The Yankees could finish first again in the American League East, or they could finish fourth and out of the money, just because the division isn’t the pillow fight it was year ago and neither is the American League. What the Yankees really need to do is improve enough at the trade deadline that they get to the end of September with a chance to close the deal in the East.
Because here’s their last four regular-season series:
Twins.
Orioles.
White Sox.
Orioles.
The good news, and it’s real good news, is that none of those teams are located in Canada, where the Yankees play about as well lately as the president of the United States.
But you know what the Yankees have to do right now, and that means even before reinforcements start coming over the hill? They need to figure it out, even with all the holes in their roster. The general manager, Brian Cashman, needs to figure it out, and so does Aaron Boone.
The Yankees made it to the World Series last season, they sure did. But if they don’t get back there this season, or even come close, then Hal Steinbrenner and Cashman and Boone will once again have alienated their fan base, and mightily. And once again have acted completely tone deaf about that fan base.
Boone did it again the other night after the Yankees made four errors and kicked away another game to the Blue Jays, making it six of seven they’ve lost in Toronto in their last two series there.
“I think we’re a very good defensive club,” Boone said after the game. “It’s here, and in this building, we haven’t played well.”
Right. Got it. It would be like the Yankee manager saying that he had a very good defensive club in the postseason last year as long as you don’t count the World Series.
I think Boone is a good guy. In many ways, he has fit the Yankees quite nicely since taking over for Joe Girardi after Girardi had taken the Yankees to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, in this era when his team has been both consistently good and consistently not good enough. If the Yankees don’t win the Series this year, it will be eight years when Boone’s team hasn’t closed the deal. And twice that long for Cashman.
If the Yankees do fall short again — or, in a doomsday scenario, don’t make the playoffs — Cashman isn’t going anywhere, Hal having made it abundantly clear Brian has his job for as long as he wants it. Boone, however, does not have a job for life. And Yankee fans are allowed to watch games like the one they saw on Wednesday night in Toronto and wish Boone would get as angry with sloppy play sometimes as he does with umpires after they have committed the grave felony of missing a couple of balls and strikes calls.
It doesn’t mean that Boone is out of his depth managing the New York Yankees. He’s not, because he’s won too many games for anyone to suggest that. Even without Gerrit Cole, the Yankees aren’t all that far, right now, today, from having the best record in the league. Listen: We have seen Boone’s Yankees play punch-drunk baseball for an extended period and then turn things around.
And they can do it this time if Cashman does a decent enough job repairing the leaks on his baseball team (was Brian under the impression that third base would play itself when the Yankees broke camp in Florida?). This could absolutely be another flawed, talented Yankee team capable of making a big run in August and September (especially with one of the easiest schedules in the sport).
They have the ability to start making that kind of run this weekend against the Phillies at the Stadium; and next week in a four-game series against the Rays, who always come to New York spoiling for a good fight. They can even pick it up in a way that doesn’t require the great Aaron Judge to keep picking them up all by himself. We all saw Judge try to save the Yankees again the other night. He hit No. 37, a two-run homer that brought his team back to 4-4, an apt number, for sure, on a night when the Yankees made those four errors.
In the end, the Yankees beat themselves again in Toronto. And made you remember some of the things the Dodgers’ Joe Kelly said after his team beat the Yankees in five games in the Series, finally closing them out in Game 5 when Judge dropped a routine fly ball and Cole didn’t cover first and Anthony Volpe made an errant throw. Afterward Kelly spoke quite plainly about how lacking he thought the ’24 Yankees were when it came to preparation and fundamentals:
“We pay attention to every single detail. We have a lot of big superstars in our clubhouse, but our superstars also care and aren’t lazy and play hard. So that’s the difference and the biggest separator.”
Kelly didn’t name names. Clearly wasn’t talking about Judge. But the larger point he seemed to be making was about the Yankees not playing as clean a brand of baseball as the Dodgers did.
Do the Dodgers have problems of their own these days? They sure do. They would have lost again to the Twins on Wednesday night if Harrison Bader had made a diving catch in the bottom of the 9th. Everybody’s got problems, everybody’s got needs. The Tigers looked like the best team just the other day. Now the Brewers and Astros do.
So now it’s a 60-game season for the Yankees. They need to pick it up. So do Cashman and Boone. Still right there for all of them. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
Originally Published:
