team, there’s no such limit.
7. With the Yankees’ season and Boone’s own job in question on Thursday night in Toronto, and with all of the data in the world suggesting Kluber shouldn’t face any lineup a third time, Boone let him face George Springer, Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each a third time. Guerrero Jr. hit a go-ahead double to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead at the time and then Boone went to the bullpen to relieve Kluber. Thursday’s game was essentially a playoff game, just like this entire month has been has been for the Yankees, and Boone has once again shown he can’t be trusted to make even the simplest of logical decisions in playoff-type games. Do you really want him to have to make these decisions in actual playoff games? If Kluber is “cruising” or in line for a win (an archaic concept), Boone won’t pull him. He didn’t on Thursday.
The two-times-through-the-order limit should be for every Yankees starter (with the exception of Cole if he’s himself). The Yankees’ bullpen is once against deep with Michael King (who should never open or start again), Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman. Wandy Peralta and Joely Rodriguez no longer have to be trusted to get the biggest outs in games and that’s a good thing. And the addition of Luis Severino to the bullpen has made the Yankees that much better.
8. I would feel a lot better about the Yankees starting pitching in the postseason (again, if they’re able to survive Tuesday) if Severino were an option. But he’s not an option, even though he could be. Severino rejoined the Yankees as a reliever because he “wasn’t built up” to start games. He could be, but he’s not. He’s not because of his odd usage.
In Severino’s season debut on Sept. 21, he thew 30 pitches over two innings. Four days later he threw 37 pitches across two innings. Three days later he threw 15 pitches and two days after that (Thursday in Toronto) 16 pitches. The Yankees haven’t tried to stretch him out and increase his pitch count to make him a postseason starting option. They have done the opposite, limiting his pitch count over his last two appearances and holding him to one inning in each game. It’s odd, but it’s Boone and the Yankees, and so it’s not a surprise as they idiotically chase a set-inning, late-game formula, featuring Severino. My choice for ALDS Game 1 starter would be to have Severino start the game and figure it out from there. After Cole, he’s the Yankees’ best starter even if he’s not currently a starter. Holding him back to maybe pitch the sixth or seventh inning in a high-leverage situation that may never come is a waste.
9. Whether it’s Severino (unlikely) or Montgomery (very likely), Cortes (also very likely) or even Kluber (not as likely) starting Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS (if the Yankees get there), I have confidence in the Yankees’ pitching, both the rotation and bullpen. The Yankees’ season will hinge on their offense, the way it does every postseason and if the Yankees’ offense performs an October disappearing act for the ninth time in the last 12 Octobers, their season will finish the same way it has the last 11 Octobers: without a championship.
Right now, the Yankees’ offense looks the best it has all season. During this nine-game stretch in which they have gone 8-1, the Yankees have scored 55 runs, averaging 6.1 runs per point game. Seven of the eight wins were by two-plus runs, a far cry from how they were winning through the first 149 games of the year. Everyone (and I mean everyone) in the lineup has been contributing. Yes, some more than others, but over the last nine games and 10 days, every Yankee has had a moment. It’s been a collective effort with Aaron Judge and Stanton leading the way. The Yankees’ offense of Games 150-159 has been the Yankees we rarely saw from Games 1-149. Had we seen this offense more often in those first 149 games, I would be worried about who’s starting after Cole in Games 2 and 3 of the ALDS and not whether or not the Yankees will even reach the ALDS.
10. The Yankees now have three games left. Three games against the Rays, who have nothing to play for other than to prevent the Yankees from reaching the postseason. After Thursday’s win over the Blue Jays, the Yankees’ magic number is down to 2 to play a 163rd game. It’s not where I thought the team would be on Opening Day, but it’s where they are.
Thanks to a monumental collapse since their 13-game winning streak, The Yankees now need to win nearly all of their remaining 18 games to reach the postseason. If they don’t, changes are coming. Some of the changes have already come.
Thanks to a monumental collapse since their 13-game winning streak, The Yankees now need to win nearly all of their remaining 18 games to reach the postseason. If they don’t, changes are coming. Some of the changes have already come.
1. After their’ 8-2 win over the A’s on August 27, the Yankees were 76-52. To get to 96 wins, which would put them in a great position to win the AL East (and also win my preseason over 95.5-win wager), the Yankees only needed to go 20-14 in their remaining 34 games. They have gone 4-12.
