For the first time in 15 years, the American League season was over, but the Yankees weren’t.
For the first time in 15 years — five of them ending right there in the AL Championship Series — Yankees officials and players were not going down what had become an all-to-familiar checklist:
—We were a championship team that did not win a championship.
—The fans deserved better.
—We will redouble our efforts to get back to the World Series.
Perhaps the Yankees were the last team standing in the AL this year because they didn’t even get to make those statements in the previous postseason. They went home with the rest of the dregs, pre-October. Is it possible that missing the playoffs entirely was the best thing that could have happened for this franchise?
Because some organizations might celebrate 82-80, a 31st straight winning season for the Yankees. Some franchises might lean on just a fifth missed playoff campaign in three decades as protection. The Yankees treated 82-80 like toxic waste.
They reacted worse — far worse — than the White Sox just did in losing an MLB record 121 games. Hal Steinbrenner called the 2023 season “awful” and Brian Cashman termed it a “disaster.” Then they put actions to words — and so did their players.
Steinbrenner, who said it was unnecessary to have a $300 million payroll to win, approved a franchise-record payroll of over $300 million. Cashman would not leave the Winter Meetings without Juan Soto. The Yankees offered $300 million to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and, when spurned, invested in Marcus Stroman. Five prospects went at the trade deadline for Jazz Chisholm and Mark Leiter Jr.
And beginning well prior to spring training, the attendance at the Yankees’ minor league facility not only swelled like never before, but word began circulating about a difference in body and soul. That was a leaner Carlos Rodon and Giancarlo Stanton. That was a more block-out-the-noise credo — everything said good or bad was immaterial … only winning mattered. Winning was the answer to everything after 2023 created a tie for the second-longest championship drought (14 seasons) in franchise history.
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“This is a tough bunch — last year really toughened them up; toughened us up and put us in a position to get after it like never before starting last winter,” Cashman said on the field after the Yankees had won ALCS Game 5 by 5-2 in 10 innings for their first pennant since 2009. “I’m not talking about moves only. I’m talking about everything, about the foundation work that goes in the gym in the offseason and showing up in Tampa early. No one wanted to experience what we had last year. We had a lot of talent last year. Things didn’t go our way, some of it by our own hands and others by happenstance. But at the end of the day, this team came in hungry. But then you have to play the games — and the team never stopped being hungry.”
It was somewhat reminiscent of the birth of the 1998 Yankees, which began in this same Cleveland ballpark (albeit with a different name) in 1997. After winning it all in 1996, the sequel felt it was better, yet lost a decisive Division Series Game 5 here. That led to the importing of Chuck Knoblauch and Orlando Hernandez; and a relentlessness of talent and intention that sired 125 wins and arguably the greatest team ever.
This club is not that club in its ability to do everything at a high level. The 2024 Yankees have real deficiencies. But in their power, their run prevention and fortitude they won their 41st pennant. These are the 2024 Yankees: they are a dominant 7-2 in the postseason — a 126-win regular-season equivalent. But they have not been overwhelming.
All nine playoff games have been decided by three or fewer runs. The Yankees scored the go-ahead run in four this way: in the seventh inning of Division Series Game 1, the eighth inning of Division Series Game 3, the ninth inning of ALCS Game 4 and the 10th inning of ALCS Game 5.
Their margin for error is small, their tenacity large. They can so often make the least out of the most. For example, Gleyber Torres and Soto have dynamically topped the lineup, reaching base in 15 of 18 first-inning postseason at-bats. Yet, the Yanks had just four runs from that because every other Yankee was 0-for-23 in the opening frame. On Saturday night, Torres was thrown out at the plate in the first after a Soto double, reminding all the Yanks are the majors’ worst baserunning team.
But somewhere in all of the transactions and weightlifting and bonding the Yankees steadily built the ladder from the depths of 2023 to late Saturday night at Progressive Field. Where Stanton, who has risen to both main man and shaman for his teammates, hit a tying homer in the sixth inning. Where an organizational strength to find and maximize relievers such as Tim Hill and Jake Cousins — not good enough for the 2024 White Sox, by the way — coalesced around 5 1/3 shutout innings. And where fittingly Soto hit one of the biggest homers in Yankees history reflecting the biggest move from 2023 to 2024.
The expectation for the Yankees is this, since even with the title-less gulf from 2009, the Yankees will be able to say they will have appeared in 34.2 percent of 120 World Series. It is why 82-80 was so unacceptable.
Yet, so resuscitating.
