A Memoir of the 2021 Yankees
The 2021 season has officially come to a close. Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone did their end-of-year press conferences, which have turned into a repetitive “we have to get better” themed event. This time, the Yankees announced a 3-year contract extension with a fourth-year option for Boone, who was on the hot seat after an early exit in the Wild Card game. However, not all of the coaching staff will return next season.
Hitting coach Marcus Thames, third base coach Phil Nevin, first base coach Reggie Willits, and assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere were all notified that their contracts will not be renewed for the 2022 season. Some coaching changes may still be on the horizon, but it is time to focus on the season that just passed before we can move to next year.
As a whole, the 2021 Yankees’ season was a major failure. The Yankees were one game away from finishing fourth in a division that the club was originally slated to handle in moderate fashion. Yes, the Yanks were also a game away from second place, but even that is an astounding underachievement that would have left them stranded in the Wild Card Game. Frustrations grew from the top of the organization all the way down to the bottom. Yankees ownership instituted a hard cap on payroll — thanks to the ever-so-fun luxury tax — forcing GM Brian Cashman to play limbo on the transaction log. Cashman’s solution to the fiscal handcuffing was to sign veterans to short deals and to trade off prospects in exchange for major leaguers either on team-friendly deals or paid-for contracts with their old teams. He brought in Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon, who were each off the mound for the past year. He signed Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson and crossed his fingers that Father Time would be on vacation. Heck, Jay Bruce was even tasked with starting the season as the team’s first baseman. The Yanks picked up Zack Britton’s option, then re-signed D.J. LeMahieu and Brett Gardner. Amidst all of this, Masahiro Tanaka was cast away to Japan. Even within the first month of the season, the Yankees traded prospects for Rougned Odor (on the Rangers’ dime) and dealt Mike Tauchman to San Francisco for Wandy Peralta. The additions and re-signings combined for an awkward assembly of make-it-work type players. The Yankees lacked a sure-thing in the new player department.
Looking back at the season, let’s go over what made this team what it truly was all year.
Crushing Losses
It takes a really special team to be able to rip your heart out with some of the most crushing losses you could imagine, and that is exactly what the 2021 Yankees did. Justin Wilson was used in a save situation in Detroit, despite Aaron Boone knowing he had a hamstring issue and had been horrific of late. Wilson surrendered a walk-off homer to Robbie Grossman, then was placed on the injured list the following day. The Twins and Phillies walked it off against the Bombers in back-to-back games. The Angels rallied to win in Yankee Stadium, led by a Jared Walsh grand slam off of Aroldis Chapman to tie the game in the ninth. The Mets took the lead against Chapman then tacked on a handful of insurance runs to secure a win in the Bronx. The Astros strung together a barrage of hits in order to flip the lineup back over to Jose Altuve, who ended the game with a 3-run blast off of Chad Green (he also gave Houston the lead off of Green with a 3-run shot earlier in the year). Domingo Germán took a no-hitter in the eighth inning at Fenway Park before Boston scored five runs to win the game, which was in the same series that Brooks Kriske threw four wild pitches in the tenth inning of a walk-off loss.
It does not end there. The Yankees took a trip to Iowa for the first ever major league game played in the state. After scoring four runs in the ninth inning on a pair of homers from Judge and Stanton, the White Sox celebrated at home plate in walk-off fashion when Tim Anderson made a ball disappear into the corn field against Britton. Francisco Lindor crushed his third home run of the game to give the Mets the lead on Sunday Night Baseball at Citi Field just moments after the benches cleared. Even the Orioles handed the Yankees multiple nightmare losses, the worst of which occurred in September when Gary Sánchez could not corral a Clay Holmes fastball and the tying run scored with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth.
Two Giant Successes
Not everything about this season was connected to brutal defeat. There were quite a few bright spots among the 162-game marathon. Most of them were brought on by the two best sluggers on the team.
One mantra we heard from Yankees fans for the past couple of seasons was, “if we have a healthy Judge and Stanton…” Well, we got it this year. Judge played in 148 games — only missing time due to COVID — and was extremely effective. He smashed 39 bombs, drove in 98 runs, and hit for a career-high .287 average. Stanton, in 139 games, hit 35 homers, knocked in 97 runs, and batted to the tune of a .273 average.