It’s been an explicable 16 games since the 13th win of the 13-game winning streak. The Yankees lost two of three to the Angels, lost two of three to the Orioles, got swept in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium and then lost two of three to the Mets. The collapse has been an embarrassment and it has seen the Yankees go from holding the first wild-card spot to being out of the playoff picture and now chasing both the Red Sox and Blue Jays.
2. In the collapse, Chad Green has pitched in six games, allowing runs in four of them and home runs in three of them. Green is the last person I want to see in a big spot, but the problem is there is no one else. Jonathan Loaisiga is injured, Zack Britton is out for this season and likely all of next season. Darren O’Day’s season ended after 12 appearances. Justin Wilson and Luis Cessa are in Cincinnati. To me, Clay Holmes is the best available Yankees reliever, and after him, there’s no one I trust.
Green’s knack for allowing home runs in high-leverage situations has been unbelievable. His season has been a collection of giving up home runs in high-leverage spots and blowing late leads. The Astros’ two wins against the Yankees this season came after Green gave up a three-run home run to Jose Altuve in both games and it was Green who had the post-All-Star break meltdown in Boston to blow a two-run, ninth-inning lead. The home run he allowed on August 29 in Oakland turned a 1-1 game into a 3-1 deficit. The home run he allowed on Saturday at Citi Field turned a 5-4 lead into a 6-5 deficit. The home run he allowed on Sunday at Citi Field turned a 6-6 game into a 7-6 deficit. Green has now allowed 15 home runs in 59 games and 74 innings. He allowed 13 home runs in 144 2/3 innings in 2017 and 2018 combined.
With limited options and no real trustworthy options, Green is going to continue to see high-leverage situations over the remaining 18 games. The Yankees’ season will likely hinge on whether or not he can revert back to his old self.
3. Green isn’t the only one who needs to revert back to his old self. Gleyber Torres’ error on Sunday in the series finale against the Mets was apparently the final straw for him as shortstop. After sitting by and watching Torres boot routine play after routine play both last season and this season, Boone finally announced Torres would be playing second base indefinitely. It’s good Boone and the front office are willing to improve the most important position in the infield, however, it’s likely too late for the change as the Yankees’ postseason chances are no longer great. By accommodating Torres (whose bat isn’t good enough to make accommodations for) it’s screwing up the rest of the infield.
Torres playing second means DJ LeMahieu isn’t. LeMahieu is a three-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman who will now play third base, a position he had never played prior to joining the Yankees. It also means Gio Urshela, who never played shortstop in the majors prior to this season will now play shortstop. So by improving the defense at short, the Yankees have downgraded their defense at both second and third. Again, this is to accommodate Torres, who isn’t nearly good enough to be getting this kind of accomodation. It would be in the Yankees’ best interest to not play Torres rather than shuffle 75 percent of the infield to keep him in the lineup.
4. Two years ago, Torres looked like he would be the team’s best player in the near future and the most important player on the team for years to come as a 22-year-old, superstar middle infielder. Instead, in his last 602 plate appearances, he has 10 home runs and a .688 OPS.
I would be ready for the Yankees to move on except for his value being so low. But maybe his value will never recover. Maybe the Yankees holding out hope he will return to the player he was in 2018 and 2019 or hoping his stock will rise, so they can move him will only hurt the team in 2022 and for however long they continue to play him.
5. The Yankees made it clear Torres is no longer the shortstop of the future for them when they reportedly tried to trade for Trevor Story in July. Now, needing to win every game down the stretch, the Yankees have decided to move Torres off of shortstop and to a position he hasn’t played since the 2019 ALCS. His time as the Yankees’ everyday shortstop is over. With the Yankees’ top prospect (Anthony Volpe) being a shortstop, as well as their No. 3 prospect (Oswald Peraza), I don’t see them going out and signing Story or Corey Seager or Carlos Correa to a long-term contract. But they are going to have to do something. They can’t go into 2022 planning on Torres being their everyday shortstop, and I don’t think they’re even considering it.
6. The Yankees won for just the fourth time in their last 16 games on Monday, overcoming a 5-0 deficit to beat the Twins 6-5 on a Gary Sanchez walk-off hit. The comeback was made possible thanks to a Judge game-tying, three-run home run in the eighth inning.
