Yankees PLayoff Preview: The #1 Seed In The American League
Since 2009, the New York Yankees have been to the playoffs ten times and have not been to a World Series since. The closest to a World Series was in 2017 when the Yankees came up short in seven games against the Houston Astros. The 2017 season was the Baby Bombers and Aaron Judge (should’ve been) MVP-like season. As well as the first year, sign stealing was used by Houston, as they went on to win the World Series. Since 2017, this team has continued to come up short of its expectations. Over the years, we’ve seen the superstar acquisitions of DH Giancarlo Stanton, SP Gerrit Cole, SP Carlos Rodon and nothing has come out of it. No payoff thus far for Yankee fans. This offseason, the Bronx Bombers took it to the next level and acquired OF Juan Soto. And he has proven to be the player we all thought he’d be. He brought a new element of pure baseball mechanics as a lefty bat to the team. With his looming free agency decision, the time to win is now. This season was a rollercoaster, and we should’ve won more than 94 games, but even with that summer losing skid, we still finished first. Yankees fans have had to wait too long to get something of substance out of this team, and they shouldn’t have to wait any longer.
The keys to winning are simple. This is the strongest Yankee team they’ve had since 2019. They have a set rotation led by the ace, SP Gerrit Cole. And they have two guaranteed bats in OF, future MVP Aaron Judge and OF Juan Soto. Both are coming off 40+ HR and 100+ RBI seasons. The team has many holes, the bullpen has been all over the place, and the rotation was sometimes shaky. Injuries to LHP Nestor Cortes Jr. and 1B Anthony Rizzo have been very unfortunate due to Cortes being a focal point of the rotation and coming off of a hot streak. He won’t return unless the Yankees make a deep playoff run into the ALCS. Rizzo recently came off the IL earlier this month, so this is all bad timing, and the return time is similar to Cortes’. Most of the bats on the lineup have been good to a degree, but they must continue allowing the young guys like Wells, Dominguez, and Rice to get chances to hit their stride in October. Going into this playoff run, one of the main questions is, will Giancarlo Stanton show up? I’ve personally been very critical of Stanton’s play as a Yankee, but if the Yanks are going to win the World Series, he needs to be MVP Stanton from Miami. If Soto, Judge, and Stanton are firing on all cylinders, no team or pitcher in the 2024 postseason can beat this team.
After an incredibly up-and-down season, the Yanks still finished with the #1 seed in the American League. So the expected ALDS matchup will be against the winner of the AL Wild Card, Baltimore Orioles or Kansas City Royals series. The preferred matchup would be against the Royals. However, that may not be likely due to Baltimore’s dominance. The Yankees went 5-8 against Baltimore this season and recently lost two out of three last week. That team is young and hungry to make up for last season’s ALDS disaster 3-0 series loss to Texas. However, I’ll stand by what I said before. This team goes as far as Giancarlo Stanton takes them. His dominance is the missing piece, and this team needs to be untouchable. It’s been an up-and-down Yankee career for him, but let’s see if the Playoff Stanton character that Judge referenced is real. The quest for 28 begins shortly…
