The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: The 2021 New York Yankees

A week ago today, the New York Yankees 2021 season ended at the hands of the rival Boston Red Sox. It was a complete and total failure as is any season that doesn’t end in a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. Watching the Red Sox advance to the ALCS last night makes it even worse. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few positives to take out of this season as we look ahead to 2022. Yet, there are still a lot of things that need to be addressed before the team steps onto George M. Steinbrenner Field in February. Here is a recap of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 2021 New York Yankees.

The Good

Luis Severino looks healthy

Luis Severino finally stepped foot on a Major League mound on September 21st against the Texas Rangers for the first time since the 2019 Postseason. He only appeared in 5 games (four regular season, one postseason), but only allowed one run across 7.1 innings. While I’m hesitant to rely on a pitcher fresh off Tommy John Surgery, Sevy just looked different than Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon did when they returned, albeit in a relief role. I’m cautiously optimistic about his return to the rotation in 2022. Which brings me to my next point…

Do the Yankees actually have rotation depth?

When is the last time the Yankees could say this entering an offseason? Even with Corey Kluber and Andrew Heaney (See ya!) hitting free agency, the Yankees have 6 starters under contract for next season without including guys from the Minor Leagues like Luis Gil and (perhaps?) Deivi Garcia. As it stands, the Yankees have Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon, Nestor Cortes, and Domingo German all under contract for 2022. Not only that, the pitching staff led the American League in ERA this year, and is not losing any relievers either. Say what you want about the coaching staff (and trust me there is more on that to come), but Matt Blake is exempt from all hate. This is not to say the Yankees shouldn’t go out and add another starter, but it doesn’t feel desperate like in years past. 

Imitating the Rays Bullpen

Imitation is the best form of flattery and why wouldn’t the Yankees imitate the Rays? They seemingly can’t beat them, so try to be more like them, but with deep pockets. The Yankees totally revamped their bullpen between Opening Day and the trade deadline, swapping Justin Wilson and Luis Cessa along with the injured Zack Britton and Darren O’Day for Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, and Joely Rodriguez. That is really when the bullpen seemed to take off. Jonathan Loaisiga was great all year. Chad Green was mostly solid despite a few costly homers. Aroldis Chapman rebounded from a rough patch to post a solid season. But it was the unheralded, inexpensive guys like the aforementioned acquisitions and minor league free agent Lucas Luetge who really made the difference for the Yankees bullpen. This team finally had strike throwers out of the bullpen as opposed to more guys like Chapman who can make you want to pull your hair out if they aren’t on their A Game on a given night.

Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton stayed healthy

This is basically the only positive for the Yankee offense, but it was something viewed as an x-factor not too long ago. Stanton spent about two weeks in May on the IL with a quad strain, and Judge missed 12 days to the COVID IL. All told, the two combined for 287 games played, a .280 batting average, 74 homers, and 195 RBIs. The RBIs seem quite low, but then again the Yanks didn’t exactly set a high bar for On-Base Percentage this season. All told, the Yankees new program to keep them healthy under Eric Cressey has yielded fantastic early returns which is an exciting prospect for 2022 and beyond.

Staying under the luxury tax

For the 2021 season, this was a bad thing. You are the New York Yankees, act like it and maybe you wouldn’t be watching the Red Sox play in the ALDS. Heck, maybe you’d have won the AL East. But for the 2022 season, this could mean a busy, money spending offseason is ahead. The Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after this season, and there has long been speculation that the upcoming CBA could have significantly higher luxury tax thresholds. That bodes well for the Yankees to perhaps extend Aaron Judge and add some significant bats to a lineup that desperately needs them. It almost feels like a given that the Yankees will land one of the premier shortstops on the market, someone who they can move to third base if and when Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza take over shortstop duties. The team could also look for reinforcements in center field, catcher, and first base this offseason.

Getting more athletic

Better late than never I suppose? The Yankees finally realized that going station to station on base hits isn’t the best way to score runs, and trotting bad fielders out isn’t a great way to prevent them. Adding Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo helped alleviate that, especially defensively. Offensively, Rizzo was good, not great. Gallo on the other hand was far from stellar. Rizzo is now a free agent, but let’s hope this realization wasn’t just a two month trial. Better yet, the Yankees have placed an emphasis on base stealing in the minors, an art that has essentially been lost on this team since Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner headed the lineup. Hopefully that carries over into this offseason’s acquisitions.

The Bad

DJ LeMahieu

Admittedly, DJ was not BAD this year. We would sign up for .268/.349 from most of our lineup. The problem is his slugging percentage was .362. Say what you want about DJ, but calling him washed after one bad year is shortsighted. The last time he failed to hit .300 was in 2018. He’s hit .307 since even with the down year this year. My hunch is that DJ was playing through his injury for a lot of the season and it sapped his power. Offseason surgery should remedy that and hopefully he’s more like 2019-2020 DJ.