The Yankees have had a knack for hitting a late-inning, game-tying home run during the collapse. The problem is they usually don’t take the lead after tying the game with a big home run. In Anaheim, it was Stanton who tied the game at 7 with a two-run home run in the seventh before the Yankees lost 8-7. Against the Orioles, it was Joey Gallo tying the game at 3 in the eighth before the Yankees lost 4-3. Against the Blue Jays, it was Brett Gardner with a game-tying, three-run home run on Wednesday and Anthony Rizzo with a game-tying, two-run home run on Thursday, both coming in Yankees losses. On Sunday, it was Stanton again with a game-tying, two-run home run against the Mets in an eventual Yankees loss. (Only once during the collapse did the Yankees hit a late, game-tying home run and go on to win: Saturday against the Mets.)
7. The Stanton home run created a bench-clearing argument between the Yankees and Mets after Stanton stopped rounding the bases to have words with Francisco Lindor, who earlier in the game had words for the Yankees dugout while rounding the bases on a home run. Nothing came of the Stanton and Lindor exchange other than a bunch of yelling and hand gestures. It seemed like a moment that could lead the Yankees to a much-needed win and potentially serve as the starting point for a late-season run to the postseason. Instead, Lindor answered Stanton’s home run with his third home run of the game. When Stanton came up with two outs in the ninth and had the tying run at third and go-ahead run at second, he popped up to Lindor to end the game.
8. When these Yankees chirp their opponent, it never ends well.
After the Yankees won Game 2 of the 2018 ALDS in Boston, Aaron Judge walked through Fenway Park with a boom box blaring “New York, New York.” The Yankees followed that up with the worst home postseason loss in franchise history in Game 3 and were eliminated in Game 4, while the Red Sox went on to win the World Series, playing “New York, New York” in their clubhouse after each win.
Earlier this season in Houston, Judge mimicked Jose Altuve clutching his jersey on his way to home plate after his walk-off home run against the Yankees in the 2019 ALCS (the moment that cerated the Astros’ buzzer controversy). In the series finale, Altuve got the last laugh, like he always seems to go against the Yankees, hitting a three-run, walk-off home run to cap a six-run ninth in the final game of the first half.
Then there was Sunday with Lindor, who like Altuve, got the last laugh.
9. The only way for the Yankees to get the last laugh in 2021 is to win nearly all of their remaining 18 games. If they do so, they will have a chance to go on a revenge tour throughout the postseason. Either they will outlast Boston for a wild-card berth and end their season or have the opportunity to eliminate them in the wild-card game. If they win the wild-card game, they will have the chance to avenge their 2020 ALDS loss to the Rays in the 2021 ALDS. After that, they could see the Astros in the ALCS and repay the Astros for the 2017 and 2019 ALCS. The only way for this happen is for the Yankees to win each series from here on out and it might take even more than that.
10. The Blue Jays’ schedule is so easy the rest of the way. Ten of their remaining 19 games are against the Twins (7) and Orioles (3). The Red Sox’ schedule is also very easy. Nine of their remaining 17 games are against the Orioles (6) and Nationals (3).
The Yankees are in a bad spot. A very bad spot. That’s what happens when you lose the season series to the Angels and Mets, can’t beat the Orioles and get swept at home in a four-game series by the team chasing you. They now have 18 games left to avoid completing a collapse, which should result in vast organizational changes.
The Yankees have 25 games left to change the narrative on their season yet again, and if they don’t, there will be plenty of blame to go around this October.
The Yankees have lost seven of their last nine games and it seems as though the April 1-July 4 Yankees have returned. The Yankees have 25 games left to change the narrative on their season yet again, and if they don’t, there will be plenty of blame to go around this October.
1. I was beginning to get nervous the Yankees’ play since the second game of the doubleheader on July 4, including their 13-game winning streak, had made Yankees fans forget how awful Aaron Boone is at his job and how bad this Yankees team is. The mirage that was the Yankees’ recent run has come to an end and sandwiched around their 35-11 record between July 4-August 27 is a 43-48 record. The Yankees have lost seven of their last nine games with each loss seemingly uglier than the one before it.