This was the first time since the Stanton acquisition that we saw such a high level of production from he and his counterpart. Unfortunately, there was not much of a supporting cast throughout the year, but if the big guys are able to repeat their 2021 seasons, then the Yankees will likely be a powerhouse on offense.
Cole-rcoaster
At the end of the day, Gerrit Cole is a Cy Young Award finalist because of his overall success this season. However, it was a complete rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. Through 8 starts, the ace maintained a 1.37 ERA and put up a ridiculous 78-strikeouts-to-3-walks ratio.
Then Major League Baseball announced new enforcement mechanisms to ensure that pitchers were not using grip/spin rate enhancers on the mound. Cole became somewhat of the poster boy for pitchers using “sticky stuff”, despite the fact that nearly every pitcher in the league was using something. At that point, the future was uncertain. Before the series in Minnesota in early June, the $324M right-hander delivered the most uncomfortable interview of his career when reporters directed some questions about Spider Tack at Cole in the wake of Josh Donaldson accusing him of using a sticky substance. Cole fared better on the field, mowing down Donaldson twice and putting most of the speculative uncertainty to rest.
The next few months were rather ordinary for Cole. He had some shut down starts, like his complete game shutout in Houston. He had some blips on the radar, like his blowup at Fenway Park when Kiké Hernández took his first pitch over the Green Monster. But it was mostly great stuff from No. 45. That is, until September.
On the first of the month, Cole went back to the stadium closest to his hometown and stuck out 15 Angels’ batters in one outing. In his next start, he exited against the Blue Jays with hamstring tightness and he was never the same again. In his last 4 starts of the regular season, Cole put up a 6.35 ERA. He figuratively — and possibly physically — limped into the Postseason. That did not stop the Yankees from giving their guy the ball for the AL Wild Card Game against the Red Sox in Boston. Cole was only able to record 6 outs and allowed 3 runs before he was pulled with the Bombers facing a 3-0 deficit.
The 2021 season left us all with a sour taste in our mouths, but Cole might individually taste it the strongest. Hopefully the injury is not one that hampers an entire career, a la Phil Hughes (yes he had a long career, but he even admits his delivery was never the same). The Yankees need this man to pitch big games for them for the next 7 seasons.
Injuries
The injuries did not stop with Cole. In an unusual COVID-stricken season, the Yanks’ injured list was as occupied as Penn Station at 5:15 PM. Luke Voit tore his meniscus, pulled an oblique, and had knee soreness re-emerge all season, which left the first base position as one of the team’s biggest concerns for four months. D.J. LeMahieu battled through a triceps injury and hip injury through 150 games, until a sports hernia finally took him out for the end of the year and off the Postseason roster. Aaron Hicks had season-ending wrist surgery after he tried to play through pain in the first month. Clint Frazier missed the entire second half of the season for a dizziness issue that is still unsolved. Giancarlo Stanton missed a couple of weeks with a leg injury. Gleyber Torres (thumb) and Gio Urshela (hip, hamstring) each spent time on the injured list. Even the guys who were called up or traded for to fill in the gaps could not make it through a short time unharmed (Ryan LaMarre and Trey Amburgey each had a pulled hamstring and Tim Locastro tore his ACL).
On the pitching side, Luis Severino had multiple setbacks, moving his return date back a few months and prohibiting him from building up to the starter role. Corey Kluber and Domingo Germán each missed multiple months due to shoulder issues. Jameson Taillon cruised through much of the season and now requires ankle surgery. Mike King, who seemingly broke out this season, spent months on the injured list because he dropped a weight on his finger. Clarke Schmidt was never able to be unleashed this year thanks to injuries. Zack Britton’s season was destroyed by elbow problems. Jonathan Loáisiga missed crucial time when his shoulder was sore. Darren O’Day’s season ended quite early. Even Stephen Ridings, the card up the Yankees’ sleeve, was called up and immediately injured.
Add the COVID-19 related list on top of that and it means Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge, Kyle Higashioka, Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela, Nestor Cortes Jr., Jonathan Loáisiga, Anthony Rizzo, and Wandy Peralta all missed games (or more games).
