So You Think We Are Spoiled Yankees Fans?

After a few days digesting the atrocious series against the now AL Champion Houston Astros, I started formulating something of an offseason plan, and was hoping to write a series of articles about that. Then came the bombshell. Yankee players don’t want to be here. Executives and agents alike think we are too hard on Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman. They think they would be highly sought after on the open market (and actually that may well be the case). However, here’s the part I can’t be quiet about: agents and execs think Yankee fans are spoiled. They think our World Series or bust mentality has gone too far. Really? I’m used to the New York media coddling Yankee staff by asking the “hard hitting questions” that would be better served as soft toss batting practice pitches to an offense that gravely needs it. To see rival executives and agents alike join in makes me wonder just how much the Yankees have everyone brainwashed, and more importantly how they did it.

Let’s set one thing straight: we aren’t spoiled, we are angry and tired. The most obvious reason to those who care is that this team is not trying to field the best team possible. They obviously view the postseason as a crapshoot: get in, get hot, and get ready for a parade. While this idea is not a total fallacy, as this year’s Philadelphia Phillies have proven, it seems counterintuitive to this philosophy to peak in June! Yet, that’s just what the 2022 Yankees did. Do you really think Yankee fans would be this upset with how this season ended if any of Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman, or any of last off-season’s stud free agent shortstops were in Yankee pinstripes? Sure, there would be frustration. Yes, there would be calls for Aaron Boone’s job. However, at least we could hang our caps on the fact that the front office fielded a team of some of the best players in baseball and that those players failed. However, that simply is not the case.

The Yankees have spent years relying on low ceiling players like Isiah Kiner Falefa to win them games. They no longer construct deep lineups like the one that won it all in 2009. Heck, this postseason, they didn’t even know who was playing shortstop! And the 2021 Wild Card Game lineup read like the before slide of a “where are they now” article that ends with the bottom half of the lineup bagging groceries because they could barely hit AAA pitching. IKF is admittedly the easiest of targets, but I sure wish we could replace Aaron Hicks with Bryce Harper. For all of his warts, Josh Donaldson was at least coming off of a solid 2021 season with Minnesota when he was acquired, but still. Imagine if Manny Machado or Nolan Arenado were already entrenched at the hot corner, or if they’d signed the guy who Minnesota literally directed his money to in Carlos Correa. I’m not expecting the Yankees to field a team entirely of $200+ million-dollar contracts, but I will never understand the willingness to commit $25 million to Donaldson when guys like Correa and Arenado could have been had for much less and offered much more on the field.

Alas, perhaps the Yankees could afford more of these contracts if they could actually develop their own talent from time to time. You know how when an NFL team has its starting quarterback on a rookie deal, they spend, spend, and spend some more to go all out on opening their title window before having to pay up at QB? Imagine being able to do that with homegrown talent. It must be nice to be the Dodgers and watch homegrown guys like Gavin Lux, Julio Urias, and Will Smith play on cheap deals next to guys like Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw, Freddie Freeman, and Trea Turner.  Obviously, they too fell short of the World Series, but they can point to poor on-field performance more so than roster construction. The same cannot be said of the Yankees. The only homegrown position players on this team before Oswaldo Cabrera was called up on August 17th were Aaron Judge and backup catcher Kyle Higashioka plus brief cameos from Miguel Andujar. The only homegrown starting pitcher is Luis Severino (Domingo German was acquired in a trade with Miami, and Nestor Cortes spent time in both Baltimore’s and Seattle’s organizations). The only place they seem to develop meaningful contributors is in the bullpen with guys like Ron Marinaccio, Clarke Schmidt, abd Greg Weissert seeing time this season. Jonathan Loiasiga, Chad Green, and Michael King were originally with other teams as well. Despite needing Tommy John Surgery, Scott Effross is an inexpensive pre-arbitration reliever who figures to be a key piece for the future provided a smooth recovery. However, he cost the Yankees pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski. This front office’s inability to develop its own talent is costing resources, be that in Major League Players, salary, or prospects, that could be redirected elsewhere.