The Yankees were expected to represent the American League in the World Series this season and were the odds-on favorite to win the pennant. They can still do so, but it’s going to be extremely difficult, and anything short of a World Series appearance should be the end of Boone’s time as Yankees manager. A wild-card berth isn’t nearly enough. An ALDS loss apperance isn’t enough. A fifth ALCS loss for the franchise in 12 years can’t be enough. Get to the World Series or say goodbye to Boone and make a needed change at manager.
2. There is this weird faction of Yankees fans who think Brian Cashman and Boone are not to blame at all for this Yankees team and this season, always wanting to blame the players. It’s never the fault of the front office or the manager. The front office only puts together the roster and the manager only creates the lineup and manages the bullpen and in-game decisions.
If I were to start at shortstop for the Yankees tonight and make multiples errors and go hitless at the plate, or if I were to be used as a reliever and failed to protect a late lead, these Yankees fans would blame me for my performance. They wouldn’t blame Cashman for putting me on the roster or Boone for putting me in the game.
I know this because there are fans who blame Gleyber Torres and Andrew Heaney for Sunday’s loss to the Orioles in the second game of the series.
3. Torres took his sweet time on a routine ground ball, which would have ended the sixth inning and maintained a 7-2 Yankees lead. After he was unable to make the routine play, the inning was extended and Albert Abreu allowed a two-run home run to make it 7-4.
Torres is an awful shortstop. He has never been good defensively, and his bat is no longer capable of negating his defense. But Torres doesn’t pencil himself in as the starting shortstop (and he doesn’t write him name into the seventh spot in the batting order above Gary Sanchez either).
The Yankees knew Torres was a defensive liability coming into the season. They knew he would be unable to consistently make what’s considered a routine play by major-league standards. Yet they still went into 2021 with him as their starting shortstop. But the same way the Yankees stubbornly told fans their all-right-handed lineup could be successful before trading for two left-handed bats in Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo, the Yankees tried to right their wrong in believing in Torres when they unsuccessfully tried acquire Trevor Story in July. Torres will either be off the position in 2022 or possibly off the team. The Yankees’ failed trade of Story says so. There are still 25 regular-season games left in 2021 though and then possibly one or more postseason games.
4. While Torres was out, the Yankees were winning and Andrew Velazquez became the easiest Yankee of all time to root for. With the Bronx native, who’s living at his parents while playing for the team he grew up dreaming about playing for, starting at shortstop every day, I wrote and said if Torres didn’t play well upon his return that the calls would begin to play Velazquez every day. Those calls have started.
In four games since coming off the IL, Torres is 3-for-13 with four strikeouts and no extra-base hits and a litany of mistakes in the field. Whether he’s botching balls, taking too long to get off throws or mishandling throws on steal attempts, Torres’ defense should be enough for him to sit on the bench. With a .686 OPS and nine home runs in his last 145 games and 580 plate appearances, Torres should no longer be an automatic when it comes to being in the starting lineup.
5. In the seventh, an inning after Torres’ miscue led to two runs, the Yankees still had a 7-4 lead. Get nine outs before allowing three runs. With the heart of the Orioles’ order due up, Andrew Heaney was brought into the game. Heaney had recently been moved to the bullpen to accommodate the return of Corey Kluber, even though Heaney had two career relief appearances before this season and even though he proved incapable of being a reliever in relief of Kluber the last time through the rotation in Anaheim. But with the Orioles’ 3-4-5 hitters due up, Heaney was brought in.
Heaney hit Trey Mancini with a pitch, allowed a single to DJ Stewart, a single to Austin Hays, a double to Jahmai Jones and after finally getting an out, another single to Jorge Mateo. Heaney faced six batters, five of them being right-handed.
I’m not upset with Heaney for his performance. He sucks. He didn’t ask to be traded to the Yankees. He didn’t put himself in the bullpen with essentially no experience as a reliever. He didn’t put himself in Sunday’s game, He didn’t keep himself in the game to turn a three-run lead into a one-run deficit, while recording one out. His roster spot is on Cashman and his continued use is on Boone. The Yankees have been unable to properly evaluate Heaney’s ability and haven’t come close to putting him in the best possible position to succeed. In return, he has allowed 24 earned runs and 10 home runs in 28 1/3 innings.
