New York Yankees: The 2010s in review (2010-2014)

2010 

Record: 95-67, 2nd in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, Javier Vazquez, Boone Logan, Randy Winn, Lance Berkman

Key Departures: Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera, Jerry Hairston Jr.

Coming off their 27th world championship, the Yankees began the 2010s with high expectations. Most of the 2009 team remained intact, although there would be no more Hideki Matsui, who had been with the team since 2003 and was the World Series MVP. There would also be no Johnny Damon or Melky Cabrera either.

Damon signed with the Tigers as a free agent, and the Yankees made the puzzling decision to send Cabrera to Atlanta, to receive reliever Boone Logan and starter Javier Vazquez, who struggled with the Yankees back in 2004. They did, however, get All-Star outfielder Curtis Granderson from Detroit, who was their biggest offseason acquisition.

The team got off to a fast start and had the best record in the Majors at the All-Star break. They would be hit with tragedy though during the break, as legendary public address announcer Bob Sheppard, and principal owner George Steinbrenner passed away within the course of three days. The Yankees would sit atop the division for a majority of the season but could never get the Tampa Bay Rays off of their back.

A notable moment of the season occurred in August when Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run against Toronto. The Yankees stumbled to the finish line, losing eight of their final 11 games and settling for the wild card. In order for the Yankees to repeat as world champions, they’d have to get through a familiar foe in Minnesota in the Division Series, which they did handily, winning in a three-game sweep. However, they were overpowered by the Texas Rangers in the Championship Series, as they were outscored 38-19 in the six-game series.

Analysis: 2010 was a weird and heartbreaking year for the Yankees. They had all of the resources in hand to repeat as world champions but made a couple of nonsensical offseason moves by bringing in random guys like Randy Winn, Chan Ho Park, and Nick Johnson. Javier Vazquez Part II was just as bad as Part I, as the right-hander just couldn’t get it together in New York, pitching to a 5.32 ERA.

On the upside, second baseman Robinson Cano had a terrific season, hitting .319, with 29 home runs and 109 runs batted in. Outfielder Nick Swisher made his first and only All-Star team and had a great season hitting .288, with 29 home runs and 89 runs batted in. Starter C.C. Sabathia went on to win 21 games as well and finished third in CY Young voting.

On the downside, shortstop Derek Jeter had one of his worst offensive seasons, as he hit just .270, with 10 homers and 67 runs batted in. Overall, it was a year of underachieving for the team with too many guys who just didn’t fit on the roster.

2011 

Record: 97-65, 1st in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Russell Martin, Andruw Jones, Rafael Soriano

Key Departures: Andy Pettitte, Dave Eiland

The Yankees cleaned out much of the clutter that was on their 2010 roster and looked to right the ship.

The team looked up at Boston for much of the first half of the season but stayed within reaching distance. Derek Jeter was struggling throughout much of the first half of the season and even had a stint on the 15-day disabled list. However, on July 9, he hit his 3,000th career hit, a home run, against the Rays’ David Price.

Jeter heated up in the second half and ended up batting .297. Another personal accolade occurred in September when closer Mariano Rivera notched up his 602nd career save to become baseball’s all-time saves leader. The Yankees took control of the division in the second half and never looked back, winning by six games over Tampa Bay.

They entered the postseason as the top seed and would face the Detroit Tigers. They took the first game pretty easily but dropped the next two. With their backs to the wall in Game 4, A.J. Burnett pitched brilliantly and the Yankees thumped the Tigers 10-1, to send the series back to New York. However, it all ended abruptly there, as the Yankees failed to get the big hits with RISP and ended up losing 3-2 in both the game and series.

Analysis: 2011 ended in enormous disappointment for the Yankees. The Tigers were good and deserved to win the series, but the Yankees just could not come through when it mattered most. The only Yankee who shined in the playoffs was veteran Jorge Posada, who hit well over .400 in the series. This series would end up being his final games as Major Leaguer as he officially retired during the offseason on January 24th.

2012 

Record: 95-67, 1st in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez

Key Departures: Jorge Posada, A.J. Burnett

The 2012 Yankees season would end up being quite emotional. Posada retired but Andy Pettitte came out of retirement, and the team would take a massive blow in May when closer Mariano Rivera suffered a torn ACL while shagging fly balls in Kansas City. At the beginning of the season, the Yankees were playing mediocre and uninspiring baseball, sitting at .500, 21-21, through May 21.

Things turned around in June when they went on a 10-game win streak and started to pull away from the rest of the competition in the East. They got a lot of contributions from veterans, especially Jeter, who at 38, turned in a stupendous season, hitting .316, and leading the league with 216 hits. They also received perennial All-Star Ichiro Suzuki from Seattle in July who was another important contributor for the team, as he hit .322 in pinstripes.

The team would hit a skid towards the end of the season and the Baltimore Orioles caught fire and momentarily took possession of first place. However, the Yankees fought back and ended up winning the division by two games. They would end up facing Baltimore in the first round of the postseason.

Both teams struggled mightily offensively throughout the series. Rodriguez was the center of attention, as he was striking out at a rapid pace, especially in big spots. But he wasn’t the only Yankee. Curtis Granderson, Cano, Swisher and Mark Teixeira were all having miserable Octobers.

Only Raul Ibanez’s heroics and C.C. Sabathia’s complete-game victory in the deciding Game 5 saved the Yankees’ season. They’d move on to the Championship Series where for the second straight year, they’d meet the Tigers. The Yankees made a ninth-inning comeback in the first game but still lost 6-4.

