2022 Postmortem

Hal Steinbrenner may want to check the paperwork.  Because he sure as hell doesn't own the New York Yankees at the moment.  The Houston Astros do.  And there's really no way to sugar coat it.  The Yankees didn't just get swept in the ALCS because they didn't hit.  They lost because they got outplayed by the better team.  Plain and simple.

Back in the heyday of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the early 2000s, Pedro Martinez famously said that the Yankees were his "daddy."  Well, in recent years, it's become pretty clear who the Yankees' "daddy" is.  And, if he were alive, you can bet George wouldn't stand for it.

That, to me, is the biggest difference between Hal Steinbrenner's Yankees and George Steinbrenner's Yankees.  George would've fired Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone a long time ago.  Hal's probably gonna stick with them again, even as the team's World Series drought is now at 13 years.  Or, maybe I should say 13 years and counting.  Especially since beating the Astros won't suddenly become an easier task.

Every season ends exactly the same way for the Yankees.  No matter how good they are in the regular season, they completely lose the ability to hit in the playoffs.  Every offseason, they think they've found the solution to fix it.  Then the postseason comes and the home runs are replaced by strikeouts.  Year after year, it's the same.  Their flaws are exposed by a better team.  And one team in particular has been a thorn in their side.

This season, the Yankees and Astros played 11 times including the ALCS.  Houston went 9-2 in those games.  The two games the Yankees won were on walk-offs.  And in one of those, they were down 6-3 going to the bottom of ninth and put up a four-spot to win 7-6.  They didn't have the lead at the end of an inning during the game until Game 4 of the ALCS...the 92nd inning between the teams in 2022!  That's not exactly a rivalry.  That's pretty much about as one-sided as it can get.

What makes the whole thing worse is that the Yankees seem content to let the Astros be better than them.  One of the biggest reasons why they haven't been to the World Series since 2009 is because they can't beat Houston.  The Astros have eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs four times since 2015, with three of those coming in the ALCS.

By this point, you'd figure they'd know that they'll have to go through Houston.  Yet the Astros have proven time and again that they're better in every facet of the game.  They have better starting pitching, a better bullpen, a better lineup, they actually make contact.  Or, to put it another way, the Astros are built to win in October.  The Yankees are built to win from April-July.

Sure, the Yankees had more injuries than I can count in the second half of the season.  The team they were when they got off to such a torrid start and the team that limped down the stretch before fizzling out in the playoffs weren't even close to the same squad.  They had an entire bullpen's worth of relievers on the injured list, and the pitchers in the actual bullpen were nowhere near the same quality.

The injuries were obviously a big factor, but would Michael King or Chad Green or Ron Marinaccio or even Aroldis Chapman have actually made that much of a difference?  The starting pitching, in fact, was actually pretty good.  It might've even been the only reason the Yankees had a chance in the first two games.  But the lack of hitting, the real issue, made it so that one mistake meant the game.  Just ask Luis Severino about that.

Houston, meanwhile, was firing on all cylinders.  Even if the Yankees had been at full strength, they would've had a tough time beating the Astros.  Would it have been a closer series?  I'd like to think so.  But the end result very likely would've been the same.  Which is why the Yankees need to change their approach.

Winning the AL East is always priority No. 1.  Cashman goes into the offseason with that mindset.  Build a team that's good enough to finish ahead of Baltimore, Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto.  And, in case you've never noticed, the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays are built the exact same way.  A bunch of power hitters, an ace starter with a solid if not great rotation behind him, and a solid bullpen.  The Rays and Orioles are built differently, but that's mainly because they have to operate with a smaller payroll than the other three.

What does winning the AL East get you, though?  Other than home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, not a damn thing!  And that's the issue.  They build a team that's designed to be good for six months when it's the seventh month that's the most important.  And having the best team in the regular season means absolutely nothing if you don't have the best team in the playoffs.  Which is something the Yankees haven't had in quite some time!

I'm not saying winning the AL East isn't important.  Of course it is!  And winning the division should be a goal.  But it shouldn't be THE goal.  If you want to win the World Series, you need to build a team that's capable of beating the team that's had your number time and again.  Simply put, stop building your team just to beat the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays and Orioles.  Build one that can beat the Astros, too!  Because Houston's not going away anytime soon. 

It was Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  Yet that's exactly what the Yankees have been doing.  What they've been doing hasn't been working.  So it's time to try something new.  Which starts with firing Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone.  It's something George would've done a loooooonnnnng time ago!