Niagara Falls

The Aftermath

Well, it’s been a couple days for Yankees fans world wide to discuss the painful, perhaps excruciating World Series loss to the hands of the ancient rival Dodgers. With the benefit of some distance from the disastrous top of the fifth inning, I felt it was time for some reflection. That and I haven’t posted a sports commentary in a while.

To say the Yankees lost the World Series in that inning would be, by my estimation, misplaced. As a Yankees fan who follows the team throughout the season, I strongly believe that the house of cards that is the Yankees roster would have come down at any moment – the fifth inning forward just happened to be that moment. When an honest assessment of the season is applied these cracks were never fully addressed. Paramount among these was the horrific defense and base running. The Fox commentators – Joe Davis and John Smoltz respectively – occasionally referenced this. “They have not been a good base running team.” Smoltz said at the point where Volpe had failed to score on a ball off the wall in deep right-center. It was a base running blunder at a time when the Yankees, down in the series, needed to play flawlessly, but we had seen this numerous times since the early days of Spring. Base running blunders and being picked off or thrown out at third with less than two outs were a trademark of the 2024 team, and one can argue that in previous years as well.

Coupled with fundamental errors on the base paths – mistakes that even last place major league teams do not commit – was poor defense. I don’t specifically cite Judge in this. He had made some spectacular plays for the months prior to save pitchers from imploding on a few different occasions. It is only irony that it is Judge’s dropped ball that will be most remembered. The same goes for Gerrit Cole and his failure to cover first. Volpe’s error. These mental lapses were common. No common ground out was ever routine with Torres or Volpe, and while they can independently make spectacular defensive plays they are consistently prone to mental lapses as well making no play ever routine. We saw “E4” and “E6” quite a bit in 2024. I don’t specifically give Judge a carte blanche or Mulligan on his dropped ball – that play has to be made especially when you’re running in – but I do understand the context of it. He lost the ball with the weight of the world on him because of his post season performance. It was, again, non-existent. He batted a buck eight four with an OPS of .752. Perhaps more noteworthy was the twenty strike outs he had in 64 plate appearances. That math is simple – he didn’t put the ball in play thirty-one percent of the time. The numbers are what they are, and Judge knows that, and it was with this ponderous chain of statistics hanging from his neck that he dropped the ball on Wednesday night. I’m sure of it. I do not attempt to forgive – I only attempt to explain.

The Yankees also entered the post season without a bonafide closer. Clay Holmes had been anointed in the role as far back as last season after a tremendous run, but even in 2023 he began to stumble, and he seemed to lack the command, the mystique, on the mound that closers typically have. I am not referencing Rivera – too often Yankees fans are accused of being spoiled because they had a once of a generation closer like Mariano Rivera for what was an extended run of championships. No – Yankees fans are not spoiled, but they do want to see someone else step up. For a time that appeared to be Holmes, but the Yankees front office failed to take into account that it takes a certain personality to be a relief pitcher – and an even grittier one to be the closer. They tried to will Holmes into that role, but even by the trade deadline it was apparent Holmes wasn’t the answer. Cashman failed on securing a closer at the deadline – even if they hadn’t moved Holmes out of the role they could have acquired one with the potential and have him waiting in the wings. Who knows? It could have worked to have motivated Holmes into being one. Instead no closer was added, and they moved Holmes out of the role anyway and were left without a seat when the playoffs started. Yes, it is true Luke Weaver did a find job and eventually filled that void, but it was an unstable game plan at best that all could have been avoided if addressed during the season.

Well, if the Yankees were so bad all season, how did they even get to the World Series?

This is a valid question. There are four reasons the Yankees were American League Champions, and they are pretty simple: Soto, Judge, Stanton, Cole. Unquestionably Judge was the American League MVP, and he with Soto in front and Stanton – when he was healthy – behind was a lethal combination. Obviously Soto gets particular praise for the season he had offensively, and Cole had another solid performance. Still, the cracks are the cracks, and once again Yankees fans saw a season without an adequate first baseman or left fielder. Once again injuries zapped Rizzo’s effectiveness to the point of being potentially career ending. He is a shadow of his former “Cub” self. I never blame a player for being injured – especially when the injury such as a concussion has such greater ramifications to one’s health. However, between concussions and fractured arms no one had harder luck than Rizzo, but I once again lay a measure of blame on the Yankees front office with a failure to have a Plan B at first.

The second half from a position player perspective was the experiment with Alex Verdugo in left field. Now that 2024 is officially over I think we can call the Verdugo solution a complete bust. His first season in New York did not match his numbers from previous years. Left field has become a black hole of sorts for the Yankees where there seems to be no right answer.

