Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman and the rest of the suits who run the New York Yankees need to come to grips with their true identity.
On semi-chilly autumn night of Oct. 20, 1996, one singular baseball marked a turning point for a franchise.The ball that left the right hand of John Wetteland, struck the bat of Mark Lemke, and landed ever so perfectly in the glove of Charlie Hayes not only signaled the first World Championship for the New York Yankees in 18 seasons, it marked the turning point for a franchise.
For so many seasons with fans painfully enduring the irrational behavior of George Steinbrenner, the Yankees were back on top and trending in the right direction.
Of course nobody knew what was to come. Not even Nostradamus could have predicted three straight titles and four straight pennants from 1998-2001, but even the casual onlooker understood what Gene “Stick” Michael and Buck Showalter built was there to stay for the long-haul.
Through it all – the five World Series Championships, seven AL Pennants, and 18 playoff appearances (in the last 21 seasons) – this organization knew exactly what it was. It was a brash, unapologetic organization that spent like crazy and accepted nothing less than on-field brilliance.
Although we can argue whether or not the irresponsible spending – beginning with Jason Giambi – started to hurt the club, the overall point of dominance out of the organization still holds true.
It’s that exact philosophy that allowed so much success for so long, is what’s devastating them now.
Instead of understanding who they truly are, they continue the madness that is fielding an old, tired, broken-down team they believe can contend. This is not only holding them back from proceeding with a much needed rebuild, it’s completely insulting to the fanbase.
Here are a multitude of reasons that support this ongoing madness that is the New York Yankees philosophy:
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Where Are The Yankees Right Now?
After a hold your breath 8-6 win over Buck and Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees are now 26-29, good enough for fourth place in the AL East. They trail the division leading Boston Red Sox by a cool 6.5 games.
Stale, tired and boring; these are just a few of the descriptions of the 2016 Yankees. Most importantly, though, they’re simply old.
At the current moment New York ranks 23rd in the big leagues with an average age of 29.3. Last season they were in the top three in terms of age, but, unfortunately, it’s much more than just a number. The problem is that at every starting position (aside from shortstop and second-base) an over-priced aging veteran is clogging up a spot a youngster can prove his worth.
- Alex Rodriguez, 40
- Carlos Beltran, 39
- Mark Teixeira, 36
- Brian McCann, 32
- Chase Headley, 32
- Jacoby Ellsbury, 32
- Brett Gardner, 32
These seven individuals comprise the rest of the starting lineup. All are age 32 or older. The only reason Rob Refsnyder is now playing is because of injuries that we all knew were going to come. Assuming Greg Bird never got injured, fans would’ve suffered through the sin of seeing him start the season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
What the Yankees need to do is admit they aren’t the team of the past who assured themselves a playoff berth simply by shoveling out the money.
Who Is Actually Leading The Franchise?
Let’s rewind the clock to 2007. Alex Rodriguez was coming off another monster 35 HR, 121 RBI season. He opted out of his massive contract and did so by announcing it while the Red Sox were in the middle of capturing their second World Series title of the decade.
New York general manager Brian Cashman made it clear that A-Rod would not be re-signed if he opted-out of his deal. Upon further review, however, Cashman isn’t the boss.
A-Rod opted-out and then crawled back to the Steinbrenner’s to get his brand-spanking new 10-year, $275 million contract will heavy incentives revolving around him eventually wearing the crown as the MLB’s “clean HR king.”
This was just the first very public example of Cashman wanting to do one thing (which usually supports the idea of turning personnel over and getting younger), and ownership wanting to do something entirely different.
With each high-priced acquisition since then we’ve had to figure out which guy was Cashman’s and which was ownership’s. And with every passing example, it seems as though Cashman wants to turn the personnel younger while ownership fights to keep it veteran-laced.
Through it all, however, Cashman has had to endure the pain of seeing Boston quickly sell off its high-priced players and turn to youth rather quickly. One time it leading to a World Championship in 2013. Though the Los Angles Dodgers were the main culprit in helping the Sox, they did, indeed, get the job done in trading the likes of Josh Becket, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.
What the Sox saw then – even to this very day with the likes of Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts – the Yankees haven’t been able to yet come to grips with.
Youngsters need a spot to play and time to develop.
This MLB Is A Different Brand Of Baseball
No longer do older teams win. That trend stopped once PEDs testing started to become more stringent and amphetamines started to leave the landscape of baseball.
Caasual fans don’t realize just how big both of these factors are, especially the amphetamines piece about it.
Baseball is a long season. It’s a grind of 162 games, day in and night out of constant play. Players in their 30s just don’t bounce back the way youngsters always do.
Not only does the drug factor come into play, but baseball’s zooming in on parity does as well. Sure, there’s still no salary cap in the game, but the increased hit on the luxury tax has balanced out the field. The days of gauranteeing a playoff spot purely based on salary are long gone.
Just take a look at the evidence:
Every season that the luxury tax threshold has gone up, it has brought us one year closer to this day. It’s a brand new day that sees the likes of the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates dominating. These are two organizations who couldn’t get out of their own way for more than two decades, but suddenly, that painstaking scouting and developing is coming to fruition.
It’s not a coincidence, it’s simply the new age of finance in baseball. Developing talent weighs much more than spending for free agent players who are usually in their late 20s.
Yankees Fans Are Smarter Than Ownership Thinks
The main crux for why Hal and Hank haven’t sold off players during the year isn’t because they are simply trying to stay true to the “Yankee way” of never giving up on a season. It’s not because they feel the Yankees fan deserves the best.
They actually do this because they are deathly afraid of being in charge of a wasted season and witnessing an empty Yankee Stadium in August and September.
The shame of it all is that Yankee Stadium is already empty with all of these high-priced, over-the-hill leftovers from other teams.
Fans are sick and tired of the same old issues.
The Yankees fanbase is smart and would welcome a complete rebuild with open arms. If anybody thinks for one moment a Yankees fan would rather witness Mark Teixeira and Chase Headley looking old on a .500 team as opposed to an Aaron Judge and Jorge Mateo showing us a glimpse of the future on a 20-games below .500 team, you are simply uniformed. That’s not to say each of those guys are ready, it’s just an example as two of the very few possibilities the Yankees currently have in the farm.
The fan of this organization would love to see youth parading itself around the diamond and in the outfield. Their eyes would be wide open as opposed to halfway shut, and it will all be thanks to that warm and fuzzy feeling that it’s all going to a good cause: the future of the franchise.
Instead, what the fans have received is a half-way attempt to turn over the roster while holding onto big-ticket items.
It simply doesn’t work.
What Sandy Alderson and the New York Mets did the last half decade works. What the Houston Astros did for so many seasons works. Through pain comes pleasure.
Would the Yankees ever dip down to those lows? Of course not. Still, a clean selling period and turning over to youth is priority.
Priority No. 1, though, is for the Yankees to look at themselves in the mirror and understand exactly what they are: a team heading nowhere in 2016. A team in desperate need to sell off parts and acquire younger assets.
2015 was a good start to this process. Instead of acquiring talent during the trade deadline, the organization stood firm in keeping its prospects. Hopefully they understood that ridiculous power production coming from Teixeira and A-Rod was an anomaly, not a regularity.
If they don’t continue this mindset this season, they never will. And therefore, they’ll never have a chance at another 1990s-like dynasty that was built on youth while George was suspended.
We’ll know the moment the decide to either sell off one of their movable parts or not. If Aroldis Chapman is still a Yankee come August, we’ll then know the Yankees haven’t changed one bit.
The identity crisis would still be ongoing.