Now, that is not to say other teams were not injured or that this serves as any excuse at all. In fact, the injuries shined a spotlight on the lack of major league depth in the organization, which is a scary fact considering how tough the AL East is set to be for the next few seasons. However, you cannot tell the story of the 2021 Yankees without thinking about how often the pregame news from reporters on Twitter included somebody going to the injured list and an untrusted replacement player’s arrival. Asher Wojciechowski started a game for the Yanks this year. Sal Romano pitched in close games at Fenway and against Toronto. Brooks Kriske was given a save situation in Boston. Nick Nelson started two games this year. Andrew Heaney pitched 35.2 innings and gave up enough runs to last 1,000 more innings. Rob Brantly caught for a week and made the Postseason roster. Chris Gittens, Mike Ford, and Jay Bruce each failed in the temporary first baseman role.
The point here is this: the Yankees badly need to make depth a priority, because it was a major hole last season.
Trade Acquisitions
While staying under the luxury tax, GM Brian Cashman made a flurry of intriguing trades throughout the season. On April 6, the Yanks traded two prospects to the Rangers for Rougned Odor. Less than a week later, Thairo Estrada was sent to the Giants. Two weeks after that, the Yankees linked up with the Giants again, sending Mike Tauchman out west for reliever Wandy Peralta. In the middle of June, the Yankees parted ways with Mike Ford via trade to Tampa Bay. Remember him? Then two weeks later, the Yanks acquired speedy outfielder Tim Locastro from the D-Backs. At this point, none of the trade news occupied more than a couple second of airtime on local New York sports radio shows; but then the Cash God struck.
In the week of the trade deadline, Cashman dealt well-regarded prospects Hoy Jun Park and Diego Castillo to the Pirates for a reliever with a 4.93 ERA (Clay Holmes). Then in a salary dump, the Yankees gave Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson to the Reds for a minor leaguer. One day later, Joey Gallo became a Yankee. Gallo, along with lefty reliever Joely Rodriguez, were sent to New York in exchange for prospects Trevor Hauver, Glenn Otto, Josh Smith, and Ezequiel Duran. You may have thought the Yanks were all set for the second half, but then there was more. Anthony Rizzo went from the Cubs to the Yankees for Kevin Alcantara and Alexander Vizcaino. Even then, it was not over. Just moments before the deadline, the Angels traded Andrew Heaney to the Yankees for Elvis Peguero and Janson Junk.
To synthesize all of the moves, Cashman and the Yankees attempted to use band-aids throughout the first three months of the season. The Odor, Estrada, Peralta, Ford, and Locastro trades were all made with the clear intention of spending as little money as possible on replacement players; albeit, the big fish typically stay put until closer to the deadline date.
As the Yanks moved closer to that day, the real replacements were acquired. Clay Holmes turned out to be an absolute stud in pinstripes, throwing 99 mph sinkers to the tune of a 1.61 ERA. Joey Gallo did not work out quite the same, but the Rangers did pay his 2021 remaining salary and the Yankees get to keep him for 2022 as well (on the NYY payroll). The power-defense specialist hit for a .160 AVG and .303 OBP in 58 games with the Yanks. Anthony Rizzo had his time with the Yankees interrupted by a stint on the COVID-18 related IL, but overall he was solid.
Even with the late additions of some star players, the Yankees did not go all-out on the trade market. Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kris Bryant, Javier Báez, and José Berríos — all who play positions of need for the Yankees — were shipped to new organizations at the deadline. Trevor Story stayed in Colorado, but the Yankees were linked to him all year. In the end, the 2021 team was not performing well enough to convince management that it was worth exceeding the luxury tax threshold.
Boone
The 2021 season was not Aaron Boone’s best. Looking at it from a macro-perspective, the team vastly underperformed, blew leads late in games, and slumped for weeks at a time. The Yankees led the major leagues in outs at home plate and the infield defense ranked in the bottom half of the league according to advanced analytics.
From the micro-perspective, a few instances of head-scratching decision-making stand out as well. Sending in Justin Wilson with a pulled hamstring to close out a game against the Tigers, only to allow a walk-off home run will go down as possibly the worst managerial decision of the year. It will be right up there with Kriske’s save opportunity in Boston, not bringing the infield in with a sinkerballer on the mound in Boston, and the meltdown in Houston before the All-Star Break.