That said, there are a few things I have to commend Brian Cashman and his front office on. One is his ability to find gems like Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes when needed. Second, they have assembled an impressive stable of offensive prospects. We saw Cabrera and Oswald Peraza this year, and we all know about Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez. Those last three players take most of our attention, but let’s not forget Trey Sweeney and Austin Wells. All of these guys saw time in Double-A Somerset and/or Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre this season, and could be primed to debut within the next year or so. Perhaps then the Yankees would be willing to spend more freely again. There’s a catch, however. For whatever reason, the Yankees refuse to actually play their prospects. We all were prepared for the likelihood that IKF would be our starting shortstop and that he would act as a stopgap for Peraza and Volpe. And while his bat did contribute some clutch hits and some needed contact, it also failed to pack a punch and was well below league average. Coupling that with his unsightly defense and 15 errors, and one cannot help but wonder why it took so long to see Peraza.

The Yankees publicly backed IKF right up until they benched him in the ALDS. You don’t just bench someone who you’ve truly backed for 162 games for the most important game of your season after a rough three game stretch. There was a lack of trust festering behind the scenes that would have led to Peraza’s debut in any other organization. However, this one lied to its fans and called IKF one of the best defensive shortstops in the game. If you like analytics, defensive metrics did credit IKF with 10 DRS, but also “awarded” him -2 Outs Above Average and Runs Above Average. Hardly seems like a clear-cut defensive whiz to me. If you like more of the eye test approach, then we both saw the 15 errors (that easily could have been 20+) and cringed every time we saw a ball hit to him or his ghastly throwing mechanics. I think the Yankees should look up the term “stopgap” again this offseason, because they treated IKF like Final Season Derek Jeter (sorry Jeet) instead of a mediocre player with no business being a starter on a championship hopeful. Another gripe I have is not giving Estevan Florial some run instead of Aaron Hicks before trading Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader. This is not a knock on Bader nor is it meant to sound like Monty would have reversed the Yankees fortunes. I also do not believe Flo is the answer despite his stellar season in AAA. However, while acknowledging that you have a struggling outfielder and that you don’t want to keep putting Judge in CF was great, why not play the guy who tore up AAA and see what you have before trading a member of your rotation? The “production” literally could not have been worse.

Speaking of lies to the fanbase, they didn’t stop with calling IKF a stopgap, nor defending his defense. They carried over to the claim that the Yankees would not sign a big-time free agent so they could resign Aaron Judge, and yet we are just days from Judge being a free agent. Last offseason is already a total failure, but losing Judge after using his next contract as the reason NOT to spend money would be a fireable offense. And lest we forget the Yankees horrible mismanagement of injuries the last few seasons. Not only is the team hardly any healthier than the ones that cost the last strength and conditioning staff their jobs, but the transparency surrounding injuries is just as opaque as before. We go to bed one night expecting a fan favorite’s injury to be a day-to-day thing. He could play tomorrow, but when we wake up the next day, the only lineup that player has joined is the one on the Injured List. As if that’s not bad enough, let’s talk about DJ LeMahieu for a minute. I mentioned earlier how this year’s team peaked in June. Well unlike most of the team, DJ was peaking in August. At the end of play on August 8th, he was slashing .290/.393/.434 and looked like the DJ of old. Now, I don’t know exactly when DJ’s injury occurred, but I do know that by the end of August, those numbers had plummeted to .269/.365/.392. Isn’t the point of peaking in October to be performing at your best? Would it have been possible to get a 100% version of DJ for the playoffs if he went to the IL immediately after his injury sapped him of his ability to drive the baseball? What about 75%? 75% of DJ would have been a lot better against Houston than 100% of JD. Heck 50% of DJ may have been better. And this was the second straight year that the Yankees mishandled an injury to their star infielder and thus lost him for the postseason. The Yankees need to protect their players better if they want them healthy in October, and let’s be honest, it’s not like DJ was helping us win games in August once he got injured. He wasn’t producing and the team barely won in August anyway! I can’t wrap my head around the incompetence that it took to have their leadoff hitter not rest up and get proper treatment when he was struggling because of an injury in the hopes of getting him right when it mattered.

Call us spoiled fans all that you want. The truth of the matter is, we are angry and tired. Tired of not trying and most importantly, we are tired of being fed lies. Look, I’m not the type of fan to not watch games, or not go to them. The Yankees have been a part of my life and my identity for as long as I can remember. But I think I speak for all of us at NYY News that we will be vocal about how poorly run this organization has become while still cheering on the team on the field. Accountability and effort would go a long way in patching up the relationship between Yankee fans and the front office. Sadly, I think they are too tone deaf to give us that.