To make matters worse, Jeter broke his ankle trying to field a ground ball, effectively ending his season. It would also be the final postseason appearance of his HOF career. The rest of the Yankees had no answers whatsoever for Detroit at the plate. Everybody looked lethargic and lazy after Jeter went down. By the fourth game, down 3 games to 0, they had all but given up. The Tigers spanked them 8-1 in Game 4 to advance to the World Series.

Analysis: Of all the Yankee seasons this decade, 2012 might be the most frustrating, at least for me personally. The Yankees were a better team than the Tigers that year and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it. There just didn’t seem to be much urgency from anybody in the postseason, especially from guys like Cano, Granderson, and A-Rod, who were the key RBI guys and all ended up looking lost at the plate.

To make matters worse, the Tigers showed who they truly were in the World Series when they were easily kicked to the curb by the Giants in four straight. Suffice it to say, the 2012 Yankees just seemed to have lost their motivation competitive fire when it mattered most.

2013  

Record: 85-77, Tied for 3rd in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, Alfonso Soriano

Key Departures: Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones, Rafael Soriano

2013 was without question the most tumultuous, dysfunctional, and melodramatic year the Yankees had in the 2010s, and it was mostly because of Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez, along with Jeter, Granderson, and Teixeira would begin the season on the disabled list. Rivera was back and fully healthy and made the announcement that 2013 would be his final season. The Yankees brought back Pettitte and Ichiro as well.

To supplement the losses of their star players, the Yankees brought in a mix of veterans from across the league such as former Red Sox star Kevin Youkilis, former Blue Jay star Vernon Wells, and former Indians star Travis Hafner. The team unsurprisingly suffered from not having their everyday guys in the lineup and struggled to find consistency throughout the year, especially offensively.

Despite the struggles, the team remained in contention for a wild card spot. Desperate to make some noise, they brought back Alfonso Soriano in late July from the Cubs. Soriano almost single-handedly kept the Yankees in the race. He went on a tear in August, which included him driving in 18 runs from August 13 to August 16, which garnered him AL Player of the Week Honors. Jeter kept coming back and going down time and again from his ankle injury throughout the season.

In one of the more dramatic games of the year against Tampa Bay on July 28, he hit a home run on the first pitch he saw from southpaw Matt Moore. It was only his second game of the year and his first since coming off the disabled list in which he had injured his foot.

At the center of everything, however, was A-Rod. Rodriguez was caught in hot water as his name was revealed in the Biogenesis scandal. The scandal included names of Major Leaguers who had obtained performance-enhancing drugs or human growth hormones. A-Rod wound up being suspended for 211 games, which ruled him out for the 2014 season. Despite all of this, he ended up returning to the team in August.

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With the Yankees clinging on for dear life at this point in the season, A-Rod’s presence drew the ire of fans everywhere the team went, none of which was more evident than during a Sunday night game at Fenway Park. Rodriguez was plunked by Red Sox’ pitcher Ryan Dempster, which led to the ejection of manager Joe Girardi.

A-Rod got his revenge a few innings later when he crushed a Dempster pitch to dead-center for a home run. The Yankees ended up winning that game and stayed in the postseason hunt for a few more weeks. However, they were officially eliminated on September 25, when they fell to the Rays at Yankee Stadium.

The next day, the Yankees and their fans bid farewell to Rivera as he was taken out of the game in the top of the ninth inning by Pettitte and Jeter. Pettitte ended his career on a high note a few days later when he threw a complete game against his hometown team, the Houston Astros.

Analysis: What a wacky year 2013 was for the Yankees. You had legends in Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte departing at the end of the season, you’ve got all of these random guys taking the field throughout the year, and then the scandal with A-Rod. To sum it up, 2013 was one of disarray and sadness.

2014

Manager-Joe Girardi;

Record- 84-78, 2nd in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka, Carlos Beltran, Brian Roberts, Brandon McCarthy, Stephen Drew, Chase Headley, Martin Prado

Key Departures: Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson

Hoping to avoid the drama that they had endured the year prior, the Yankees went right to work to reconstruct the team. In addition to losing Pettitte and Rivera, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson, both departed via free agency. The Yankees again pursued veterans in the offseason and obtained outfielder and former Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury, signing him to a whopping 7-year $153 million deal.

The team also signed slugging veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran and catcher Brian McCann. They also looked abroad and brought in Japanese pitching sensation, Masahiro Tanaka, from the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Tanaka had come off of a season in which he went undefeated at 24-0, with an unreal ERA of 1.27. Despite the moves, the season would mostly be remembered for being Derek Jeter’s final season.

The Yankees never really got on any sort of roll in 2014. If they went on a five-game winning streak, they’d then go on a five-game losing streak. If their pitching was top-notch, then their hitting was lackluster. If their hitting was good, the pitching would go bad. Tanaka was living up to expectations and started the year out strong.

However, he suffered an injury midway through the year and wouldn’t return until the end of the season. Although players and fans around the league celebrated Jeter’s career throughout the season, the Captain himself was having the worst full season of his career. He hit just .256, with just 4 home runs and 50 runs batted in.

The Yankees were treading water for much of the season. They never really got into the mix of teams who had a legitimate shot at making a run in the playoffs. They would fail to qualify for the postseason for the second straight year. However, as he had done so much throughout his career, Jeter provided one of the memorable moments in franchise history by hitting a walk-off single in his final at-bat at Yankee Stadium against the Orioles on September 25.

Analysis: Asides from this being Jeter’s last season,  there really isn’t anything all that positive about this season. It wasn’t a bad season for the fans thanks to the lasting memories the Captain provided, but it certainly wasn’t a great season. It’s just…there.