1. Cortes delivers …

Freeman hits a ball to right field …

SHE IS GONE! …

GIBBY, MEET FREDDIE! … GAME 1 OF THE WORLD SERIES!

For many Yankees fans, they probably only heard Joe Davis’ call of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam once. They probably heard it in real time, turned off the TV and went to bed. Not me. I heard it a second time. And a third time and fourth time. I heard it for nearly an hour after the game had ended from the other room as my wife — a Dodgers fan — watched the historic moment on an endless loop.

I’ll never get over Game 1. I’ll never get over the litany of bad decisions that started with Gerrit Cole being removed in the seventh inning and ended with Nestor Cortes being asked to get Shoehei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman out.

2. When these Yankees lose, they don’t just lose. They lose in the excruciating, heartbreaking, kick-you-in-the-nuts-then-punch-you-in-the-face-when-you-go-to-grab-your-nuts fashion. They don’t lose games 7-2 or 5-0. They lose games like Game 1 of the World Series or Game 4 of the ALCS, which is how these Yankees always lose in the playoffs. The Dodgers lost two games to the Padres by scores of 10-2 and 6-5. They lost two games to the Mets by scores of 7-3 and 8-0. Normal, easy-to-accept losses. The Yankees? They carry high-’90s win probabilities into the final inning and come within an out or a strike of a winning before suffering an unbelievable loss.

Game 1 didn’t have to be an unbelievable loss. It should have been a statement win, letting the Dodgers know they aren’t playing the Padres or Mets anymore. Instead, the Dodgers let the Yankees know they aren’t playing the AL Central anymore. (The Yankees have not won a postseason series against a team outside of the AL Central since the 2012 ALDS against Baltimore.) The game was a perfect summarization of the Aarons era with Aaron Boone managing his team to a loss and Aaron Judge doing absolutely nothing at at the plate to prevent it.

3. Boone desperately wants to be known as some kind of baseball genius or managerial savant. It’s why he interjects himself into games in the oddest ways, even when he doesn’t have to. His father — a 19-year veteran, World Series champion and seven-time Gold Glove winner — and brother — a 14-year veteran, four-time Gold Glove winner and two-time Silver Slugger winner who led the league in RBIs one season — had careers that overshadowed Boone’s 92 OPS+ in the majors. (Maybe that’s why he’s so infatuated with giving endless chances to below-league-average hitters he manages.) Managing the Yankees was going to be his way of stepping of that shadow.

Boone was selected as the manager of the most prestigious organization in major sports following the young, exciting core coming within a win of the World Series despite having no managerial or coaching experience at any level. His lack of experience showed in his first spring training when he called on Dellin Betances to enter a game even though Betances had yet to warm up. The umpiring crew gave him a mulligan and let Betances warm up anyway. In the first series of his first regular season in Toronto, he managed the Yankees to a late-inning loss with his bullpen choices and from that moment on he has never evolved.

4. His longing to be the smartest baseball mind in a major-league dugout is why he makes the moves he makes. He didn’t need to remove Cole from the game. Not after 88 pitches. He didn’t need to show the Dodgers all of the Yankees’ elite relievers in Game 1 of the series. He didn’t need to use Clay Holmes in relief of Cole. He didn’t need to try to steal outs with Tommy Kahnle. He didn’t need to pinch run Jasson Dominguez for Gleyber Torres with two outs, but he wanted Judge to single in Dominguez, so talking heads would praise him for the awareness to use Dominguez in that spot. He didn’t need to go to Jake Cousins in relief of Luke Weaver with the Yankees three outs from a win in the 10th and Weaver having thrown only 19 pitches. He didn’t need to use Cortes over Tim Hill, but he wanted to try to turn one of his starters into a shutdown postseason reliever like his friend, rival and much more heralded and respected Alex Cora did in 2018.

5. Boone had his worst night as Yankees manager in the biggest game he has ever managed. It was the type of managerial performance I have feared from him for seven years. It was a performance he foreshadowed to us all over the last seven years.

“I just like the matchup,” Boone said of using Cortes in the 10th. “The reality is, Cortes has been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he’s gotten ready for this.”

What are you talking about? What reality? Cortes facing Jahmai Jones in live batting practice in an empty Yankee Stadium isn’t reality. That’s a controlled environment. Reality is pitching in Game 1 of the World Series with a former MVP at the plate and the bases loaded.

