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The Ghost of Yankees Future

The first 15 games of this season have been nothing short of awful for the Yankees. They own a 5-10 record and are last in the American League. They are pace for a 54-win season. Could it happen?

No, the Yankees will not finish in last winning only 54 games. But could they be an 80-85 win, non-playoff team? Yes. They are hitting poorly, and hitting even worse when opportunities exist, and their fielding is miserable. Their pitching has been OK, sometimes excellent (see Gerrit Cole).

Worse yet, they bore me. I left a day game in the 7th inning on Saturday and I am glad I did. I expected no comeback. And I was just looking at the clock to see when it would be OK to leave. That’s depressing. Can they turn it around this year? Yes. Will they, maybe? Will they will be World Champs? Not likely. (For you optimists, the Nationals were 19-31 through 50 games in 2019)

But even more frightening is that the window of opportunity for Yankees Championships may be closing.

In the 2017 season Judge and Sanchez were breakout young stars, the team was younger and their AL Championship Series run felt magical. They fell short to the cheating Astros, but I was convinced that championships (not singular) would lay straight ahead. I was wrong—they fell short in 2018, 2019, 2020, though every team gets 2020 mulligan.

And now they’re back but badder than ever in 2021. Badder in the worst sense. Really. Can’t hit, field, run and if they don’t improve, they simply won’t win.

Worse yet, and far be it for me to be Scrooge, but take a look at the age of the current Yankees players projected forward just 4 years from now on Christmas 2025. Obviously there’s no guarantee that Yankees not on long term deals will be here then. But it’s not a happy Christmas for Cashman’s successor.

DJ LeMahieu 37 (long term deal)

Giancarlo Stanton 36 (long term deal)

Aaron Hicks 36 (long term deal)

Gerrit Cole 35 (long term deal)

Aaron Judge 33

Gio Urshela 34

Clint Frasier 31

Luke Voit 34

Luis Severino 31

Miguel Andujar 30 (if he’s still a Yankee)

Only Gleyber Torres will be under 30 (age 29)

That’s an OLD team. It smells like the aging 2013-2015 Yankees at best, and the late 60s Yankees at worst. What is going on? Why are they regressing now, and what changes are needed ahead?

Is it too early to panic? Yes. It’s only 10% of the season. But….is panic justified? Yup. They have one month to demonstrate that they are a very good team and potential champs. And if they’re not, I am afraid they will become yesterday’s news quickly, and more yesterday every year from now.




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2 Comments

  1. KS says:

    Too early to panic, but the window is definitely closing given the age of key personnel. Sudden dropoffs in performance are fairly common as players enter their 30’s. At least you’re not following the (ahem) Phillies.

    • Lonny Strum says:

      They are painful to watch so far. The window is still open and the season is long, but this is an awful start and they are boring as well. I pray that changes. Time will tell.

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