6. “He’s going to have to step up,” Boone said about Heaney on Sunday. “He wants the ball and he’s going to have to take advantage of an opportunity when he gets it.”
“When he gets it?!?!” The next time Heaney should get the ball is when he’s wearing a different uniform. There are 25 games left in the season, the Yankees haven’t clinched a postseason berth and one of their paths to the postseason (as the division winner) has been taken off the board. The Yankees’ only opportunity to reach the postseason is as one of the two wild-card teams. Their only opportunity to reach an actual postseason series is to then win a one-game playoff. The only way for them to reach a seven-game series will be to survive a five-game series against the Rays without Gerrit Cole for the first two games of the series.
Despite all of this and the uphill battle the Yankees face to reaching the playoffs, advancing to the ALDS, getting to the ALCS and potentially returning to the World Series for the first time in 12 years, Boone is filling out his lineup card and making in-game decisions as if it’s March in Tampa and the results of the games are meaningless. The roster is being managed the same way. When the rosters expanded from 26 to 28 on September 1, the Yankees used one of the two spots on Brooks Kriske. Brooks Kriske! BROOKS KRISKE!
7. At this point Kriske is my favorite Yankee. What Kriske has been able to do in becoming a Yankee, having his 40-man roster spot protected over Garrett Whitlock in the offseason and then maintaining his 40-man spot this season to collect major-league pay and service despite having zero career success has been nothing short of amazing.
In 11 1/3 career innings, Kriske has put 29 runners on base, allowed 19 earned runs, including six home runs, walked 13 and thrown seven wild pitches. He has a 15.09 ERA (11.11 FIP) and 2.471 WHIP. It’s not unrealistic to think you could pick any pitcher from Single-A and put them in the majors and get better results.
8. It made no sense to give one of the two additional rosters to Kriske, the the same way it made no sense to pitch him in a three-run game against the Blue Jays on Monday, a team the Yankees are trying to hold off from taking their playoff spot.
Like Heaney and Torres, I’m not mad at Kriske. He sucks. He didn’t ask to be called up on September 1 despite doing absolutely nothing to merit a call-up. He didn’t ask to come into Monday’s game, just like he didn’t ask to come into any other game or to even be a Yankee in the first place. His use is on the Yankees failing to properly evaluate his ability and for to continuing to use him as a viable major league reliever. I hope he stays on the roster and keeps pitching. Good for him. Get that major league money and that service time. I’m rooting for him.
9. The Blue Jays’ humiliation of the Yankees on Monday was expected. The Blue Jays are really good. They have a plus-136 run differential on the season, the same run differential as the White Sox who play 76 games against the Indians, Tigers, Royals and Twins. If not for the Blue Jays’ bullpen failing them for a large portion of the season, the Yankees would be chasing them and not the other way around.
The Blue Jays now trail the Yankees by three games in the loss column and their schedule is set up for them to control their own destiny. Half of the Blue Jays’ 26 remaining games are against the Yankees (6) and Orioles (7). They are playing the team they are chasing and they are playing the worst team in the majors, a team that no one has trouble beating other than the Yankees.
10. I’m now worried about both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox (who trail the Yankees by two games in the loss column). The Red Sox aren’t as good as the Blue Jays (or the Yankees) with a lineup that has three hitters, a bad bullpen and one starting pitcher. But like the Blue Jays, the Red Sox have a favorable schedule to end the season with six games left against the Orioles and they finish the season with three games against the Nationals.
The Yankees may “hold” a wild-card spot at this moment, however, a bad week against the Blue Jays could change that, and a continued bad month will change it for good.
After starting their three-city, nine-game road trip 4-0, the Yankees end up going 5-4. The Yankees’ losing combined with the Rays’ winning has all but taken the division away as a possible postseaon path for
After starting their three-city, nine-game road trip 4-0, the Yankees end up going 5-4. The Yankees’ losing combined with the Rays’ winning has all but taken the division away as a possible postseaon path for the Yankees. Get ready for the Yankees playing in the one-game playoff once again.