“I knew with one out there, it would be tough to double up Shohei if Tim Hill gets him on the ground,” Boone said. “Then Mookie behind him is a tough spot matchup there. So I felt convicted with Nestor in that spot.”

Whenever Boone lays out the thought process he uses to make decisions, we all get a look inside the brain of a confused idiot. If Hill gets Ohtani on the ground, he doesn’t need a double play. There were runners on first and second with one out. Ohtani goes on the ground and there are two outs. Cortes didn’t face Betts, so Hill wouldn’t have either. If the bases are loaded and Hill gets Freeman on the ground, guess what? Game over.

6. I don’t blame Cortes for the missed location to Freeman. Once the bases were intentionally loaded, he had to throw strikes. Freeman knew this and was ready for a fastball in the zone. Even if Cortes hits his intended location, Freeman likely still gets a hit and ends the game. It’s Freddie Fucking Freeman, not Josh Naylor. But no, it’s not Cortes’ fault. He last pitched in a game on September 18. He didn’t put himself on the World Series roster after missing five weeks and being on the brink of Tommy John surgery and he didn’t put himself in that spot.

7. Boone doesn’t believe the Yankees’ Game 1 loss is on him. In his mind he pressed all of the right buttons and his players didn’t perform. The idea of putting your players in the best possible position to succeed isn’t a concept Boone comprehends. The ironic part about Boone is that he is always managing with tomorrow on mind. It’s why he pulled Weaver after going five up and five down on 19 pitches, rather than using Weaver in the 10th and securing a win. But while Boone always manages for tomorrow, he never manages a game thinking the game may go to extra innings, and when it does the Yankees are ill-equipped to win. Do you think it’s just a coincidence the Yankees have lost every extra-inning game in the postseason with Boone as manager?

The bigger the game, the worse Boone is at his job. Just like his superstar, $40-million-per-year MVP.

8. Giancarlo Stanton is everything that Judge isn’t. He’s a big-game performer who saves his best for the playoffs and has become the second coming of Mr. October. Judge is Mr. May. No one destroys back-of-the-rotation starters and middle relievers like Judge does in the spring and summer.

Everyone thought Judge had moved past his postseason failures when he hit the home run off Emmanuel Clase in Game 3 of the ALCS. But since his home run off Clase (that came in the Yankees’ only loss of that series), Judge is 2-for-14 with a pair of singles and 10 strikeouts. He has struck out 16 times in 36 at-bats this October.

If Judge just sucked and wasn’t abysmal, the Yankees’ offense wouldn’t be in such a dire position. But he has been impossibly bad, culminating in his three-strikeout performance in Game 1 of the World Series, a game in which he looked blindfolded swinging at Jack Flaherty breaking balls. Late on fastballs and unable to hit curveballs. That’s Mr. May.

9. Judge’s absence has turned the Yankees into a two-batter lineup. Opposing pitchers can fear Juan Soto and Stanton and no one else. The threat of slug in the lineup dies after Stanton bats. Sure, Jazz Chisholm and Austin Wells each hit solo home runs in this postseason, but no one is threatened by the idea of them doing that consistently. Anthony Rizzo is a slap singles hitter and Anthony Volpe is the same. Alex Verdugo has trouble getting the ball in the air past infielders, so the thought of him hitting one over the fence is far-fetched. When Wells makes contact it’s a miracle, so no one is expecting him to drive the ball with any authority. When the bat gets taken out of Soto’s hands through an intentional walk and Stanton’s at-bat doesn’t end with a home run, the Yankees don’t score. Unless the Dodgers are going to start walking in runs like the Royals did or throwing wild pitches and dropping popups like the Guardians, the Yankees are going to have a tough time scoring without Judge being himself.

10. At this point, I have no expectation he will be himself. The last time he looked like himself was exactly a month ago today when he finished a streak of five straight games with a home run at the end of September. Since the calendar turned to October he has performed his annual disappearing act while the two batters he is sandwiched between in the lineup have carried him and the team. The Dodgers are too good to let Soto and Stanton alone carry the Yankees to another series win.

The narrative after the ALDS was that the Yankees were able to advance without Judge hitting, so just wait until he starts hitting! Then the ALCS came and he went 3-for-18 with eight strikeouts and the narrative remained the same: The Yankees were able to advance to the World Series without Judge hitting, so just wait until he starts hitting! Well, the World Series is here. It’s a game in and Judge looked worse at the plate than he did at any other time in the playoffs. There are some star players who can’t handle the postseason with any consistency, and to this point in his career, Judge is one of them.