The rest of the infield

DJ got his own section because I believe he was injured for most of the season. He ended play on June 30th slashing .273/.347/.377 which still wasn’t DJ numbers, but his numbers for June were close. In June, DJ slashed .292/.350/.442. He followed that up by slugging .291 in July, so my guess is the injury happened somewhere around there. But the rest of the infield left plenty to be desired. Speaking of healthy, Luke Voit never seemed to find it and only played 68 games before ending the season on the IL. Gio Urshela flashed the leather at the hot corner, but only posted a .301 OBP. For comparison, Brett Gardner even managed a .327 OBP. Then, we go to Gleyber Torres. Torres once again underwhelmed with the bat, posting his worst offensive season to date. He hit .259/.331/.366. Considering his .368 slugging percentage in 2020, this is starting to look more like a trend than an outlier. Hopefully the move back to second base (assuming it is permanent) unlocks a better offensive Gleyber like it did in September (.292/.351/.438), but his defense there isn’t much better than at shortstop. In 169.1 innings at second, Gleyber posted -2 Defensive Runs Saved and a UZR/150 of 0.9. In 915.2 innings at shortstop, those numbers are -10 DRS and a UZR/150 of -3.3. So sorry if I’m less than thrilled about playing DJ at first so Gleyber can play bad defense at DJ’s best infield spot. Which brings me to another point….

Stop playing people out of position

Gio at short? Gleyber at short? DJ regularly playing anywhere but second? Miguel Andujar in the outfield? No wonder this Yankee team was so bad defensively. Sometimes the adage of “if you hit they’ll find a spot for you” should mean a spot on another team. I wouldn’t be shocked if Gio is not a Yankee when camp opens and DJ is the every day third basemen. But moving the infield alignment around for Gleyber to continue playing bad defense at another position seems counterintuitive.

Black hole in left field

Looking for one position that held the Yankees back in 2021? Look no further than left field. A cavalcade of different bodies saw time out there from Tim Locastro, Tyler Wade, Miguel Andujar, Mike Tauchman, and Clint Frazier. Their defense was also less than stellar. Greg Allen had a solid cameo in LF, but wasn’t handed the reins when the COVID outbreak ended. Joey Gallo brought some stability to it, but his bat left a lot to be desired. Here’s hoping Gallo is better in 2022.

Center Field

Center field wasn’t much better than left. Aaron Hicks once again failed to stay healthy, forcing Brett Gardner to play 105 games in center and 140 overall. Gardner would have been a serviceable 4th outfielder, but nobody expected him to play that much this season. Hicks cannot be relied on anymore as he has only played 145 of a possible 384 games since the start of 2019. Some of the same cast that saw time in left field saw time in center as well. Aaron Judge was even thrust into center field duty this year, and while he was solid, it probably isn’t ideal to keep him healthy moving forward.

Not trusting minor leaguers

Stephen Ridings. Remember him? Remember how good he was across 5 MLB appearances? Or how about Greg Allen and his .270/.417/.432 across 15 games? He certainly couldn’t have been worse than the other pre-Gallo LFers, and could have played center as well. Then there is Luis Gil who despite some struggles with command, pitched to a 3.07 ERA in 29.1 innings. He was routinely skipped over to give starts to Andrew Heaney. It’s not as though the Yankees couldn’t get them onto the roster. Allen and Ridings would have needed 40-man roster spots, but Allen was given one for the Wild Card Game anyway. Although in very small sample sizes, all three made an impact for the Yankees when they were in the Bronx, and deserved more playing time over their counterparts. The Yankees need to do a better job of using their farm system to fill injuries and underperformance at the big league level.

The Ugly

Coaching

We said it since April. This Yankee team was horribly coached and it showed on gamedays. From Aaron Boone feeling bullied by an umpire because he didn’t challenge a call in time to his inability to get the most out of his players, Boone may have found his way out the door. As it stands, his contract is set to expire and the Yankees have not announced any plan with him moving forward. He may still come back, but yesterday, Buster Olney reported that the Padres could be interested in his services. Take him. Reunite him with Larry Rothschild. Those two had so much success in the Bronx…. Boone wasn’t the only coach who had a rough year in the Bronx. Phil Nevin led the league in getting runners thrown out at the plate, including the rally killer in the AL Wild Card Game. Part of this is due to a flawed organizational philosophy to run on contact even against a drawn in infield, but Nevin had his fair share of bad sends as well. Lastly, Marcus Thames may just be the main culprit for the Yankees poor offense this season. Hitters who are generally regarded as good fastball hitters regressed mightily against the heater this year. All told, on pitches over 95 MPH, Yankee hitters slugged .355. That means Yankee hitters were somewhere between Brett Gardner and Ronald Torreyes against pitches over 95. No wonder they struggle against Kevin Cash and his “stable of guys who throw 98”. In this day where seemingly everyone throws 100, slugging .355 against pitchers over 95 isn’t going to cut it. Something seemed to change in the Yankees approach this year. How many hard grounders did Giancarlo Stanton hit in the first half of the year? Last I checked, ground balls can’t go over the fence. Whatever the experiment was this season needs to be thrown out for 2022. Lastly, the Yankees are a team that relies a lot on analytics. I know the old school crowd probably cringes at that, but consider the 8 teams left standing in the LDS. The Red Sox, Rays, Astros, Giants and Dodgers are teams who also rely on analytics the most in baseball. They have combined to win 7 of 8 pennants since 2017 and 3 World Series Championships in those four years. The problem isn’t the Yankees reliance on analytics, but it’s use of them. Widespread changes need to be made if this team is finally going to make the World Series in 2022.