1. The division is over. The Yankees trail the Rays by seven games and have 29 games left. If the Rays were to play under .500 and go 14-15 the rest of the way, they would finish with 98 wins. The Yankees would have to go 21-8 just to tie them. The Rays are currently on a 102-win pace and the Yankees would have to go 25-4 to win 102 games. Most likely, the Rays will win 99-100 games and the Yankees would have to go 22-7 to get to 99 wins and 23-6 to get to 100. The Yankees aren’t mathematically eliminated in the AL East, but the odds really, really bad. Fangraphs gives the Yankees a 9 percent chance of winning the division.
The two losses to the Angels hurt and hurt the Yankees’ division chances. But it wasn’t like those losses were the only ones that hurt. All 56 losses to this point have hurt with several of them coming in the final innings of games in which the Yankees led. For as good as the Yankees have been since their 5-10 start (72-46), since the second game of the July 4 doubleheader (36-15), since the All-Star break (31-13) and since the trade deadline (24-8), the Rays have been even better. When you have 31-13 run team, which includes a 13-game winning streak, you’re supposed to do serious damage in the standings. The Yankees did so in terms of the wild-card standings, but in the division, they actually lost ground on the Rays, who have gone 31-12. That’s ridiculous.
2. So now the Yankees look destined for the one-game, wild-card playoff for the third time in the last four seasons in which it was held, and the fourth time in the last six seasons in which it was held. The five-team postseason format has hurt the Yankees more than any other team. In 2015, the Yankees would have advanced to the ALDS in the old, four-team format. Instead, they lost to Dallas Keuchel and the Astros 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. In 2016, the Yankees nearly didn’t trade away Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova because ownership wanted to hold on for the possibility of winning the second wild-card berth. In 2017 and 2018, the Yankees would have advanced to the ALDS in the old format, and the same will be true in 2021.
The Yankees have the best possible starting pitcher for the one-game playoff in 2021 in Gerrit Cole. Outside of Jacob deGrom, he’s the best pitcher in baseball. But it’s still one game, in which anything can happen, and any player, pitcher or team could have the best or worst game or day imaginable. Look at the starting pitchers who have shut down the Yankees in a single game this season: Matt Harvey, Michael Wacha, Jordan Lyles and Paul Blackburn, among many others. All fringe major leaguers who the Yankees couldn’t muster (Aaron Boone buzz word) any offense against. Cole could have the kind of unbelievable start he had on Wednesday night in Anaheim (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R ,1 ER, 0 BB, 15 K), and the Yankees could still lose because it’s ONE GAME. “One-game playoff” is the scariest phrase in baseball, and having gone through three others already in the last five years, I’m speaking from experience. It’s a horrible, miserable, nail-biting event that excites for everyone other than the team and the fans of the team who earned the first wild-card berth.
3. If the Yankees earn the first wild card (which they are likely to do) and start Cole (which they will do), and they win the game, well, they’re set up for failure in the ALDS. The wild-card game is on Tuesday, Oct. 5. The ALDS begins on Thursday, Oct. 7. The Yankees would have one full day off between the wild-card game and Game 1 of the ALDS. They would have to travel to Tampa and play the first two games of the ALDS against the AL-best Rays (a team that has owned them during the Aaron Boone era) at the Trop (a place they have had an extremely difficult time winning) and they would be without Cole until Game 3 of the series. Rather than have Cole for two games in a best-of-5 against the Rays, the Yankees would have him for one game, meaning some combination of Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon, Nestor Cortes and Corey Kluber would start as many as four games against the Rays. The Yankees couldn’t beat the Rays in a best-of-5 last October with Cole pitching twice in the series and none of the games being at the Trop. Given the opponent, where the first two games of the series will be played and the lack of Cole, the Yankees’ chances of eliminating the Rays and advancing to the ALDS this October aren’t great.
That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, just like it doesn’t mean the Yankees can’t end their championship drought. It’s just unlikely for either thing to happen. That’s what the wild-card game is meant to do: severely obstruct the path to postseason success for the teams who have to play in it. That’s why I value each game the same from Opening Day through Game 162 because each game can be the difference between having a bye to the ALDS and being able to have three days off and set up your rotation to maximize potential success or having to play one game for your season in which you have to use your best starter and diminish your odds of winning in the first round.
4. Once again, the Yankees simply didn’t do everything they could to avoid the one-game playoff, and I truly believe they’re fine with it. “Just get in” they would say, and if it doesn’t go well, and their postseason lasts one night, Brian Cashman will be there to tell you about how baseball’s postseason is a crapshoot and success in it is random.