1. Eighty-eighty pitches. That’s how many pitches Gerrit Cole had thrown in Game 1 of the World Series when Aaron Boone emerged from the Yankees dugout for a slow walk to the mound.

Cole had mostly dominated the Dodgers’ offense through six innings, allowing one run on four hits with that one run coming as the result of a misplayed fly ball in right field by Juan Soto. It was the seventh inning now, and after Teoscar Hernandez won his eight-pitch battle against Cole with a line-drive single, Boone decided to pull the plug on his ace’s night.

It’s not as if Boone was opting to replace Cole with Tommy Kahnle or Luke Weaver. He was going to go with Clay Holmes who has spent the last seven months doing everything he can on the mound to say STOP PITCHING ME IN HIGH-LEVERAGE SITUATIONS! Boone ignored all of the warnings during the regular season and has continued to ignore them in the postseason. Despite removing Holmes from the closer role during the regular season and despite Holmes allowing a walk-off loss to the Guardians in the ALCS, it hasn’t mattered. There’s no level of disappointment Holmes can provide that will make Boone stop using him in big spots.

2. For Boone, the decision to turn to Holmes in the seventh inning was his second poor decision of the night following the choice to not run Gleyber Torres on a 3-2 count with Juan Soto up in the third inning. But the move to go to Holmes was the move that sent the Yankees on a downward spiral to their eventual 6-3 walk-off loss.

Holmes immediately proved to be a disaster. His first pitch was in the dirt, his second pitch was high and inside and his third pitch drilled Max Muncy in the foot. Boone had brought Holmes in specifically to induce a ground ball in an effort to get a double play, and instead, Holmes pushed his inherited runner into scoring position.

Fortunately, for Boone, his counterpart, Dave Roberts, is every bit as bad at managing as Boone is, and he had Kike Hernandez give himself up with a sacrifice bunt. A free out for a pitcher who can’t handle pressure in the most pressurized situation of his career. After Holmes got a popup, he had faced the required three batters and was removed from the game for Tommy Kahnle. The Yankees would get out of the inning unscathed, but it came at a cost. Boone had pulled his ace and burned through two relievers in a single inning.

3. I wanted Boone to use Cole for at least the seventh and then a well-rested Luke Weaver for the eighth and ninth. Boone still had the option to use Weaver for six outs and with a one-run lead in the eighth, it made sense to. He declined, choosing to stick with Kahnle in the eighth.

Kahnle had thrown 48 straight changeups entering Game 1 and stayed with the pitch to get the last out of the seventh and the first out of the eighth. It’s one thing to throw the same pitch that many times in a row to the Royals and Guardians and the bottom of the Dodgers’ order, but not to the best hitter in the world. To think you’re going to retire Ohtani with a single pitch like you’re Mariano Rivera is irresponsible, but Kahnle and Austin Wells tried anyway. Ohtani banged a double off the wall.

Soto threw the ball into second and Torres failed to get in front of the short hop and the ball trickled to the middle of the infield as Ohtani raced to third to give the Dodgers a runner on third with one out. Then Boone went to Weaver, but it was too late, as a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly tied the game. Not even one full game into the World Series and the combination of sloppy play by the Yankees’ defense and the attempt to steal outs by the Yankees manager had given the Dodgers both of their runs.

4. Boone had been willing to use Holmes in the seventh, but not until there was a runner on. He was willing to go to Weaver in the eighth, but not until the tying run was at third with one out. Giving relievers clean innings isn’t something Boone is capable of. And after watching the way he managed in the biggest game of his career, it’s terrifying to see what he’s capable of on baseball’s grandest stage.

Weaver got the final two outs of the eighth and pitched the ninth: five up, five down for the Yankees’ best reliever, who should have been in to start the eighth, and the Yankees wouldn’t be trailing in the series right now.

5. The Yankees managed to take the lead in the 10th after Jazz Chisholm singled, stole second and third and scored on an Anthony Volpe ground ball. Boone had another chance to redeem himself by sending Weaver back out for the 10th. He had only thrown 19 pitches to get five outs and hadn’t pitched in six days. He was more than rested. Boone declined, choosing to go with Jake Cousins.

