The Post Mordem

 It's important to remember the good times.

When the Yankees were good this past season, they were very good. And Aaron Judge had a season for the ages, capped by a 62nd home run that felt like catharsis. 

Then there was the rest of the season, and then, inevitably, there were the Houston Astros and their infuriating ability to make the Yankees look like someone's AA team. A four-game sweep that felt like it was at once a seven-game sweep and a one-game playoff. The Yankees just didn't show up. Even Judge looked like a ghost, and in the the sense that it could have been his last appearance in pinstripes, maybe he was.

But after all that disappointment came a "joint press conference" with Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman.

I'm not one who thinks that Boone is the main problem here. He works with the roster Cashman (and by extension, Hal Steinbrenner) gives him. Sometimes his lineups and in-game decisions can be puzzling, but by and large he's not the obstacle standing in the Yankees' way.

Until recently I was a big Brian Cashman supporter. I think he doesn't get enough credit for making savvy trades (except for pitchers) and finding scrapheap players who suddenly blossom into amazing talents (see Cortex, Nestor). I think he's a very smart man and he'd really like to be remembered someday for the championships he brought to the Bronx. 

Both Boone and Cashman gave the impression that they thought there was nothing fundamentally wrong with this team, that injuries had done them in. But that wasn't true. The first half was an extended hot streak this team has been having for three years. It always ends and they regress to their true selves, a .500 team. Or worse.

But Hal Steinbrenner, while thankfully not inheriting his father's hair-trigger temperament and blustering incoherency, also didn't get the old man's passion. Say what you want about George Steinbrenner, and I do, but he wouldn't accept losing. Sometimes he was borderline psychotic after a loss, particularly in the playoffs. The phantom fight in the elevator? That was George.

Hal is a businessman who has inherited his father's prized possession and doesn't really know what to do with it except make money, which seems from the outsider's perspective to be the only priority. Not spending over the luxury tax limit is an obsession. 

The problem is Hal has also inherited Yankee fans, and it's on us to teach him what that's about. If Judge does not return - and I'm getting a bad feeling about that - Hal will pivot, make some noises about "letting the kids play," (which would be fine with the right veterans in the clubhouse) and not support them. Expect the Opening Day lineup in 2023 to look very roughly like this:

Harrison Bader CF

Anthony Rizzo 1B

Brandon Nimmo LF

Giancarlo Stanton DH

DJ LeMahieu 2B

Josh Donaldson/Oswald Perazza 3B

Oswaldo Cabrera RF

Isiah Kiner-Falefa SS

Jose Trevino C 

Bench: Rortvedt, 4th Outfielder, Backup infielder

The pitching will be the same roughly, without (thank goodness) Aroldis Chapman and (not as thank goodness) Zach Britton, Miguel Castro, Jameson Taillon and maybe with a 5th starter who could be gotten for Gleyber Torres. I'm guessing Aaron Hicks will be gone for a bucket of Gatorade with the Yankees paying some of his salary. There'll be a new name or two in the bullpen.

Not terribly exciting, is it?

The only way Hal will get the message is if we send it to his wallet. If the Yankees DON'T pay Judge enough to keep him, if they DON'T at least try to rid us of Donaldson and if they DON'T realistically explore the free agent market, we have to stop going to games. We have to stop watching on TV. We have to make it hurt on the bottom line.

Because that's where Hal lives and that's where he gets his messages. 

I don't think that'll be easy. I've been a Yankee fan since 1966 and rarely miss a game on TV. I go to the Stadium at least once a year and spend on food, but not parking (gave up driving to the Bronx on game days in the early 2000s). It would be hard for me to go cold turkey, especially on the televised games. But then, I've been muting Michael Kay for a number of years so I'd only be losing half the game experience. 

But they had such a great first half. Yup. And it ended in the same way it has ended for 13 years now. And for the third time in six years, at the hands of a team we know has cheated and is proud of it.

It has to end. The plan of attack goes through Hal's bank account. 

We need to be strong and vocal.

It's My Own Fault

 At the beginning of spring training, I wrote, "The new-look Yankees for 2022 are the old-look Yankees from 2021 with a quick sanding and a coat of varnish." And I believed it. Then the season started and something astonishing seemed to happen. The Yankees got off to an historically good start and it didn't end after two weeks, as the hot streaks of the past two years had done. There was talk of breaking the season record for wins by a team. The World Series was an inevitability and the championship merely a formality.

And then it became July.

I should have known better, and I blame myself. This team IS the 2021 Yankees with a paint job and a polish. But I let myself believe because it felt so good. Now it's not quite that rosy anymore.

All the problems that were present in 2021 are back now: A woeful lack of hitting with runners in scoring position, an unreliable bullpen, aging veterans where young players from the farm system could be playing, and hanging over it all is the sneaking suspicion that the one shining light of this year from beginning to now, Aaron Judge, might be in another uniform come next March.

Every team has rough stretches, and that is true. For the 1998 Yankees and 1999 Mariners, those stretches were short and rare. But they didn't last for seven weeks.

