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

As March comes to a close and April knocks on the door, the world is still in an unknown state. What is known is that there will still be no Yankees baseball for a while.

The 2020s are off to a chaotic start, to say the least. In less than three months, the sports world has been hit hard. First was the passing of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, and now the coronavirus pandemic has killed off or postponed multiple sporting events, including the Olympics, which have been pushed back to next year. What’s to come remains unclear. Today, however, I’ve decided to look back at what came last decade for the New York Yankees.

The 2010s was the first decade where the Yankees did not appear in a World Series since the 1910s. Legends retired, stars were born, and there was a lot of in-betweens to go along with it all.

So without further ado, let’s dissect the 2010s by examining the Yankees’ performance in each season of the decade. This format was inspired by the book Damned Yankees by Bill Madden and Moss Klein. We’ll start with the first five years, 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.

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.