Cousins retired Will Smith to begin the 10th, but with the Yankees two outs away from a Game 1 win, Cousins inexplicably walked the 8-hitter Gavin Lux. Tommy Edman followed with a ground ball to second that Oswaldo Cabrera dove for, but couldn’t come up with. It’s a ball that Torres would have handled had he been at second, but he was removed from the game in the ninth for a pinch runner even though there had been two outs in that inning. Another Boone gem.

6. In the pivotal Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, Boone’s starting pitcher didn’t know the start time of the game. The next night, facing elimination, he let his starting pitcher face the entire Red Sox’ lineup a second time because he said he liked the matchup of his starter against their No. 9 hitter. In the 2019 ALCS, with a 1-0 series lead, he let J.A. Happ pitch in relief until the Astros finally walked him off. In Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS, he tried to outsmart Kevin Cash by using Deivi Garcia as a one-out opener before going to Happ. After the wild-card game loss in 2021, he said “The league has closed the gap” on his team, a team that had never won anything. In Game 1 of the 2022 ALCS, he opted to not go with his best relievers in the sixth inning of a tie game in an eventual loss, and when his team lost again the next night, he blamed the Houston roof being open as the reason. Down 3-0 in that ALCS he used video from the 2004 ALCS as motivation for his players, players who were members of the same franchise that endured that historic loss in the 2004 ALCS. In 2023, he spent the summer telling everyone how “capable the guys in the room are” as they posted the franchise’s worst record in three decades and missed the playoffs. Now in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, in the biggest game of his managerial career, he tried to steal outs in both the seventh and eighth innings.

Even with all of these “highlight” ill-advised choices and impossibly bad decisions over seven years and his shortcomings as a sound baseball mind despite being a third-generation major-leaguer, nothing he has done as Yankees manager will ever be as bad as what he would do next in Game 1.

7. After choosing to not pitch Weaver in the 10th, Boone’s decision to use Cousins had created a shitstorm. The Dodgers had the tying run on second and the winning run on first with Ohtani up. It was the perfect opportunity for the left-handed ground-ball specialist Tim Hill, who had dominated in the ALDS and ALCS. Boone declined, choosing to go with Nestor Cortes, who last pitched in a game on September 18, more than five weeks ago. Unless the Yankees come back to win the series, it will be the decision that defines Boone as a manager.

Cortes retied Ohtani when Alex Verdugo fell into the stands to make an outstanding catch in foul territory. With Betts due up, Boone called for an intentional walk to bring up the supposedly-hobbled Freddie Freeman. Cortes threw a first-pitch, 93-mph fastball down the middle and Freeman destroyed it for the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.

A day ago, the Yankees were waiting on Cortes to say how he felt and recovered from throwing live batting practice before putting him on the World Series roster. He went from facing Cabrera and Austin Wells in a controlled environment to a couple of days later facing Ohtani and Freeman with a World Series game on the line, while admittedly being less than 100 percent, as the Yankees’ left-handed specialist sat on his thumb in the bullpen. It’s a move so egregious I’m still stunned by it hours later. After seven seasons of watching every move Boone has made I thought the possibility of being stunned by him no longer existed. I was wrong.

8. Boone is here to stay. The ALDS win locked it up and winning the pennant threw away the key. He will be here forever. The Yankees could get humiliated in the next three games and get swept out of the Fall Classic because of similar moves by him and he’s not going anywhere.

9. The Yankees lost a game in which they outhit and outwalked the Dodgers. They lost a game in which their ace started and gave them six-plus innings of one-run ball. They lost a game in which they used their best reliever for multiple innings. They lost. agame in which they got to the Dodgers starter and got to Dodgers bullpen early. They lost a game in which they had a one-run lead with five outs to go and then a one-run lead in extra innings with the bottom of the Dodgers’ lineup due up.

This doesn’t feel like a it’s-a-long-series loss or a just-win-one-game-on-the-road loss. This feels like a series-changing, series-defining loss. The Yankees had the opportunity to be up 1-0 in the series, needing to just play .500 baseball over the next six games to be champions. Instead, they wound up on the wrong end of a devastating defeat and now need to go 4-2 against the best team in baseball to be champions.

10. Game 1 wasn’t just one loss in a seven-game series. It was a demoralizing defeat. The kind of defeat that could end this series much quicker than the six- or seven-game series everyone seems to think it will be. That’s not me being dramatic as I can hear my wife from the other room replaying the Freeman grand slam over and over, that’s me being a realist.

