The Yankees’ season has been over for more than four weeks. It feels like it’s been four months.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. It feels like the offseason is almost over when it has only just begun starting today. The Braves and Astros were playing baseball yesterday. The Yankees last played 29 days ago. It’s almost comical how long it’s been since the Yankees were embarrassed in their unsurprising wild-card loss.
I know I’m in the minority, but I wanted the Astros to win the World Series. I wanted them to win the World Series because the Braves winning only gives the Yankees’ front office another reason to not build the best team possible because the Braves weren’t even close to the best team in baseball. In fact, they were the worst team in the postseason in the 10-team postseason with 88 regular-season wins, didn’t get over .500 until August and struggled until the very end of the season to put away an awful NL East. Both the Blue Jays (92) and Mariners (90) had more wins than the Braves this season and all they have to show for their regular-season success is … nothing.
2. Jorge Soler winning World Series MVP was unlikely sums up the Braves’ postseason. Sure, Soler led the league with 48 home runs in 2019 after never hitting more than 12 in a season, but that was also the same season Brett Gardner hit 28, Ketel Marte hit 32 and Gleyber Torres hit 38. Home run totals in 2019 were a joke. Soler hit .300/.391/.800 with three home runs and six RBIs in the World Series and his at-bats made him as feared as Mike Trout, rather than the .192/.288/.370 hitter he was in 94 games for the Royals this season. Soler wasn’t the only Brave to play well above his talent level.
Joc Pederson was really bad in 73 games for the Cubs (.230/.300/.718) and nothing special in 64 games with the Braves (.249/.325/.428) this season. Then he went on to hit two home runs with five RBIs against the Brewers in the NLDS and a home run and four RBIs against the Dodgers in the NLCS.
Eddie Rosario has a career .309 on-base percentage. This season with the Indians and Braves, he hit .259/.305/.435 in 111 games. Somehow, against the Dodgers’ pitching (of all teams), he hit .560/.607/1.040 with a double, a triple, three home runs and nine RBIs in just six games.
Two years ago, Travis d’Arnaud was released by the Mets. Over the last week, he hit two home runs with an .875 OPS in the World Series.
3. Even without Ronald Acuna since July 10, the Braves are now World Series champions. It makes little sense. Very little sense. I thought they would lose to the Brewers, possibly get swept by the Dodgers and have serious trouble with the Astros. They eliminated the Brewers in four games, could have eliminated the Dodgers in five and should have done the same to the Astros. It was a remarkable run for a franchise that hadn’t won a championship since the Yankees’ dynasty destroyed whatever dynasty the Braves thought they might have.
Now the Yankees will spend the next nearly five months preparing to try to do what the Braves just did and what the Yankees haven’t done since Eric Hinske and Jerry Hairston Jr. were on the team.
4. I’m still not over the Yankees’ decision to bring back Aaron Boone. I won’t be over it until the team wins a championship with him as manager and I don’t know if that’s possible given how exceedingly inept he is at implementing simple baseball logic into his in-game decisions. But the Yankees can at least make me somewhat happy by going out and acting like the Yankees in free agency. That means either making a blockbuster trade or trades, or signing big-name free agents. I truly fear the Yankees will decide to “run it back” once again with a team that wasn’t good enough in 2018, 2019, 2020 or 2021 thinking it will somehow be different in 2022. It won’t be. Not with the same roster.
5. Want to make fans happy? Sign Carlos Correa, Freddie Freeman, Max Scherzer and Robbie Ray. That would send a message to the fan base. That would go a long way toward negating whatever nonsensical decisions Boone has planned for 2022 (and 2023 and 2024 and the option for 2025!). I don’t expect the Yankees to sign any of those three. Instead, I can see a one-year stopgap at shortstop, a reunion with Anthony Rizzo at best and rather than signing Scherzer and Ray, they will spread out the money on a few underwhelming arms they think they can be the ones to unlock (like Jon Gray who they have always been in love with). Whatever they decide from a pitching standpoint, their starting pitching depth needs to be deeper in 2022 than it was in 2021 when they used Nick Nelson as an opener against the Rays in the 10th game of the season because they didn’t have another option.
6. If the Yankees acted like the Yankees and took back the payroll crown and did sign those four, they could “run it back” with the rest of their roster and I would be fine it.
Lineup
Aaron Judge, RF
Freddie Freeman, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Carlo Correa, SS
Joey Gallo, LF
DJ LeMahieu, 3B
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Gary Sanchez, C
Bench
Gio Urshela
Brett Gardner
Kyle Higashioka
Tyler Wade
Rotation
Gerrit Cole
Max Scherzer
Luis Severino
Robbie Ray
Jordan Montgomery
Bullpen
Aroldis Chapman
Jonathan Loaisiga
Clay Holmes
Chad Green
Nestor Cortes
Michael King
Wandy Peralta
Albert Abreu
Yeah, that 26-man roster will do.
If you’re worried about the cost of that team, don’t be. It’s not your money. The Steinbrenners could do that and a ridiculous amount more than that and still be fine financially and swimming in their billions. But there’s about as good a chance at that 26-man roster happening as there is the Yankees scoring a run on the contact play.
7. Here will be the actual 2022 Opening Day roster:
Lineup
DJ LeMahieu, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Joey Gallo, LF
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Gio Urhsela, 3B
Andrelton Simmons, SS
Kyle Higashioka, C
Bench
Austin Romine
Brett Gardner
Tyler Wade
Someone who can play 1B
Rotation
Gerrit Cole
Luis Severino
Jordan Montgomery
Jon Gray
Nestor Cortes
Bullpen
Aroldis Chapman
Jonathan Loaisiga
Clay Holmes
Chad Green
Nestor Cortes
Michael King
Wandy Peralta
Albert Abreu
(Both rosters don’t include Jameson Taillon since he won’t be ready by Opening Day.)
8. The first roster’s ceiling is a championship. The second’s is an ALDS exit, and that might even be a stretch. But considering Brian Cashman referred to the 2021 Yankees as a “postseason contender” (a team that came in third place in their division and in fifth place in the AL and had a postseason consisting of nine miserable innings) in his end-of-the-season press conference, an ALDS exit will be treated like a championship within the organization.
9. In all likelihood, the Yankees aren’t going to take on another long-term, big-money contract, which means no Correa or Corey Seager. It means bargain bin shopping for a team that just did that prior to last season. Add in a potential (regrettable) long-term deal for Judge after 2022, and it’s hard to envision the Yankees acting like the Yankees this winter. (Unfortunately for Judge, he was finally healthy and had a full season of his ability one year too early.)
10. The Yankees are trending in the wrong direction, while the rest of the division trends up around them. That can be reversed over the next few months, and all it will cost is money. The one thing the Yankees make more of than any other team in the league.
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Last modified: Jul 23, 2023
