I hate the Yankees. For all of my childhood and most of my young-adult life, the Yankees were winning (or at least going to) World Series after World Series. They had legendary homegrown talent in the shape of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettie, Jorge Posada, Mariano River, and more but also spent more money than anyone to make sure they stayed at the top of the mountain. Moreover, every time the Red Sox made the ALCS, they ran into the buzzsaw that was the Yankees and ended up being dismissed in short order. As much as I hated the Yankees, I also respected their sustained success.
Then 2004 happened.
It’s a fool’s errand to debate whether the 2004 ALCS scared the Yankees or if those Yankees, at that point, had already peaked and were in the process of a natural decline while the Red Sox were ascending. What’s undeniable, though, is that the Yankees have not been The Yankees since then.
That’s not to say they have been an afterthought, though. Despite their lack of championship hardware over the last 22 years, especially when compared to the almighty Red Sox, there’s no denying they are a perennial contender. They have participated in the last 6 postseasons, been to 3 of the last 6 ALCS’ and have won 100, 103, 92, and 99 games in each of the last four full MLB seasons. But something just hasn’t felt right in the Bronx for the last 20 years.
Let’s explore why.
First, they have basically no homegrown, high-end talent. Sure, they have Aaron Judge who is going to win the MVP this year unanimously after hitting 62 home runs, but it sure looks like he is also going to sign elsewhere as a free agent in the coming weeks. Beyond Judge, the cupboards are bare. Glyber Torres is the closest thing they have to a homegrown all-star, but it’s been three years since his last all-star appearance, and at just 26 he’s already seeing his numbers decline year over year and had to switch positions this past season from shortstop to second base. The only other member of their starting lineup in the last game they played this year, Game 4 of the ALCS, that is homegrown is 23-year-old Oswaldo Cabrera who has all of 44 games in the majors under his belt. Their pitching staff has been built mostly from within, but Domingo German, Luis Severino, and Nester Cortes all come with serious concerns ranging from repeated injuries (German and Severino) to inconsistency. This forced them to go out and sign Garrett Cole to a monster deal to anchor their rotation in 2020 all while continuing to wheel and deal from their farm system to shore up their rotation every summer.
This is by far the Yankees’ number one problem. Most of their high-end prospects have either outright flopped or have fizzled after a hot start to their careers. Looking at you, Gary Sanchez.
Second is their steadfast reliance on power. Top to bottom, they are built like a beer-league softball team, relying on the 3-run home run to win. Stanton and Rizzo are the definitions of feast or famine sluggers. Stanton belted 31 home runs this year but hit only .211 and struck out 137 times in 110 games while Rizzo hit 32 long balls but batted only .224 with 101 strikeouts in 130 games. Judge obviously had a historic year with his 62 home runs, but he did strike out 175 times despite his .311 batting average. Josh Donaldson and Glyber Torres struck out 148 and 129 respectively. All in, they had 7 players strike out 100 times this season but were second in all of baseball in runs and first in home runs.
The problem with the feast or famine approach is that you don’t get to beat up on the Royals and Athletics in the playoffs. Sure, offense wins games (micro) but pitching wins championships (macro) and the Yankees’ offensive strategy backfires every October like clockwork. In the ALCS this year against the Astros (more on them next), the Yankees struck out 50 times in 4 games while hitting only 3 home runs and scoring a total of 9 runs. Simply put, the pitching gets better the deeper into October you go and the Yankees can’t hit good pitching.
Then there’s the competition. The Astros are an absolute wagon on both sides of the ball, and the Red Sox, despite all logic, field a damn good team every three years and knock the Yankees out of the playoffs. In each of the last 5 full seasons, the Yankees have been eliminated by the Astros (3x) or Red Sox (2x) at various stages of the postseason. In each case, the Yankees lost to a more balanced team that can score in a multitude of ways and pitch well enough to win.
After all of that, you’d think the Yankees would be looking to add some contact-orientated bats this offseason to give them a more balanced offensive attack. So what was the Yankees’ first move this offseason?
Resigning Anthony Rizzo to a multi-year deal, once again doubling down on their failed offensive philosophy of relying on the home run.
I don’t get it.
