The Contradictory, Frustrating, Awesome Playoff New York Yankees
These playoff New York Yankees are something else, but it’s not entirely comfortable to watch them. The team is bafflingly constructed. It is extremely deep. It is incredibly streaky. It wins many games, but it is endlessly frustrating for Yankees fans. It is unendingly exciting in part because it has the best bullpen in baseball, but also seemingly has no pitching. It is not built for the postseason, but it has a great shot at making the World Series.
It’s been a long time since I felt like so much of a fan for a Yankee team as I have with this 2019 New York Yankees, but I can’t remember yelling at the TV and turning away in disgust much as I did this year, especially this month.
The Frustration
Let’s start from the top. The Yankees are simultaneously the deepest and shallowest team I’ve ever seen. They have an embarrassment of riches at the plate. In game 5 of the ALCS, they benched Edwin Encarnacion, who hit 34 homers this year and nearly 300 since 2012, so they could get Giancarlo Stanton back in the lineup. In the ALDS, Didi Gregorius was batting 9th. Aside from Stanton, everyone in the starting lineup hit at least 25 homers. It’s a joke and it’s a pitcher’s worst nightmare.
Also, they kind of don’t have a first basemen. DJ Lemahieu, a gold glove winner at second, has been the starting first basemen in all the games that matter. In part, to be sure, that’s because Gio Urshela, Gregorius, and Gleyber Torres are rightfully entrenched at the other infield positions, but it’s weird. And it’s not the only weird thing.
For a pretty significant part of the season, the Yankees literally didn’t have 5 starting pitchers on the roster. The starting rotation has been the weakness on this team for at least two seasons and everyone knows it. In an attempt to address it, GM Brian Cashman traded for James Paxton over the winter and brought back JA Happ, whom he traded for last summer.
It was never going to be enough but its still really not close. Everyone watching, myself included, was shocked when the Yankees didn’t add a starter this July, especially since Luis Severino, the team’s nominal Ace, was on the shelf with a shoulder injury. (He would only pitch 4 regular season games.)
Instead of getting a starter of any sort, Cashman continued his interesting strategy of doubling down on the Yankees’ areas of strength and ignoring their glaring weaknesses- something he did in 2018 when he acquired more bullpen pieces like Zach Britton and later Adam Ottavino instead of getting a starter. This year, Cashman traded for Encarnacion, solidifying the lineup while Stanton was out, but ignored available starters like Zack Greinke or Madison Bumgarner
As a result, the Yankees’ have only three playoff starters and none of them is better or more reliable than anyone they line up against.
Masahiro Tanaka has pitched well; he’s the only one that you’d expect to see in a typical playoff rotation. Paxton has been wildly inconsistent and Severino is being counted on to face Geritt Cole, despite the fact that he literally pitched 4 games all season. JA Happ, mind you, hasn’t even been good enough to make this ad hoc rotation!
It’s honestly bizarre. Why are the Yankees playing essentially handcuffed when they could have, at some point over the last 24 months, picked up an obviously much needed starter? It’s not like this problem came out of nowhere or was a surprise.
But that’s what makes this team frustrating. We should take a moment to discuss a few of the players that make this team so damn likable.
The Likeables
Aaron Judge is the man. He’s my favorite Yankee since Andy Pettitte and I defy anyone to objectively dislike him. He’s a friendly giant who plays all -world right field, comes up in the clutch, hits to all fields, and smiles while doing it. He’s the best.
Gleyber Torres is the most exciting young player the team has had in a while. He’s not as flashy as the game’s other young stars, but he’s so talented and the lights are so bright in New York that he will soon reach his way among the game’s best. Incredible seasons are ahead for the 22 year old.
Giancarlo Stanton is likeable, too! A lot of New York is ragging on him because he was hurt all season with multiple different maladies. And he hasn’t hit 57 homers as a member of the Yankees yet. But injuries happen and he has played well when he has played. Sure, he strikes out too much, but that’s just part of his game and of modern baseball. I’m going to cut him some slack on a lost season- the team still won 103 games.
Gary Sanchez is both the best hitting catcher in baseball and also the most frustrating guy to don the gear. How can a guy who is so talented go into such funks both at the plate and behind it?
Sanchez has had a horrible postseason. He’s striking out nearly every at bat and doing by chasing breaking balls that aren’t close. He’s selling out for power. Everyone does that these days, but not everyone sacrifices at bats like Sanchez. His approach looks like one of a guy trying to hit .200 with 45 homers. It’s weird. Every swing is designed to pull a ball down the left field line. There’s absolutely no chance he lines a single to right this month; that’s not even on his radar.
I understand slumps and funks and all that. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a hitter as out of sorts as Sanchez is right now. Frustratingly, it’s an approach problem.
On the pitching side, Tommy Kahnle and Zach Britton are great, relatively reliable, and fun to watch. That Ottavino is pretty terrible right now is really surprising given his talent and success all season. His relative inability to get outs is a big problem for the Yankees as the strategy for Game 6’s bullpen game would be far simpler with a dominant trio of Ottavino/Kahnle/Britton in front of Aroldis Chapman.
Finally, CC Sabathia is a warrior. The dude dislocates his shoulder throwing a pitch, which, what?, and then proceeds to throw three more pitches full strength before coming out. CC has always been a gamer- his run with the Brewers pitching basically the whole second half of the season on 3 days rest to get them into the playoffs is the stuff of legend- but talk about leaving it all on the field. How does that performance in Game 5 not pump you up?
In fact, this Yankees team is a lot like late-career CC: imperfect but still largely successful and willing to fight as hard as it takes.
This playoff New York Yankee team is fun, exciting, pretty weird and generally worrisome. I hope they win tonight.
-Max Frankel
OTBB Extra Point: Something else about this team has been bothering me for like 2 weeks. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an interview that James Paxton did reflecting on the season. He mentioned the amazing contributions of Gio Urshela, referring to him by his last name. But the thing is, he pronounced it ‘ER-shl-ah’ rather than ‘Ur-shell-a.’ His pronunciation wasn’t even close.
WHAT? How does he not know that? Do they not talk to each other? How could they not talk to each other over the course of a full season?
And don’t tell me that Paxton just calls him Gio because if that was true, why wouldn’t he have referred to him as Gio in the interview? How does James Paxton not know how to say Gio Urshela’s last name? He’s heard it announced by PA announcers literally 400 times this season and they share a locker room!! This greatly concerns me. As I said, I’ve been thinking about it for two weeks. I have so many questions and it seriously worries me.
