New York Yankees - The Covid-19 Years (2020-2029)

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2020

Decade

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Championships

Top New York Players of the Twenty Twenties

2020 - WC beat Cleveland, ALDS lost to Tampa

2021 - WC Lost to Boston

Pitchers:

2022 - ALDS def Cleveland; ALCS Lost to Houston

Gerrit Cole (19.86) - 49

2024 - Won Division; ALDS beat KC; ALCS beat Cleveland; WS lost to LA

Clay Holmes (5.11) - 20

Jameson Taillon (3.57) - 17

BallPark:

Nestor Cortes (10.16) - 17

Yankee Stadium

Aroldis Chapman (1.78) - 11

Carlos Rodon (1.1) - 11

Team Name:

Luis Gil (3.72) - 9

Yankees

Clarke Schmidt (3.08) - 8

Chad Green (2.8) - 7

Owner:

Jordan Montgomery (4.41) - 7

Hal Steinbrenner

Domingo German (2.8) - 5

Jonathan Loaisiga (3.26) - 5

General Managers:

Wandy Peralta (3.38) - 5

Brian Cashman

Marcus Stroman (0.7) - 5

Managers:

Catchers:

Aaron Boone

Jose Trevino (3.4) - 8

Austin Wells (2.6) - 7

Hall of Famers:

Gary Sanchez (0.4) - 6

None

Kyle Higashioka (1.13) - 6

Rookie of the Year:

First Basemen:

2024 - Luis Gil

Anthony Rizzo (3.52) - 12

MVP:

Second Basemen:

2022 - Aaron Judge

Gleyber Torres (9.36) - 35

2024 - Aaron Judge

ShortStop:

No Hitters:

Anthony Volpe (6.6) - 20

2021 - Corey Kluber (Texas)

Isiah Kiner-Falefa (3.05) - 12

2023 - Domingo German

Third Base:

Cy Young

DJ LeMahieu (9.46) - 23

2023 - Gerrit Cole

Gio Urshela (2.62) - 9

Josh Donaldson (2.27) - 5

Notable Events:

Outfield:

2020 - The Yankees have settled into either a groove if you want to look

Aaron Judge (33.11) - 70

at the silver lining or a rut if you want to look at the dark cloud.

Giancarlo Stanton (4.21) - 25

Because they are the most iconic franchise in the world in the biggest

Juan Soto (7.9) - 13

biggest sports market in the world, the Yankees will always bring in the

Aaron Hicks (1.51) - 9

big bucks. All you have to do is remain somewhat competitive.

Brett Gardner (1.75) - 6

The silver lining is that the Yankees have managed to remain somewhat

Clint Frazier (0.38) - 6

competitive. The dark cloud side of it is that with the resources and built in

Harrison Bader (0.81) - 5

advantage that the Yankees have versus any other franchise, they have

Alex Verdugo (0.7) - 5

underachieved greatly since the turn of the century.

The 2020's are no exception. The Yankees have such a high floor due to

Notable Events:

their hugely deep pockets that they will pretty much always make it into

the post season. The problem is that the Yankees ceiling once in the post

2024 - The Yankees were an extremely flawed team in '23 with holes everywhere.

season is always pretty low because their roster is always poorly constructed

They made only two significant moves in the off season, so there are still holes

and half baked.

everywhere. That being said, the two moves could be huge.

So, the glass is half empty or the glass is half full.

Offense:

2020-2022 - A second and two firsts with good, but not great records, as they

The Yankees traded a bunch of live young arms for Juan Soto, a twenty four

go 33-27, 92-70 and 99-63. The 99-63 mainly on the back of Aaron Judge

year old lefty slugging superstar. Soto has transcendendant transformational

who has one of the greatest seasons of all time going 62-131-.311.

talent. And he fulfills the biggest need on the Yankees, a paucity of lefty

It's certainly top ten of all time if you discount the steroid guys.

power hitting. How you field a Yankee team in Yankee stadium without

a bunch of lefty sluggers is mind boggling. How brain dead does a GM have

□ Ownership - Hal Steinbrenner. The Yankees could certainly use a good

to be to not do that? The Yanks made a rare trade with the Red Sox

dose of his father's passion for winning. It's just not there with Hal.

to pick up another lefty hitting outfielder in Alex Verdugo and they also picked

George obviously overdid it and needed to be suspended from the game

up yet another lefty hitting outfielder in the Soto trade in Trent Grisham.

for several years to tone it all down, but you'll take that over what the

The offense has potentially one of the great one-two punches in history in

Yankees have got now. Hal will spend when his back is to the wall,

Judge and Soto. It would be nice if Stanton would get his act together. The talent

not before.

is still certainly there. Lefties Verdugo/Grisham and a, hopefully, concussion free

Rizzo would add some decent lefty sticks to add some depth to the lineup.

□ General Manager - Brian Cashman is, by far, the most overrated GM in

There's also twenty four year old lefty hitting rookie catcher Austin Wells

baseball history - and it's not even close. He never should have been hired

who looks like he can hit altho' the Yanks will pay for it on the other end.

into the position and he has never been up to handling it. He doesn't know

Gleyber Torres may not be the superstar once projected for him, but he's a

how to use the vast resources he has at hand to bully his way into getting

good player. SS Volpe showed some promise last year as a twenty two year old.

to the top and he doesn't have the baseball savvy to build a championship

Lots of potential for improvement there. It would also be nice if 3B LaMehieu

team by wits and guile. The worst of both worlds. We'll spare the details

could get a little of his mojo back.

for now of poor roster construction after poor roster construction.