There are no moral victories in postseason losses, especially in the World Series. There is nothing good and nothing positive to take away from Game 1. They lost. They let a winnable game slip away twice thanks to their sloppy play, the disappearing act from their MVP and unfathomable managerial decisions: the trio of issues that has always doomed this core.

1. It feels like it’s been a month since the Yankees last played, and with still one more day to go until Game 1 of the World Series, it feels like it will be another month until they play again.

When the Yankees last won the pennant, they clinched on Sunday night and Game 1 of the World Series was Wednesday. The Yankees will have had six full days off between eliminating the Guardians in Game 5 and playing the Dodgers in Game 1.

2. The only good thing to come of the extra time is that the baseball season is extended and the offseason is shortened. For teams that didn’t reach the postseason, this Sunday will already be four weeks since they last played. By the time the World Series ends, it will have been nearly five weeks since the majority of the league played. Thankfully, the Yankees are still playing.

3. The hype and anticipation for this series has been unlike any other World Series, and the ticket prices are there to prove it. You could pay for a year of college, put a down a payment on a house, buy a boat or … sit in the 100 level at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the World Series.

4. There has been talk of the possibility of Shohei Ohtani pitching in this series after missing the whole season as pitcher following Tommy John surgery. Please let this happen. Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Alex Verdugo have all faced Ohtani and are 7-for-20 with two home runs and three doubles against him. That was against Ohtani as a star pitcher. Ohtani coming off surgery with no rehab outings? Again, please let this happen.

5. For now, I’m happy for Aaron Boone. At this moment, I even like him. With four more wins, I will even respect him! But if he tries to steal outs in this series, pinch runs for Stanton too early, bats a lefty between Judge and Stanton or gets Tim Mayza and/or Marcus Stroman up in the bullpen, all goodwill will be lost.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

6. Nestor in place of Stroman? – John

It looks like Nestor Cortes will be on the World Series roster. I don’t know if it will be in place of Stroman, but it will be in place of someone.

Cortes last pitched six shutout innings in Seattle on September 18 before going on the injured list and looking like he will need Tommy John surgery.

“We have weighed the consequences that this can lead up to,” Cortes said, “but if I have a ring and then a year off of baseball, then so be it.”

Cortes threw 28 pitches in a simulated game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, facing Oswaldo Cabrera, Jose Trevino and Austin Wells to simulate the left-right-left lane he will likely be asked to face.

“Coming out of the bullpen, I’ll be restricted to throwing 20 to 30 pitches, so they’re not going to bring me in face three righties,” Cortes said. “I know those are the guys I’m going to face. It’s a tough task, but I know I’m able to do it.”

If he appears in a World Series game, it will be more than five weeks since he last pitched in a game. Even not at 100 percent, Cortes gives the Yankees another viable option in relief. It moves Stroman and Mayza (and Mark Leiter Jr.) down a peg on the option-to-pitch chart. Tim Hill will likely get the Ohtani-Mookie Betters-Freddie Freeman lane the first time a reliever is needed, but then Cortes would get it the second time?

7. Who has the advantage in this series? Is it the Yankees’ pitching health and bullpen? Or the Dodgers offense through this playoffs? – Manny

Give me the Yankees’ rotation health. If injuries didn’t exist, yes, the Dodgers would have the better team because it would mean they would have Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May as rotation options. Instead they are going to try to win it all using their bullpen more than any team has ever used their bullpen before.

The only way the Yankees’ advantage of an actual rotation becomes a disadvantage is if Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon suck, which is possible. Cole was bad in ALDS Game 1, very good in ALDS Game 4 and then bad again in ALCS Game 2. Rodon was bad in ALDS Game 2, very good gin ALDS Game 1 and then so-so in ALCS Game 5. The Yankees have played nine games this postseason and have gotten strong starts in two of the nine (ALDS Game 4 and ALCS Game 1). Outside of that, they haven’t received a single quality start and getting their starters to get outs in the fifth inning has seemed like the equivalent of throwing complete games.

The Dodgers are going to be looking for their bullpen to get at least 15 outs in games when they use a traditional starter and then all 27 outs during bullpen games. The Yankees will see their relievers multiple times in a short amount of time. The Yankees just destroyed the Guardians’ “Four Horsemen” in the ALCS and they will do the same to the Dodgers’ relievers after multiple looks as well.