Now, that does not mean that Boone was dealt the best hand and blew it. He did not put Andrew Heaney, Nick Nelson, and Justin Wilson on the roster. He did not injure Luke Voit’s knee and give D.J. LeMahieu a sports hernia. He did lead the Yankees to a 13-game win streak — the longest such streak for the franchise since the 1961 Yankees reeled off the same amount. However, the theme of the 2021 season was one step forward and two steps back. The Yankees went 2-11 in the 13 games following the streak. The number one complaint fans had for Boone’s team this year: inconsistency. I would say the club was consistently inconsistent.
Surprising Bright Spots
Although the season can be classified as a failure, there were some bright spots on the Yankees’ roster when you zoom in closer. Specifically, two pitchers stood out above the rest.
Nestor Cortes Jr. immediately comes to mind. Statistics aside, Cortes made pitching look so fun, which is not a trait most pitchers carry. He changed arm slots and angles, tinkered with leg kicks and timing mechanisms, and mixed a low-90’s fastball with his off-speed to make some of the game’s best hitters look stunned in the batter’s box. It resulted in a 2.90 ERA in 93 innings for the lefty.
Another pitcher stood out this year; not just for the Yankees, but for the entire league. Jonathan Loáisiga was straight-up unreal. Time after time, Lasagna got out of the jam when the Yankees needed it most. The Nicaraguan flamethrower switched up his pitch mix for 2021. He threw tons of two-seamers/sinkers and avoided overusing his four-seam fastball. Sure, he didn’t rack up as many strikeouts per nine as he is probably capable of doing, but he forced an abundance of weak contact. He turned in a 2.17 ERA in 70.2 innings. Oh, and he is friendly with our very own Twitter account.
The No-Hitter
One game in particular deserves our undivided attention. That was Corey Kluber’s no-hitter against the Texas Rangers. The Yankees had not provided us with a no-hitter since David Cone’s perfect game on July 18, 1999. Nearly 22 years later, The Klubot made it happen.
Last offseason, Kluber signed a 1-year, $11M contract with the Yankees. He missed nearly all of the last two seasons; he only threw one inning in 2020. For one night in 2021, it all came together for the Cy Young Award winner.
Fun fact: Kluber threw the no-hitter on his own Bobblehead Day in a visiting park. Confused? Well, that one inning he threw in 2020 also occurred in Texas when he was on the Rangers. He injured his shoulder and never pitched again for the organization, who held onto the pre-ordered Kluber bobbleheads. Since there were no fans at games during the 2020 seasons, the Rangers saved the giveaway event for Kluber’s return to the stadium.
Triple Plays
These may only be brought back up again in future trivia questions or when another team does it, but the Yankees turned two triple plays in the same week, but also turned another one just a few weeks before that. That is right — THREE triple plays in the season’s first half!
One ended the game against the White Sox, which was a downright ridiculous way to cap off a win. Another occurred in the first inning in Buffalo against the Blue Jays (Aaron Judge also made a remarkable home run robbery of a Cavan Biggio fly ball in that game). Then just a few days later, the Yankees ended another game with a triple play against the Athletics. What a bizarre and amazing series of events.
Postseason
After 92 wins during the regular season, the Yankees moved on to the AL Wild Card Game against the Red Sox in Fenway Park. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that Gerrit Cole would be pitching that game, I really would have liked our chances. Instead, the Yankees got smacked and never stood a chance. The only opportunity to get back in the game was spoiled by a questionable send of Aaron Judge to home with Joey Gallo on deck. Giancarlo Stanton hit the top of the Green Monster twice, and homered to the opposite field. Anthony Rizzo hit a monstrous home run. Other than that, the Yankees’ offense forgot to show up.
Day and Night
Whether it was an organizational philosophy issue, a preparation issue, or just a fluke, the Yankees’ biggest rival this season was the sun. In 56 day games this year, the Yankees won 23 and lost 33 contests. To put this in proper perspective, the Bombers were 69-37 under the lights. The disparity between day and night was conspicuous, if anything. Most of the day games concluded the team’s series, which was a popular rest day for the regulars. Hopefully this philosophy changes before next season.
Farewell 2021 Yankees
As a fan who watched over 150 of the team’s regular season matchups, it is never easy to say goodbye to a season. You grow accustomed to coming home and putting the game on after work, talking about last night’s win with a family member or friend, or heading to the ballpark and taking in the action. But the season is over, so until next year, folks.