Who Should Stay and Who Should Go

Now that the Yankees have officially been eliminated from postseason contention (a foregone conclusion that we all knew was inevitable in like mid-August), the focus can finally shift to next season.  Owner Hal Steinbrenner has promised a "thorough review" of "all areas" and promised there will definitely be some changes.  Unfortunately, it looks like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone will both be staying.  But there are two other areas that won't be so lucky.  And, frankly, there are people in both departments who need to go.

The first is the medical staff.  This includes both athletic training and strength & conditioning.  I don't know how much can be blamed on the team doctors, so I could go either way there.  But the athletic training and strength & conditioning staffs absolutely deserve to be held accountable for the team's injury problems, which aren't exclusive to this season.

Injuries are inevitable over the course of a 162-game season.  And sometimes freak things happen like Aaron Judge running into a wall in LA or Anthony Rizzo getting a concussion in a collision at first base.  But the sheer amount of injuries and the mishandling of them is glaring.  Which is why something needs to be done.

Frankly, their handling of Anthony Rizzo's injury alone is enough of a reason.  Clearing him to play when he was clearly concussed is borderline malpractice!  When Rizzo came back after the collision with Fernando Tatis Jr., everyone thought it meant he was good to play.  When he went into an extended slump right after that, it became clear that he was not.  Except the team didn't announce that he was still dealing with concussion symptoms until after he was placed back on the injured list!  If he was still having symptoms, why was he cleared to come back at all then?!

Then there's the bullpen.  How many different relievers has this team used (out of necessity) in the last two years?  Every reliever has been on the IL at some point, for stretches of varying length.  Every!  Single!  One!  Jonathan Loaisiga has been on the IL like three different times this season, and he wasn't particularly effective when he was "healthy."  There are clearly issues with their strength training and/or rehabilitation that's leading to all of these injuries on the pitching staff.

Next, let's talk about the analytics department.  It's been an unmitigated disaster.  Simply put, going all-in on analytics a few years ago has not worked.  Their goal is to win a championship every season, yet they've only won one pennant in the last 20 years!  That should say enough all on its own.  And the decision to build the team with an analytics-based approach isn't getting them any closer to that goal.

One of the reasons they committed so hard to analytics is because it was working for other teams.  Specifically teams like the Rays and Astros.  So, they tried to copy them.  Except, the Rays and Astros were still better at it.  And, they weren't just better at it.  They were better teams with better players.  So, you're doing the same thing as two teams that do it better than you with better players and you somehow expect to beat them?

You're the New York Freakin' Yankees!  Either flex your financial muscle or don't.  But this half-assed approach where you're trying to have it both ways didn't work.  If you're trying to do the analytic thing, do it!  But make sure you have the right personnel.  Because the New York Yankees, the Bronx Bombers, are meant to hit home runs.  That's how the team was built.  So why are you trying to do something different that simply isn't a fit with the players you have?

And, while we're on the subject of not building the team correctly, you've played in three different iterations of Yankee Stadium for a century.  All of them are known for their short porch in right field.  Which is why the Yankees have had so many great left-handed power hitters over the years.  So, why then, has the team been so predominantly right-handed for so long?  This isn't a new problem, either.  Until the recent call-ups, Anthony Rizzo was the only left-handed hitting regular.  When he was out, they were entirely right-handed.  How could the Yankees have a starting lineup without a single left-handed hitter?  It's completely unfathomable!

That extends to the starting rotation, too.  Whitey Ford.  Ron Guidry.  Andy Pettitte.  CC Sabathia.  What do they all have in common?  They aren't just some of the best starting pitchers in Yankees history.  They're also all left-handed.  Again, it makes sense.  You get a left-handed starter so that teams have to use a predominantly right-handed lineup at Yankee Stadium.

Since Sabathia retired, they haven't had that left-handed ace.  They had Jordan Montgomery...and traded him to the Cardinals.  They had Nestor Cortes...who had a great year last season, when he made the All*Star team, but struggled this year before being shut down due to injury.  They tried to address this need last winter in free agency.  And they successfully landed Carlos Rodon.  Rodon's first season in pinstripes wasn't anything to write home about, however.  It's too early to call that signing a bust, but it hasn't exactly been one of their best moves in recent years, either.

There have been a lot of questionable moves in recent years, as a matter of fact.  Joey Gallo.  Josh Donaldson.  Aaron Hicks.  Frankie Montas.  The misses have far outweighed the successes (Anthony Rizzo).  It was actually kind of refreshing to hear Hal explain the reason why the Yankees didn't do anything at the trade deadline.  He's sick of Cashman's poor judgment and didn't want to give up any more prospects in bad trades.  They were gonna play instead.

Hal is openly questioning Cashman's judgment, which makes me think that Cashman's job might not be as secure as we're being led to believe.  Even if he keeps him, the leash will definitely be a little shorter.  Unlike his famously volatile father, Hal has generally stayed out of the baseball operations, leaving those decisions to Cashman and his staff instead.  I'm not sure that hands off approach will continue moving forward.

Even if Cashman does stay, you'd have to figure there will be some changes on the baseball operations staff.  Beyond just the analytics department.  Because there have been failures all the way around in scouting and player evaluations.  There's been bad information being passed somewhere in the process.  Personally, I'd like to see Cashman move into some sort of Senior VP position and have an entirely new general manager with an entirely different vision.  It's been 25 years.  It's time for a new set of eyes.  It doesn't look like that'll happen, though, so if Cashman's gonna keep making the decisions, let those decisions be more informed.

Finally, there's the on-field coaching staff.  Both Cashman and Aaron Judge like Aaron Boone, who has another year left on his contract.  So, it doesn't look like he's going anywhere, either.  The rest of his staff might not be so lucky.  Hitting coach Dillon Lawson was already let go in June.  He was replaced by Sean Casey, who was told it's up to him whether he wants to return next season.  The hitting didn't exactly improve much under Casey, but he has done some good things and will presumably be welcomed back should he decide he wants to continue in the role.  As for the other coaches, I'm not sure I'd keep any of them.

While the 2023 campaign was a disaster on many levels, one that left the franchise embarrassed, some good might come out of it.  Because winning covers up a lot of flaws.  Those flaws have now been exposed, and that'll lead to necessary changes.  Changes that, frankly, should've been made several years ago.