If Cole and Rodon pitch to the best of their abilities, the Yankees will win it all.

8. What’s your confidence level (1-10 scale) in this World Series matchup? – Osvaldo

My wife is from Los Angeles. Her family are Dodgers season ticket holders. She has never seen the Dodgers win a World Series in a non-shortened season, not held at a neutral site in a season in which they only had to play the NL West and AL West without fans in the stands. She can’t see them do it now. It’s imperative the Yankees win this series for their own history and the legacies of their managers and star players and to end their championship drought. But for me personally, it’s imperative for my own well-being.

This morning I asked my wife the same question of on a scale of 1-10 how confident she is about the World Series. She responded, “7.5.” It was higher than I thought it would be, and it was higher than any Dodgers fan should be. I’m a 9. Yes, a 9. I’m extremely confident about this series. Too confident.

The Dodgers have a good team, but this is probably the worst roster they have had during Dave Roberts’ tenure. Their rotation is in shambles. Freddie Freeman is playing on one leg. Sure, they have Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, but I’m not scared of Max Muncy, Will Smith (who is having a miserable postseason), Tommy Edman and Kike Hernandez or Andy Pages and Chris Taylor. The Yankees just ripped out the hearts and destroyed the confidence of Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith, do you think I’m going to be up at night worrying about Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Ryan Brasier or Anthony Banda, who faced 10 batters as a Yankee two years ago and eight of them reached base (0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1 WP).

The Yankees can lose this series. That’s baseball, Suzyn. But I would be surprised if they did. They are the better team. They have an actual rotation. They have actual starting pitchers. They have the better 1-2 punch. They have Playoff Stanton. And there are only a few matchups in the league where this holds true, but the Yankees even have the managerial advantage.

9. Is it time to give Cabrera a shot in place of Jazz? Maybe give Jazz another game or two and if he doesn’t produce, try Oswaldo? – John

There’s a better chance John (who asked this question) will be given playing time over Jazz Chisholm than Cabrera.

The Yankees had endless opportunities this season to make Cabrera a starter in place of injured players and they never did, despite him hitting whenever he played. He did an outstanding job at first base in the ALDS, and even still, they sat him at time for Jon Berti and then sat him entirely for Rizzo in the ALCS. The Yankees seem to think he’s most valuable as a bench player, who can be inserted into the lineup as pinch runner or pinch hitter or defensive replacement.

As for Chisholm, he can’t suck as bad as he did in the ALDS and ALCS in the World Series. When he’s right, he can be a star, but he hasn’t looked right in the postseason. For someone who called the Royals “lucky” for winning Game 2 of the ALDS and then said the Yankees are going to win the World Series during the ALCS, he sure hasn’t done anything to help them. Chisholm is 5-for-34 with 11 strikeouts in the postseason. He’s going to continue to hit in the middle of the order, so it’s time he started hitting like someone who hits in the middle of the order.

10. Do you think the Yankees winning the World Series would have any influence at all on Soto staying with the Yankees, and/or the Yankees’ eagerness to keep him? Or do you feel winning the World Series might make Hal & Cash feel that they’d now have some currency with the fans & could let Soto walk, which I hope like hell wouldn’t be the case.  – Rich

With each win in October, the Yankees have guaranteed themselves another game of Soto being a Yankee. Now we’re at the point where we have somewhere between four and seven games guaranteed with Soto. It’s depressing to think about, but it’s hard not to think about. I think about it each time he comes to the plate, as I have for each of his plate appearances this season. I never wanted to take his being a Yankee for granted.

In terms of Soto re-signing with the Yankees, I don’t think it would have mattered if they finished in last place or missed the playoffs or lost to the Royals or were eliminated by the Guardians, and I don’t think it matters if they win or lose the World Series. Soto is going to the highest bidder whether it’s the Yankees or Mets or Giants or Mariners or Angels or anyone else.

Yankees fans seem to think there’s no way Soto will sign elsewhere. Mets fans seem to think there’s no way Steve Cohen will be outbid for him. I think there’s a number Hal Steinbrenner won’t exceed for Soto, even with the absurd amount of money coming off the Yankees’ books following this season. If the Yankees don’t win the World Series and Steinbrenner is outbid, he can say, “Well, we couldn’t win with Soto.” If the Yankees win the World Series, he would justify not re-signing him by believing he got a championship out of him, somewhere between six and seven extra games at the Stadium, postseason revenue from TV, merchandise and concessions and thinking he will have a grace period with fans now that the championship drought is over.