The Yankees failed to act on three major fronts. First base, left field, and closer. They could have been acted upon by either call ups from Triple-A or through trades. Perhaps there were phone calls behind the scenes? However, from the outside looking in, it seemed like their reaction to addressing the holes was no action, and when the fifth inning happened on Wednesday night it was a culmination of combined factors that simply unraveled simultaneously from which there was no return from the abyss.

Bad managing.

Specifically, when it comes to the World Series itself the outcome was sown when Aaron Boone called on “Nasty Nestor” Cortes had been anything but nasty – particularly near the closure of the 2024 season. Inconsistent probably best describes it. So to call on Cortes instead of a more traditional option, say Tim Hill who is conditioned for the reliever’s role, to go “lefty on lefty” to face Freeman when one more out would have given you a one nothing lead in the series, is incredulous. Even more so it is unforgivable. Was the plan to save Hill for game two because you had gone through four relievers already? The move by Boone was unconscionable. If you have a chance to go up one nothing in the final series that at most you’ll play seven games anyway you play it down the middle. Was Boone worried about the game being tied and going to extra innings? If that was the case then use Cortes to start the tenth because it is pretty much the start of a new game anyway, and more in line with a starter’s role. However, as a reliever in that situation with the bases loaded? If it is expected that players run through a wall for a manager, a coach, there is also an expectation that the coach as earned that trust. One of the things that undermines that is putting them in unfamiliar situations. It was another questionable move by Boone that should be questioned, and I contend that when Freeman’s ball landed in the right field bleachers at Dodger Stadium the series was already over. It was a crushing loss that the Yankees never truly recovered from until they got a measure of stability in game four, and by then it was too late. They went from one more out away from victory to not just a defeat, but a soul crushing one. That one is on Boone – period – no matter how he sits at a desk surrounded by flames saying, “This is fine.”

There is a lot of blame to go around. Bad base running, a lackluster post season by Judge. Even Soto had been somewhat silenced by Dodger pitching, but the Yankees had still clawed to a three two lead. Then came Boone’s blunder, and it isn’t the first time.

Aaron Boone has a propensity to put players’ loyalty before winning. I’m not sure if the Cortes versus Freeman confrontation was part of that, or if he was thinking something else. Quite frankly – I don’t know what Boone was thinking with that match up, but given the outcome he was overthinking it. Any successful manager in any line of business puts their employees, their players, into the proper situations to be successful and to excel. The British did it during World War II when they put out a call out to avid crossword puzzle fans and placed them into Bletchley Park because they knew they’d be excellent cryptologists. They didn’t put them into unfamiliar situations that would render their talents irrelevant. I’ve always contended Boone fails at that, and there could be a variety of reasons for it.

Looking back of the 2024 season I think it’s pretty apparent that the Big Four of Soto, Judge, Stanton, and Cole guided Boone to the American League Pennant, and not the other way around. With that same line of thought the Dodgers didn’t defeat the Yankees – the Yankees did that to themselves, and at the end of the day I think that’s what leaves the bad taste in the mouths of fans. Particularly when you see this coming. I can excuse Rizzo for injury as an example, but I cannot excuse mental lapses while running the bases or errors in the field. The 2024 World Series was non-competetive, and that’s probably what strikes fans the most.

The Yankees under Boone are a very sloppy team, and those that do not have their house in order, continually commit unforced errors, generally speaking don’t win. It is for that reason Boone is a very poor manager by my estimation – a point I would argue to any of his supporters. His teams are sloppy, and sloppy teams have agonizing defeats. We’ve seen our share of them during his tenure. Coaches and managers get fired too often for reasons that are not their fault or beyond their control, but they should be fired if the team lacks focus, discipline, and defeats themselves.

It’ll be interesting what, if any, changes are made in 2025 – usual free agent bookkeeping movements not withstanding. As a fan my concern is that the organization will remain status quo – that if we were in the World Series we must have been doing something right. That may not necessarily be the case. Admittedly, the 2024 season was better than 2023 when you compare the two, but they are not so close that pouring more money into free agents is going to fix the problem. It is more subterranean than that.

There is a lot of time between now and when pitchers and catchers report on February 12 – this World Series loss is still fresh. With each new season there’s fresh hope that changes will be made, and hopefully they will address these glaring cracks. It’s way too early to make any kind of prediction of course, but if changes are not made then I totally expect a drop off in 2025 – especially if Boone is at the helm. Do I expect them to make the playoffs in 2025? Who knows? It’s just November 1. However, I do expect just as many if not more excruciating losses in big moments if Boone remains, and I admit that isn’t a pleasant prospect at all.

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