The Yankees May Have Blown Their Best Chance for Years
For Yankees fans, one of the more charming story lines from this World Series was the emergence of a photo of current shortstop Anthony Volpe as an 8-year-old, taken in the parade after the Yankees won their last World Series in 2009. Little Anthony is very cute, and he looks extremely happy. And the tale of the boy who grew up cheering for Derek Jeter and the Yankees now playing his hero’s old position, and trying to win his own World Series, is irresistible. What baseball-loving kid hasn’t imagined doing the same thing?
But by the end of the series, which wrapped up Thursday night with a wild Dodgers 7-6 game-five victory, the photo was just another reminder of how long it has been since the Yankees last captured a championship. That kid is now an adult; the Dodgers now have what the Yankees once did; you and everyone you know and love have gotten so, so old. The joy of the Yankees reaching their first Fall Classic in 15 years lasted exactly six days. The perpetual Yankees question remains: Now what?
What’s most frustrating for Yankees fans is that they really should be up 3-2 on the Dodgers right now and heading back to Los Angeles. They were an out away from winning game one when manager Aaron Boone inexplicably brought in Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched in a month, in the bottom of the tenth. He promptly and predictably gave up a walk-off three-run homer to Freddie Freeman.
That was brutal, but game five’s mistakes were worse. The Yankees jumped out to a 5-0 lead, launching three homers off clearly depleted Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty, including a two-run shot from Aaron Judge — who looked to finally be rounding himself into regular-season shape. Yankee Stadium was roaring, Gerrit Cole was cruising (throwing a no-hitter, actually), and it looked like a game six was inevitable. But the postseason has a way of revealing those nagging flaws you tried to pretend your team didn’t have, and the biggest issue the Yankees have had all year — their inherent sloppiness — tore their season apart. Judge dropped an easy fly ball in center field. Volpe made a throwing error to third base. And worst of all, with the Yankees needing just one out to escape the inning, Cole didn’t cover first base on a ground ball, allowing Mookie Betts to reach and Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez base hits that would tie the game. By the time the Dodgers took the lead for good in the eighth, no one in Yankee Stadium was surprised. The Yankees were frequently excellent this season. But they never really played like one of those sharp Yankees teams that won all those titles decades ago. You could absolutely see this coming.
Which leads the Yankees into an offseason that’s as uncertain as any in years. Judge was fantastic this year, and he’ll win his second MVP award. But the Yankees’ most important player might be Juan Soto, an intense and charismatic on-base machine who fits so perfectly in New York you almost forget he has been there just one season. Soto now enters free agency, and not only will he require a contract that rivals Shohei Ohtani’s, but he and his agent Scott Boras have been steadfast that the Yankees earned themselves no home-team discount: He’s going to sign with the highest bidder. (Amusingly, after Thursday night’s loss, Soto explicitly stated, “I’m available for all 30 teams.”) The Mets, the Giants, and maybe even the Dodgers will be top bidders, but the Yankees may need him more than anyone; they’re a dramatically diminished team without him. They also have to figure out if they’re bringing back manager Aaron Boone, whom they hold a contract option on but may be a tad skeptical about, considering some of his questionable postseason moves.
The biggest problem may be how old this team is: Even with Volpe and presumed new center fielder Jasson Domínguez, most of the Yankees’ stars are well over 30 — you could make an argument that, if they lose Soto, they’re a Judge injury away from being an under-.500 team. The Yankees, unlike those old 2000s teams, don’t look like a team on the come-up. They look like one that is just barely hanging on.
On this Halloween, that’s the scariest thing for the Yankees: This might have been the best chance they’re going to get for a while. Fifteen years went by so fast that the kid at the 2009 parade is now their shortstop. If the Yankees aren’t careful, the next 15 will go by even faster.