The Yankees make more money than any of the other 29 teams, and yet, they are middle of the pack in terms of payroll to revenue ratio. Don’t ever believe for one second the Yankees can’t afford to pay Soto whatever the asking price ends up being. There’s no market smaller than San Diego and in the last six years years, the Padres gave $340 million to Fernando Tatis, $300 million to Manny Machado, $100 million to Jose Musgrove, traded for Yu Darvish’s $21 million average annual salary and tried to give Trea Turner $342 million, and Judge $400 million after 2022 and then gave Xander Bogaerts for $280 million. If the Padres of all teams can spend the way they do, it’s disturbing to think what the Yankees could truly afford to spend compared to what they actually spend.

If Soto isn’t a Yankee in 2025, that will be it for me as a Yankees and baseball fan. If the team that generates more revenue than any other team can’t sign the player who will command more money than any other player, then what’s the point? I don’t care about Hal Steinbrenner’s bank account or financial statements, which are what they are because he inherited the biggest ATM machine in sports by being luckily born to the right parents. He didn’t do anything to become owner of the Yankees, and he has done very little since becoming the head of the franchise, a franchise he didn’t want to manage and his father didn’t want him or his siblings to run. If the Yankees win the World Series, and Soto leaves, at least I will being going out as best I can.

1. “Pay Juan Soto!” Jazz Chisholm emphatically yelled into Meredith Marakovits’ microphone as champagne and beer showered the duo in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

“I’d ask you how much, but we’ll leave that for another day,” Marakovits jokingly responded, not expecting an answer.

“$700 million!” Chisholm shouted back.

For all of the talking Chisholm has done this postseason, I finally agree with him.

Whether the Yankees end their championship drought after having now ended their World Series appearance drought or not, this can’t be it for Soto as a Yankee. There can’t only be between four and seven games left of him in pinstripes.

Like I have written many times in these Thoughts this season, if he’s not a Yankee in 2025, I will have to retire from the game. A clean break. It’s been a good three-plus decades. If he’s not a Yankee in 2025 and beyond though, I won’t be around to watch. I will learn an instrument or a new language or do whatever people who don’t watch baseball daily from late-March through October do.

Watching Soto this season has been like sitting in first class on an international flight with a cabin, personal bathroom and all-you-can-eat-and-drink options. I don’t want to go back to sitting in the last row of economy in a middle seat next to the bathroom. That’s where Yankees fans were while being forced to watch Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Billy McKinney, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Franchy Cordero and Greg Allen as outfielders last season before the trade for Soto. I’m not going back to that. I will retire as a Yankees fan and baseball fan if I have to go back to that. If the team that generates the most revenue in the sport can’t sign the best available free agent in the sport, then what are we even doing?

“We need him to stay,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “He’s going to stay. We need to bring it home and then we’ll bring him home also.”

2. Soto’s 10th inning at-bat against Hunter Gaddis that ended with a three-run home run over the right-center wall was a perfect summation of Soto as a hitter. He fell behind 1-2, never panicked, fouled off three straight pitches and then on the first fastball of the seven-pitch at-bat, he sent it 402 feet to send the Yankees to the World Series.

“I’d already faced him a couple of times this series,” Soto said. “I knew everything he had, so I was just waiting for the mistake and trying to do damage.”

Jeff Francoeur on the broadcast said Stephen Vogt should walk Soto and have Gaddis face Aaron Judge in the 10th, even though it meant loading the bases. Earlier in the game, Francoeur said Vogt should walk Stanton and pitch to Chisholm. Had Francoeur been managing the Guardians in Game 5, the Yankees likely would have been shut out.

3. Because like Soto, Stanton also hit yet another clutch, mammoth home run in the sixth inning with a runner on and two outs. And to that point in the game the Yankees offense had done nothing. Nothing except have Gleyber Torres inexplicably sent home with no outs (and Judge and Stanton due up) and thrown out at the plate. Tanner Bibee had shut the Yankees out for 5 2/3 innings and had already struck Stanton out twice. Vogt figured Bibee could do it again, and when Bibee got ahead 0-2 from Stanton taking two swings as if he were blindfolded, it looked like Bibee would hand Stanton a hat trick. Instead, Stanton took a slider, curveball and changeup, and then at 3-2, crushed a hanging slider 446 feet.