All in all, if all goes well, the Yankees should have a decent offense. However,

The Yankees make it into the post season every year, but any eleven year

if Stanton, LeMahieu and Rizzo continue to suck and Volpe doesn't improve

old could make that happen given what the Yankees have to work with.

and Wells falls on his face, even with Soto, it will be another long year in the Bronx.

□ Manager - The Yankees had a couple of great ones since the turn of the

Pitchers (Injuries kill them):

century. Joe Torre was a savvy guy and a perfect fit tempermentally for the

The second significant move was picking up thirty three year old righty starter

Yankees in the early part of the century. Torre was taken out in an internal

Marcus Stroman as a free agent from the Cubs. Stroman is not a star, but he

power play by Cashman in '05. Joe Girardi replaced Torre and was just as

is an excellent bet to bring stability to a rotation with lots of starts, not getting

good. Girardi was able to coax extra wins out of every poorly constructed

hurt and effective, altho' not lights out, pitching. With the Yankees history of

roster he was handed for a decade. Girardi was dumped as a scapegoat

losing most of their rotation to injury every year, his durability is a huge plus.

for the Yankees not winning championships when everyone knew that he

There may be a possible number two starter on this squad, but there certainly is a

should have been lauded for getting train wrecks of rosters into the post

number one in Gerrit Cole and Stroman definitely slots in as a solid number three.

season every year. Aaron Boone was handed the job in 2018 and has been

Cashman rolled the dice last year on oft injured, high ceiling Carlos Rodon, a free

a big nothingburger ever since.

agent pickup from the White Sox. Cashman came up craps last year. However,

Rodon is back this year and, if (a big if) he can stay healthy, he becomes that

2023 - How can the Yankees have so little talent in their organization that

huge number two in the rotation. With Rodon healthy and productive, the Yankees

they have a lineup containing the likes of Oswaldo Cabrera, Willie Calhoun,

will be able to compete at a high level. If not, they are doomed.

Anthony Volpe, Kyle Higashioka, Jose Trevino and Isiah Kiner-Falefa?

There's not a whole lot of starting talent behind the big three.

How did they find all the banjos for these guys to hit with?

Nestor Cortes had a big year a couple of years ago, he's a suspect at number four.

This is the opposite of murderer's row. And, instead of a circular lineup, it's

Clarke Schmidt, a replacement level pitcher, slots in at numbert five.

a dead end lineup. If it weren't for Judge, this wouldn't even be a AAA team.

The bullpen is mediocre with Clay Holmes as their closer and not a whole lot

The pitching staff is held together with scotch tape. No closer, and nothing

behind him. Luckily, the Yankees have the financial resources (not sure about

close to a reliable starter outside of Gerrit Cole.

the savvy or financial will) to pick up decent relievers along the way.

Plus, they're in a tough division with the always competitive Tampa, Toronto

who are always one of the better teams around, a Baltimore club that is

2025 - The Yankees got lucky that the Orioles regressed last year as it took only

oozing with talented high draft picks, and Boston who are always good when

94 wins to take the Division in 2024. Two rounds of cream puff opposition in the AL

you think they're going to be bad.

playoffs before the Yankees finally got exposed by the Dodgers in the World Series.

The four players that quadruple handedly lifted the Yankees twelve games in the

2023 - Wasn't hard to figure that the Yankees would suck. And they did.

standings were Carlos Rodon, 32, who finally got healthy and went 16-9 3.99;

Here's the most iconic franchise in the world with the most resources to draw

non-rookie rookie Luis Gil, 27, who went 15-7 3.50; Juan Soto, 26, 41 109 .288;

from in the biggest sports city in the world and all they could manage was 82-80.

and Aaron Judge, 33, who had one of the great seasons in history 58 144 .322

It really is criminal how badly this franchise has been mismanaged since George

particularly considering that 2024 was one of the worst seasons for hitters since

lost his health circa 2005. The last thing his son should be doing is running a

the Dead Ball Era and certainly the worst, by far, since 1968.

sports franchise, he has no feel for it. And the last thing Cashman should be

doing is anything other than janitorial work for any franchise.

2025 Hitting:

The Yankees lose Juan Soto to the Mets. Too bad. The Soto-Judge combo was

a mutually beneficial collaboration where both players absolutely thrived. And

Soto was playing in a Soto-friendly park, Yankee Stadium. No way Judge has the

year he had last year without Soto in the lineup and vice versa. The Yankees go

back to being the mediocrity on offense they were in 2023 despite the acquisitions

of Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger who are nowhere near the players they

once were. Rookie Jasson Dominguez may be the real deal, but we won't expect

miracles right out of the gate. They also lose Gleyber Torres which was a mistake.

2025 Pitching:

The acquisitions of Lefty Max Fried, 31, and Closer Devin Williams, 30, is huge.

Gerrit Cole, 34, did not pitch like an ace last year so Fried takes up that role

whether Cole bounces back or not. Rodon and Gil give the Yankees a deep and

talented rotation. If all are healthy, maybe the best rotation in baseball.

Marcus Stroman, 34, or Clarke Schmidt, 29, are more than adequate fifth starters,

altho the Yankees are rooting for Schmidt because Stroman is an a-hole.

The Yankees finally have a bonafide closer again with Williams. They really

haven't had one since Aroldis Chapman was doing his thing back in the previous

decade, 2019 (you could argue Zach Britton in the covid shortened small sample

size 2020 season if you like). But, regardless, it's been awhile and the Yankees

could stand winning the close ones and giving a bit more support to their starters.

After Luke Weaver, the rest of the bullpen looks pretty thin.

The Yankees will live on their pitching this year and, if there are no injuries, this

staff can carry them a long way.