Without a playoff berth clinched, and barely hanging on in the division, and barely holding on to the first wild card, and even after losing four straight games to the A’s and Angels recently, Boone still gave Giancarlo Stanton the day off on Wednesday in the series finale in Anaheim.
“Just a day off,” Boone said. “I probably should have given it to him yesterday.”
Boone might as well have waved a white flag with “AL East” written on it in his pregame press conference. Trailing the Rays by eight games before the start of Wednesday’s game, Boone sat Stanton even with a scheduled day off on Thursday. In Game 133 of 162, Boone is still putting his lineup together as if the Yankees are 15 games up in the division or as if the end date of season is indefinite and will continue until the Yankees achieve first place in the division.
5. “I think guys are ticked off that we haven’t continued to roll,” Boone said about the four-game losing streak immediately following the 13-game winning streak.
The “guys” should be “ticked off” at Boone. It’s Boone who continues to change the lineup daily, never once starting the nine best available players. It was Boone who watched Kluber (in his first start in more than three months) allow three consecutive first-pitch singles and then load the bases without getting anyone up in the bullpen. It was Boone who allowed Kluber, running on fumes, to give up a grand slam in that same inning, and it was Boone who allowed Kluber to keep pitching after the slam because no one was completely warmed up after Boone failed to warm anyone up in time. It was also Boone who watched Taillon struggle to put away hitters the following night and after giving up a 3-spot in the third inning, sat there and let Taillon give up another 3-spot the very next inning, never thinking to go to his bullpen in what was still a winnable game at the time. Boone’s lack of understanding when to remove a pitcher and his seemingly need to bring in each reliever in a no-margin-for-error situation is infuriating.
6. Stanton’s unnecessary night off meant got Luke Voit back in the lineup. Stanton shouldn’t need to sit for Voit to play. Anthony Rizzo shouldn’t need to sit for Voit to play. NO ONE should need to sit for Voit to play. Voit should play every single game because he’s a great hitter, and ironically, there’s a spot in the AL batting order for a great hitter, who doesn’t have to play the field. Even with a dedicated lineup spot for someone who is one of the best hitters in baseball, but doesn’t necessarily have a position, this is how Boone has used (or not used) Voit the last few weeks:
August 15: 3-for-5, HR, 2 RBIs August 16: 1-for-3 August 17: 2-for-5, HR, 3 RBIs August 18: Off day August 19: 1-for-4, 2B, 2 RBIs August 20: 4-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBIs August 21: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBIs August 22: Off day August 23: Bench August 24: Bench August 25: Off day August 26: Bench August 27: 1-for-4, HR, RBI August 28: 1-for-3 August 29: 0-for-4 August 30: Bench August 31: Bench September 1: 2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBIs
7. The constant benching of Voit, despite him bashing the ball and recently winning AL Player of the Week is due to Boone’s love for Brett Gardner and his needing to play Gardner in as many games as possible. Gardner was supposed to be the team’s fourth outfielder beginning in 2018, thought he was always going to play more than a normal fourth outfielder with the oft-injured Aaron Hicks on the team and the also oft-injured Stanton and Aaron Judge. Gardner played 140 games in 2018 (86 percent), 141 games in 2019 (87 percent), 49 games in 2020 (82 percent) and has played in 113 games in 2021 (85 percent).
The problem with Gardner going from fourth outfielder to everyday outfielder every year since since 2018 is Gardner isn’t any good. In fact, he’s bad. He isn’t one of the best nine players on the team deserving of an everyday lineup spot, but he continues to be an everyday player. He hasn’t been good enough to be an everyday player since 2017. In 2018, he lost his everyday role in the trade for Andrew McCutchen. The Yankees brought him back anyway for 2019, rather than sign Michael Brantley, and thanks to the super baseball, Gardner hit 28 home runs, which were nothing more than a mirage in a season in which Gleyber Torres hit 38 (he has nine in 141 games since) and Ketel Marte hit 32 (he he has hit 11 in 110 games since). Gardner’s 2019 stats look as fake as every cast member of Friends does now except for Lisa Kudrow. Gardner was horrible again in the shortened 2020 season, until a two-week hot streak to end the season somehow made up for his last three years and led to him starting five of the Yankees’ seven playoff games.
