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.
