I have a feeling most Yankees won’t watch even an inning of the AL Division Series. It’ll be too painful a reminder of the wild card game’s fiasco, even though the setting and opponent were of the Bombers’ choosing. They asked for the Red Sox. They thought they could handle Fenway.
(Buzzer). Wrong.
Remember, the Bombers picked the Sox for the play-in game had all four wild-card teams finished in a tie. That didn’t happen, but it told you everything about the Yankees’ confidence about heading to Boston with the season on the line. Coming off that stirring 1-0 win over the Rays on the last day of the regular season, and with a fully-rested Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Yankees didn’t think the Sox could stop them. Now we know otherwise.
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What was supposed to be a springboard to a busy October was nothing short of a catastrophe. The Yankees will be counting their regrets in the next few days, but the real issues lie in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s going to be a busy winter at the executive level and while I don’t expect a housecleaning, changes are coming. That’s a guarantee.
Here are four critical questions that have to be answered.
Will Aaron Boone be fired?
His status is linked to general manager Brian Cashman’s, so that issue has to be addressed first. Despite many fans’ disapproval of the way Cashman constructed the 2021 team, he will be back in 2022. Hal Steinbrenner has until now trusted Cashman to put a competitive team on the field. In the broadest sense, he’s succeeded. The Yankees never lose; they literally never finish under.500.
But I’m told Steinbrenner’s patience was finally running short this summer, and that was before the Yankees’ championship drought extended to its 12th year. Cashman has the security of a final season on his contract in ‘22, which is why he isn’t going anywhere. But it remains to be seen whether Steinbrenner begins to assert himself more aggressively this winter and if so, to what degree.
Will the Baby Boss force Cashman to dismiss Boone? I don’t see that happening. Boone was hand-picked by Cashman four years ago and remains loyal to him. The fact that Boone is held in such high esteem by his players – and throughout the industry – works in his favor, as well. But if Boone is to keep his job, it would be in his best interests to take a harder approach in the clubhouse.
For starters Boone has to demand more from Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez, assuming either one is back next season. If they are, Boone has to temper his nice-guy leadership style, which has indirectly enabled Sanchez’s low-energy play and Torres’ periodic loafing. Somewhere in the back of their minds, whether conscious or not, they believe Boone will let the under-achievement slide.
Boone is obviously not Bill Parcells or Joe Torre, but there’s a lesson to be gleaned from both their tenures. The best coaches managers in this market are great communicators (Boone checks that box) but are also larger than the job. Certainly strong enough to instill discipline in the clubhouse. Boone’s vibe, however, is that of a friend. He’s one of the players, just older.
That approach works on a 100-win powerhouse, but not on a 90-win club that needs to be pushed. Boone would be benefit from an experienced bench coach who could be his enforcer, not to mention an in-game strategist who knows what he’s doing.
Will Gerrit Cole recover from his disastrous ending?
I wrote this week about Cole’s status in the wake of his final four starts, during which he allowed 18 earned runs in 19.2 innings. His performance in the wild card game was an embarrassment, registering just six outs. Cole walked off the mound to the taunts and jeers of a hostile Fenway crowd, every moment of it captured by ESPN’s cameras.
It was clearly the low point of Cole’s career. He later said he was “sick to my stomach” at having let the Yankees down. It’s not the kind of failure that evaporates quickly. The back of Cole’s baseball card will forever bear the imprint of how he pitched down the stretch and the role he played in ending the Yankees’ season.
Whether Cole is still the ace – sure, he’s still the Bombers’ most dynamic pitcher - remains to be seen. But with that mantle comes with a responsibility. He had to do better than leave the Bombers in a 3-0 hole in the third inning. Cole is paid to do better. He was expected to at least keep the Yankees close.
Cole’s apologists say the right-hander was still bothered by a strained hamstring. He was hurt, they say, cut him a break.
Cole, however, said he was not. I’ll take Cole at his word. My intuition says pitching without Spider Tack played the biggest role in his decline.
But if in fact Cole was injured, why didn’t he tell the Yankees? If Cole was too impaired to go more than 50 high-leverage pitches, he did the club no favors by trying to gut it out.
Both parties would’ve been better off by giving the ball to Corey Kluber or even Nestor Cortes, the gutsy little fireplug who never backs down. Cole could’ve used the extra day or two to heal and perhaps pitch more effectively in the Division Series against the Rays.
Will the Yankees become an elite team again?
Boone was right when he said the rest of the league has “closed the gap” on the Yankees, even if his timing was off. The Bombers haven’t been beasts since 2019. Thing is, it’s not just the Rays and Astros and Red Sox who’ve established superiority, suddenly the Blue Jays and Mariners and even the White Sox are ascending, too
Lucky for the Yankees to still be able to fatten up on the weak Central Division teams. Even so, they won only a modest 92 games and were nowhere close to the caliber of the 100-win Rays. And let’s not even mention the Giants and Dodgers, who are in another sphere altogether compared to the Bombers.
The all-or-nothing hitting philosophy in the Bronx will require a full reckoning this winter. Cashman thought Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo, two big lefty bats who were supposed to deliver a blizzard of home runs, were disappointments. Gallo, in particular, looked lost. He batted .160 and struck out in nearly half of his at-bats in his time with the Yankees.
For all their on-paper potential the Yankees finished 19th in the majors in runs scored. In their final three games of the year, including the loss to the Red Sox, the Bombers scored only five runs on 14 hits.
Cashman’s fixation with analytics is due for an audit, which will likely mean the end of Sanchez’s days in pinstripes, even if it means non-tendering him. Sanchez, who batted .183 in the second half, also regressed on defense.
He continues to make mental errors in his seventh season in the majors. Despite intensive mentoring from multiple coaches, Sanchez was third-worst in defensive runs saved (-10) and his framing of pitches (FRM) was a meager -2.4.
And as for Torres, we’ll see. He’s young enough (24) to merit another go-around. Maybe a full season at second base will expedite his maturity at the plate.
Who plays shortstop in 2022?
This will be the club’s biggest decision; the menu is full of choices. The Yankees could pursue free agents to be Corey Seager or Trevor Story, but opening the vault for either depends on whether Steinbrenner wants to sign Aaron Judge to a long-term contract. The less expensive option is to trade for a one-year placeholder until prospect Anthony Volpe is ready in 2023.
In either scenario, Torres is likely to remain at second base with Gio Urshela returning to third. DJ LeMahieu will become the everyday first baseman on the assumption that Anthony Rizzo will leave as a free agent. His presumed asking price – five years, $100 million – is more than Steinbrenner can absorb if he’s intending to pursue a shortstop and make a significant commitment to Judge.
This would likely be the Yankees’ best infield alignment. Defensively, they were a mess, finishing 19th in the majors in fielding percentage, committing the fourth-highest number of errors.
Hunker down, it’s going to be a frenetic few months until pitchers and catchers.
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Bob Klapisch may be reached at bklapisch@njadvancemedia.com.
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