If given the opportunity to play Gardner, Boone will always play Gardner. I can’t help but think of the scene in Moneyball where Billy Beane is forced to trade Carlos Pena and Jeremy Giambi so Art Howe has to play Scott Hatteberg at first. The only way for Boone to not play Gardner and to play the best possible lineup is for Gardner to no longer be on the team. Unfortunately, with a month left in what should be his final major league season (if this isn’t Gardner’s last major league season I may have to boycott rooting for the Yankees), Gardner is here to stay.
8. That means you should prepare yourself to see Gardner starting in center field in the one-game playoff. Gardner started five of seven postseason games in 2020. In 2019, Boone batted him third in both the ALDS and ALCS. In 2018 with the Yankees facing elimination, Boone sat McCutchen for Gardner. There’s no way Gardner will be on the bench for the one-game playoff. If everyone is healthy for the wild-card game, this will be the lineup:
DJ LeMahieu, 2B Anthony Rizzo, 1B Aaron Judge, RF Joey Gallo, LF/Giancarlo Stanton, DH Joey Gallo, LF/Giancarlo Stanton, DH Gleyber Torres, SS Gio Urshela, 3B Kyle Higashioka, C Brett Gardner, CF
(If it’s Chris Sale, Stanton will bat fourth. If it’s a right-handed starter, Boone will bat Gallo fourth to alternate righty-lefty since he thinks it’s a mandatory lineup rule when facing a right-handed starter.)
Playing with two near-automatic outs in the lineup (Higashioka and Gardner) in one game for your entire season, and what could be Boone’s job, is absolutely crazy. But Boone is going to do it. He’s 100 percent going to do it.
9. Boone has been unbelievably bad this season as his in-game management “ability” has somehow declined (something I didn’t think was possible), and it’s obvious (Boone buzz word) his communication skills (for which he was praised and essentially hired for) have fallen apart as well.
Since last October when he benched Clint Frazier for Gardner and failed to discuss Gary Sanchez’s playing time with the catcher, things have unraveled for Boone off the field. In spring training, he didn’t feel it was necessary for Scumbag Domingo German to address the team regarding why he was suspended by the league in 2019 and for 2020, until Zack Britton openly told the media “you don’t get to pick who your teammates are.” Boone publicly lied about Frazier being the starting left fielder in 2021, even though the second Gardner re-signed everyone knew Boone would give Frazier less than a week to prove himself before turning to one of his favorites. He said Sanchez would catch Cole in 2021, and Sanchez caught Cole on Opening Day and then didn’t again until Higashioka was pinch hit for in a game Sanchez won with his pinch-hit home run and didn’t again until Higashioka went down with COVID. He said Stanton would be used in the outfield as early as the beginning of the season, and Stanton finally played the outfield on the second-to-last-day of July in the 102nd game of the season. He has once again lied about injuries, injury rehabs and return dates from injuries and spent the first three-plus months of the season essentially saying, “Everything is fine” while failing to hold himself or any player on the roster accountable for the Yankees’ embarrassing performance half of the season.
I don’t see how Boone is the Yankees’ manager in 2021 unless the team reaches the World Series. In a season in which the Yankees were expected to represent the AL in the World Series and were the odds-on favorite to do so, I don’t know how the Yankees can bring him back and tell the fan base settling for yet another wild-card game and early postseason exit is acceptable.
10. The remaining 29 games are about clinching the first wild-card berth since it would take a colossal Rays collapse for the division to become in play again. Winning games and hoping the Red Sox lose games is what these remaining four-plus weeks are about. Because while the one-game playoff is scary as is, the only pitcher I’m truly petrified of the Yankees having to see in it is Chris Sale. Give me any of the A’s or Mariners or Blue Jays starters. If the Yankees lose to them, so be it. If the Yankees play the Red Sox and win, it will be like it always is: the Yankees were supposed to win. If the Yankees were to be eliminated by the Red Sox for the second time in four years and third time since 2004, losing at home in a game started by Cole in a year in which the Red Sox weren’t supposed to be competitive, it will be a very bad scene.
As is the case every day of every baseball season, the Yankees need to win and the Red Sox need to lose. More now than ever.
