I think we can all agree by now that this New York baseball season has been absolutely insane.
To get a decent sense of where the Yankees and Mets were going, we first go back to June 12, which was a fair benchmark two months into the season. At that point, it appeared that both teams were headed for a lot of October games. I think I may have even published a column suggesting that we might be getting ready for the first Subway World Series in twenty-five years.
Why not? There didn’t seem to be any clubs in the American League East, or even the entire American League, that could challenge the Yankees, who were 42-25 and four games ahead of the competition on June 12. Although Juan Soto’s defection had been more than made up for by Brian Cashman’s offseason acquisitions of Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, the Yankees were mostly succeeding because to Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt’s consistently strong beginning pitching.
In a similar vein, the Mets, who were in first place at 45-24 and ahead by five games, were riding high on the success of Kodai Senga, David Peterson, converted closer Clay Holmes, and offseason free agent Griffin Canning. Canning had the lowest major league starting pitching ERA and was anticipating the happy dilemma of what to do when Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea were released from the injured list later in April.
The Yankees’ 19-29 decline from first place to the third wild card, just 1 1/2 games ahead of the Rangers and Guardians as of Friday, and the Mets’ 18-28 decline from first place to the third wild card in the NL are two of baseball’s worst records. Who could have predicted that both teams would start these seasons?
It almost seems inexplicable, but perhaps it wasn’t—at least not in the Yankees’ instance. They have been a fundamentally poor team for years, with below-average defenders at two to three spots every day. This season, those positions were third base, left field, and, most surprisingly, shortstop. No amount of strong pitching could hide that truth. The manager was not held accountable, at least not publicly, which added to their many defeats at the hands of themselves.
The Yankees are still a one-dimensional home run-or-bust attack going forward, and Aaron Judge has only reached the deep end three times since July 8. While we acknowledge that Cashman is extremely protective of his native-born children, the fact is that Austin Wells appears worn out behind the plate and most likely needs to switch places with J.C. Escarra at Triple-A, Anthony Volpe has turned into a mystery at short, and Jasson Dominguez is still a work-in-progress in left.
Despite the Yankee legions’ growing demands for a dismissal to ease their annoyance, it is now obvious that this will not occur. Aaron Boone was been given a two-year extension through 2027 by Hal Steinbrenner, and he just won’t blow it up four months into it. Hal, however, will have no choice but to clean house—not just with Boone and his coaches, but possibly with Cashman as well—should the almost $300 million Yankees miss the playoffs, which is now clearly a possibility.
Although I believed David Stearns had a blind spot when it came to starting pitching throughout the offseason process of assembling this team, and he continues to do so, the Mets collapse is a little more complex. Stearns deliberately avoided offering the kind of high-profile, long-term contracts to the established frontline starters like Fried or Blake Snell in favor of bringing in Holmes, Canning, and Montas on modest, three-year or shorter contracts to round out the rotation last winter behind Senga, Peterson, and ultimately Manaea. However, if that was his preferred course of action, it was a little perplexing why Stearns decided not to bring back Jose Quintana, one of the Mets’ most dependable starters who won ten games the previous season and is having another successful season for the Brewers, aside from the fact that the analytics nerds despise finesse pitchers and adore the velo guys.
Additionally, I believed that Stearns was purposefully avoiding long-term contracts for starting pitchers because he was aware that he had three exceptional starting pitching prospects on the verge of the major leagues in Brandon Sproat, Nolan McLean, and Jonah Tong. Stearns’ failure to mention any of the children has been utterly perplexing, with the exception of Montas’ disastrous performance, which forced him out of the rotation.
Regarding the Mets hitting slump, I doubt Stearns could have predicted that Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Juan Soto would all be doing as poorly as they are. Cedric Mullins, Stearns’ trade deadline rental from Baltimore, may provide them with the offensive punch they’ve needed in center field the entire season. The most concerning thing, though, is that Soto, who entered the weekend batting, is giving them a genuinely mediocre season.For the first time since 2019, 249 had more strikeouts than walks.
It’s safe to say that Steve Cohen did not agree to this when he gave Soto the $765 million contract last winter.
The Diamondbacks’ Lourdes Gurriel Jr. blasted a home run off a pitch that was pitched at 103.9 mph by the Padres’ recently acquired reliever Mason Miller last week, causing quite a stir in baseball’s ravenous desire for velocity. It exited Gurriel’s bat with an exit velocity of 107.1 mph, making it the fastest pitch to be hit for a home run since pitch monitoring was first implemented in 2008, according to MLB. However, this at-bat informed me of the following: Miller was regarded as an untouchable for the Athletics and has been frequently hailed as the hardest thrower in baseball, with pitches that often reach speeds of over 100 mph. Padres GMA.J. Preller, who never known a player he couldn’t trade for, had to have him because of this. He thrust him from the A’s for four prospects, including an 18-year-old five-tool shortstop, making him the focal point of his deadline flurry of five transactions involving 22 players.Leo De Vries was ranked as the third-best baseball prospect overall by Baseball America. Even if Mason and his heater are deadly, Gurriel Jr. shown that he is not nearly as infallible as Mariano Rivera. On Tuesday night in Arizona, many baseball executives were taken aback by Preller’s decision to deal a highly regarded prospect like De Vries for a back-end reliever when he already had a closer in Robert Suarez who leads the National League in saves. God bless the poor Rockies. Last week, they were swept at home by the Blue Jays and outscored 45-6 in the three games, including 20-1 in the final on Wednesday. They need to find a method to wave a white flag to end their season, which had already reached record proportions for incompetence. Toronto finished the series with 63 hits, including 13 home runs, which is the most in a three-game series since 1900. The Rockies had a 316-run deficit after the series after 114 games, which was also the fewest games to hit that total since 1900. In 73 games, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders set the record for the fewest games in which a club had a run differential of minus-300 or more. However, they dissolved after the season, and some have speculated that the Rockies would think about following suit.
