We've been waiting to ring in the new year ever since the 2021 season ended with the Yankees unable to move passed the Wild Card game against the Boston Red Sox. Now as the other New York baseball team tout their 60th year anniversary in 2022 and make major moves that include the acquisition of stud pitcher Max Scherzer and legendary manager Buck Showalter, the Yankees have everything to prove to remain top dog in a city. Will this pressure to get better, do better and be better actually light a fire under the Yankees and their organization to deliver a championship next season?
The New York Daily News doesn't think so. "Unfortunately for them, there isn’t just one area to address. Even worse, there isn’t a magic wand to turn all of the bad into good overnight, and club employees aren’t even permitted to speak to the players right now."
From poor baserunning, an inability to hit the change up and even perform well outside of their own ballpark, the Yankees have a lot to fix and not a lot of time to do it.
"A popular complaint from the fans — “Just put the ball in play!” — applies especially to this problem. The Yankees struck out in 24.9% of their plate appearances against right-handed throwers, the sixth-highest percentage of any team in the league. Simply putting the ball in play is much easier said than done, but that’s a great place to start when it comes to this issue, whether that means altered swing approaches or adding more lefties to the roster," reported the News.
Teams across the division have figured out how to consistently score runs, hit a variety of pitches and take advantage of slow and sloppy defense. But the Yankees appear to be left behind, relying on the long ball and Gerrit Cole to bail them out of difficult situations.
"Gerrit Cole had a ton of success in his two years with the Yankees with a 23-11 record and a 3.11 ERA. He finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2021 and was an All-Star. The problem for the Yankees is that Cole wasn’t hired to be the best pitcher on the staff, he wasn’t hired to get the Yankees to the postseason, he was hired to win a World Championship for the Yankees, in that charge, he failed miserably during his first two seasons," reported Empire Sports Media.
It is not up to Cole alone nor is it just Aaron Judge's or even Giancarlo Stanton's job hit the bombs to put the Bombers on top. It is a team effort, where consistency eats ambition for dinner.
"The Yankees could only muster a .238 batting average and .699 OPS with runners in scoring position. They were 14% worse than league average in this respect, and it was even worse with two outs. As the pressure mounted, the Yankees shrunk. In two-out, runner-in-scoring-position scenarios, the batting average dropped to .215 with a .643 OPS," reminds the News.
The pressure to do better, get better and be overall better is certainly there. The Yankees needs to make moves, once the lockout is lifted and business can resume. They will need to play catch up, sign some players to fill roster holes, who can hit for average and do something with the change up, and then hopefully, have time to gel as a team, build a relationship with coaching staff....sigh. It is a lot to do in very little time. Teams have done it, but can the Yankees? My faith in the organization historically is strong, but this is a tall order for any team, including my beloved Yankees.
--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof
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