“That guy’s gotten booed so many times, at the Stadium, road, everything,” Judge said. “He’s been battling some tough injuries along the way, but the guy always shows up when we need him.”

Stanton finished the ALCS with four hits in five games, all home runs. He homered in Games 1, 3, 4 and 5 leading to him being named ALCS MVP.

“This ain’t the trophy I want,” Stanton said holding his series MVP award. “I want the next one.”

4. In order to get the next one, the Yankees are going to have to clean up some things between now and Friday, starting with the baserunning gaffes that plagued them in both the ALDS and ALCS (after being an issue all year in the regular season). Whether the Yankees face the Dodgers or the Mets, they are both a far cry from the Royals and Guardians, and running into outs on the bases is something that can’t happen in the next round.

5. They’re also going to need better starts from their rotation, as they have received two quality starts in nine outings in October. Here are the starting pitching lines from the ALDS and ALCS.

ALDS Game 1 (Gerrit Cole): 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
ALDS Game 2 (Carlos Rodon): 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
ALDS Game 3 (Clarke Schmidt): 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
ALDS Game 4 (Cole): 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K
ALCS Game 1 (Rodon): 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1 HR
ALCS Game 2 (Cole): 4.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
ALCS Game 3 (Schmidt): 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R , 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
ALCS Game 4 (Luis Gil): 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
ALCS Game 5 (Rodon): 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

On paper, the Yankees will have the rotation advantage against both potential World Series opponents. They need to make ensure that advantage happens in actuality. We just saw what happens when your starters fail to give you length in a postseason series: it exhausts the bullpen and forces pitchers like Mark Leiter Jr. and Tim Mayza into games. It also makes the elite relievers lose their eliteness by pitching nearly every day and facing the same hitters repeatedly in a short span. The rotation has to be better.

6. The offense will also have to start coming through with runners in scoring position. The lineups of the Dodgers and Mets are vastly superior to that of the Royals and Guardians. Relying on two- and three-run home runs nightly to cover up offensive issues likely won’t be enough. Leadoff doubles need to score. Runners on third with less than two outs need to score.

7. Boone will have to be wiser. No stealing outs. No early pinch running for important bats only to not attempt to steal. No not starting runners with double play candidates at the plate. Only using Leiter Jr. Mayza and Marcus Stroman in emergency and desperate situations. Remembering that Clay Holmes is an untrustworthy risk. Not needing to bat a lefty between Judge and Stanton. These are all very simple changes.

8. When it comes to Boone, I’m happy he finally got a team to the World Series and with four more wins he can stay as long he wants (as if he isn’t already going to be able to stay as long he wants just for getting to the World Series). It doesn’t mean I won’t be critical of him in the future even if the Yankees win the World Series and it doesn’t rewrite history and change what happened from 2018 through 2022 under his watch, but I will finally respect him if he makes logical choices in the World Series and the Yankees win it all.

9. After the final out of the 2017 ALCS, I wasn’t upset. I wasn’t angry, mad or disappointed. The Yankees weren’t expected to make the playoffs that season and instead they came within a win of the World Series. That surprising, memorable October run saw them overcome a three-run deficit in the wild-card game and an 0-2 series deficit in the ALDS, and they nearly overcome an 0-2 series deficit in the ALCS. They had a young, talented core with budding stars and were less than two months away from acquiring Stanton. I wasn’t sad because it seemed like getting to the World Series was about to become the norm again after an eight-year hiatus.

It never happened.

The core got older, underachieved, became oft-injured and failed miserably. They lost both home games in the 2018 ALDS, hit .214/.289/.383 in the 2019 ALCS, scored one run in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, got run out of Fenway Park in the 2021 wild-card game, were swept in the 2022 ALCS after scoring nine total runs and then missed the postseason entirely in 2023 with the franchise’s worst record in three decades.

Seven years after that Game 7 loss in Houston when I thought going to the World Series would happen as frequently as it once did, the Yankees have finally reached it. Fifteen years after winning Game 6 over the Phillies, the Yankees are back in the World Series.

10. Getting to the World Series isn’t enough. After taking for granted the appearances from 1996-2003, I learned my lesson from 2004-2008. The last 15 years have been a painfully excruciating lesson in the realization of how hard it is to get there. Once you’re there you better win because you don’t know when you’ll be back.

Seven down, four to go.