Last season, the squad swept the AL East by a combined score of 59-28. They’ve had a rough season due to injuries and a lack of depth.
How Hunter Felt
Wed Aug 23 09:00:69 2023 BST
When the New York Yankees have a bad season, it usually means they don’t win the World Series. There is a sense of hopelessness in the Bronx when it becomes evident that the 2023 club will not make the playoffs, even if no MLB team has higher standards. The Yankees could end up having their worst season in 30 years.
Last weekend, the Boston Red Sox arrived to Yankee Stadium with a chance to effectively extinguish their opponents’ postseason ambitions. The Red Sox have been a terrible club this season, but they have shown life when given the chance to exact reve𝚗ge for the “Boston Mаssаcre” of 1978 (or maybe its 2006 reincarnation).
The Yankees showed signs of life on Sunday as they attempted to escape being swept by Boston after two straight disheartening losses. The Yankees tied the Red Sox multiple times and appeared to take the lead in the ninth inning when a questionable umpiring reversal resulted in the elimination of what could have been the game-winning run. The final score was 6-5, and the Yankees’ losing skid reached a new low of eight games.
A losing run of eight games is horrible for any club, but for the Yankees it’s nearly unheard of. It had been since 1995 that they had lost that many games in a row. The Yankees are on track to finish last in the American League East for the first time since 1990 (barring an improbable September collapse by the Red Sox).
Fans are already debating whether the organization should start resting starters and calling up prospects from the minors. Considering owner Hal Steinbrenner still cares about attendance, that’s quite unlikely.
Perhaps not, since the team still has reasons to compete even if mathematical elimination is imminent. In spite of being many games under.500, the Yankees still have a chance to escape their first losing season since 1992 with a strong finish. The New York Post, ever rational, proposes that you should bench star pitcher Gerrit Cole. With a 10-4 record, a 3.03 ERA, and 170 strikeouts this season, he is a leading candidate for AL Cy Young. Do what you can to persuade Cole to end his campaign early.
What happened for this club to go from a division title by seven games the year before to their worst season in decades if Cole is as excellent as advertised? To begin, the Yankees’ roster was constructed around American League home run record holder and reigning MVP Aaron Judge. Judge justifiably received a massive contract. Unfortunately, Judge was sidelined for two months due to a foot issue.
The loss of Judge to ιnjury has been the most consequential reason, but it is insufficient to account for the brutаlity of this season. This New England-based writer needed help further diagnosing the issue, so she reached out to Stacey Gotsulias, presenter of the Locked On Yankees podcast, for advice.
Gotsulias began by mentioning that the team recently added pitcher Carlos Rodón to take over for Cole as the team’s No. 2 starter. At the same time, Anthony Rizzo was expected to assist Judge in leading the offense. These forecasts were fair before the season began.
Instead, Rodón’s terrible ERA and numerous ιnjury absences have plagued his career as a pitcher. Meanwhile, Rizzo’s batting went completely sideways after he was diagnosed with a concussion months after the fact. It’s not quite the worst-case scenario, but it’s not far off, either.
As a result of his in-game decisions and his attempts to remain composed in the face of adversity, some supporters have blamed manager Aaron Boone and compared him to a captain who is blissfully unaware that his ship is taking on water.
Boone is limited to the personnel at his disposal. The most severe criticism from Gotsulias is reserved for longtime GM Brian Cashman. Gotsulias notes that Cashman showed an odd reluctance to recruit great left-handed hitters in order to take advantage of Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right-field, arguing, “What’s the point of having that advantage if you’re building a lineup filled with righty hitters?”
The front staff should be criticized for signing expensive players like Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu, who are both getting older and have had trouble getting on base this season. It’s not enough to have two of the finest players in the game (in this example, Cole and Judge for the Yankees), as the Los Angeles Angels demonstrated. Simply spending money is not enough; prudent spending is required.
It’s unlikely that a quick solution is in sight, as the Yankees have the second-highest payroll in Major League Baseball (behind the New York Mets, who have had even less success this year than their crosstown rivals). Gotsulias did not have high hopes for the team’s potential free agent signings this summer, with the possible exception of Shohei Ohtani.
They praised the nine-year contract with Aaron Judge and the presence of Gerrit Cole. You simply cannot throw them away like this, but that is what is occurring. Unless the Yankees make a major change, 2024 might be just as terrible as 2023. I have no idea what that is.