The overwhelming concern now is that what we had at the beginning of the 2022 season was the hot streak each of the past two Yankee teams has had, except that it came earlier and lasted longer. And now that it's over, we're getting our old crew back, with the exception of Brett Gardner.

When Judge is not playing there, center field is a problem. What do you know, Aaron Hicks was hurt for a while, and when not hurt, he has been hitting a lot like Tyler Wade. Isiah Kiner-Falefa (a name I actually learned this season) has played the field like Gleyber Torres at short and hit like, you know, Tyler Wade (who is back in AAA waiting for his turn). Gleyber himself was going well at second base for a while and now seems to have reverted to his old self, chasing sliders down and away and not so much hustling to first base on ground balls.

Aroldis Chapman was hurt (shocker) after having some awful outings (shocker #2) and came back to eventually pitch better. We thought his reign as closer was over because Clay Holmes was pitching like Mariano Rivera for a while, but he seems to have come back to earth and you can count the days before Chapman is back on the mound, sweating like a geyser and causing fans' stomachs to do somersaults before giving up a deciding home run to Jose Abreu in the ALCS. Mark your calendar.

Will the Yankees come back and start winning consistently again? Maybe. There are about seven weeks left in the season. They could remember what all that success was like and try to replicate it. Will they give up a 10-game lead in the division? I doubt it. That, at least, should be in the bag and it will keep them out of a three-game wildcard series, which is very good. Will they have the best record in the American League so an inevitable series against Houston will be mostly played in the Bronx? Probably not. The Astros know about consistency. The Yankees know consistency in streaks.

They say the hottest team going into October has the best chance. That could conceivably be the Yankees, but it's not looking great now.

Because the new-look Yankees for 2022 are the old-look Yankees from 2021 with a quick sanding and a coat of varnish.

It'll be a little nerve wracking to see what the 2023 team might resemble. 

Hal Steinbrenner Doesn't Care About You

 So let's sum up as Spring Training gets started:

At the end of last season, a 162-game spectacle that saw the team win 92 games while appearing to lose 94 games, Brian Cashman declared the team to be "at times unwatchable" and vowed to make big changes. A new shortstop, when there were some amazing free agents coming at that position, was the first priority, but catching, center field and first base, along with the starting rotation, would be addressed.

Yankee fans eagerly awaited the massive overhaul that was surely on its way. Sure, some favorites might get traded away but there would be exciting replacements, um, replacing them. And the days of Brett Gardner were surely done, but there would undoubtedly be a day in his honor during the 2022 season. Everybody loves Gardy.

In the ramp up to what EVERYONE knew would be an extended lockout of the players by the team owners, who swore they were doing it for everyone's good, we waited for the big names. The medium names. The small names. 

Names.

Nothing happened before December while other teams in the division got better, at least a little. The Mets, of all people, landed Max Scherzer. The Yankees hired a woman to be a minor league manager at the lowest possible level. That was nice, but we just assumed they were waiting to see how the CBA would set the luxury tax bar so Hal Steinbrenner could figure out how many of his hundreds of millions he might be willing to part with in order to keep his elite brand elite.

Then came the interminable lockout but we were confident: Once that agreement was signed, the frenzy of big name players heading to the Bronx would be astounding. Totally worth the wait. The overhaul would be in full swing.

Well, they remodeled the downstairs bath and repainted the guest room and that was about it.

The new-look Yankees for 2022 are the old-look Yankees from 2021 with a quick sanding and a coat of varnish. Yes, the unfairly hated Gary Sanchez and the not-at-all-hated Gio Urshela are gone, and we are going to see Josh Donaldson, of all people, at third base, which was NOT one of the positions Cashman had identified as a priority. 

Our new shortstop is, by all descriptions, the second coming of Tyler Wade but with better contact numbers. Analytics are all. Our new catcher is our old backup catcher and another guy who's just like him only left handed. Together they hit around .190. Will the defense be better? Yeah, but you know, Higgy passed a few balls last year too and hit 10 home runs while being given a lot more time behind the plate than anybody expected.

There WILL be a commemorative day at the Stadium this year, but it'll be for Paul O'Neill, whose number is being inexplicably retired. He was a good player, but hardly an immortal. Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth were discussing it the other day, and they're confused.

Gardner will be back any minute. You can count on that. You can also count on Aaron Hicks getting hurt sometime this season and then hearing Michael Kay talk about how they weren't expecting Gardy to get this many reps but you just can't see injuries coming.

Yes, you can. When a guy gets injured every year you can pretty much mark it on your calendar. 

Oh, and while we're at it, unvaccinated players won't be able to take part in games played in New York City, and Aaron Judge will not say if he's vaccinated. There are others equally closed-mouthed on the subject and others who will tell you straight out that their "freedom" is more important than, you know, not getting sick or getting anyone else sick. Or their jobs.

So here's to the upcoming 2022 Yankees. Second verse, same as the first. 

 This is meant to symbolize the Yankees' (and MLB's) offseason.