New York Yankees: The 2010s in review (2015-2019)

2017

Manager- Joe Girardi

Record: 91-71, 2nd in the AL East

Key Acquisitions: Aroldis Chapman, Matt Holliday, Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Sonny Gray

Key Departures: Mark Teixeira, Nathan Eovaldi, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, Tyler Clippard

Before the 2017 season began, many experts predicted that the season would be a rebuilding year for the Yankees. Aroldis Chapman returned after he signed a five-year, $86 million deal. The team was also giving starting roles to the youngsters. Gary Sanchez was the new starting catcher because Brian McCann was traded to Houston. Aaron Judge was the new starting right fielder as Carlos Beltran also left for Houston. The Yankees plugged in Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery into starting rotation spots, further cementing the fact that the team was younger. Greg Bird was back and was supposed to be the starting first baseman. Bird was raking it up in spring training but suffered a bruised ankle when he fouled a ball off of it. It seemed to have affected him at the plate as he slumped miserably in April, batting just .100 with a homer and three runs batted in through 19 games.

However, the Yankees themselves weren’t slumping. The team came out of the gates red hot, going 21-9 in their first 30 games. What was even more remarkable about this was that Sanchez and Didi Gregorius were hurt at the beginning and their fill-ins— Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes performed exceptionally well. Bird would end up going on the injured list on May 2 and wouldn’t return till the end of the season. But losing Bird didn’t hurt the Yanks either as they continued to play great baseball through June. On June 12, they were 38-23, and a big reason why was Aaron Judge, who had blossomed into a star. Judge was displaying home run power that few had ever witnessed before. Judge hit 10 home runs in April and added 7 more to that total in May. He hit another 10 in June and before the All-Star break, he was sitting at 30, along with 66 runs batted in and a ridiculous .329 average, an easy selection for the All-Star game and Home Run Derby.

The Yankees hit a big slump though before the All-Star break, losing 18 of 25 games, which allowed Boston to take the division lead. But these Yankees weren’t going to go down without a fight though and stayed with the Red Sox throughout the rest of the season. Judge struggled for a month and a half but heated up in September when he hit .311, with 15 home runs and 32 RBI’s. All totaled, Judge broke the rookie season record for home runs with 52, had 114 RBI’s and a .284 average. He was the obvious choice for AL Rookie of the Year. But he wasn’t the only one who had a tremendous season. Luis Severino shined in his first full year as a starter by making 31 starts and going 14-6 with a 2.98 earned run average.

Gary Sanchez had a great year too. He batted .278, with 33 home runs and 90 runs batted in. Didi Gregorius had his best year as Yankee as he batted .287, and set a franchise record for most home runs by a shortstop in a season with 25. The team exceeded expectations and finished 91-71, their first 90-win campaign since 2012. More importantly they clinched a postseason berth. Again, they’d be hosting the American League Wild Card Game. Their opponent this time around was surprising but familiar— the Minnesota Twins. Minnesota had lost 103 games in 2016 and became the first team in history to lose 100 games one year and make the postseason the next.

Severino was the starter for the Yankees and he inexplicably fell apart, giving up three runs in only a third of an inning. Joe Girardi was forced to go to his bullpen and it delivered. The bullpen pitched 8 2/3 innings of one-run baseball. Meanwhile, the Yankee offense answered right back. Gregorius hit a huge three-run home run in the bottom of the first which shook the stadium to the ground. Brett Gardner and Judge would also hit home runs and the Yanks ended up taking the game, 8-4, giving them a date with the defending American League Champion Cleveland Indians, a team that had won 22 games in a row during the season.

Cleveland dominated the Yanks in Game 1 but New York shockingly thumped Corey Kluber (the favorite to win the AL Cy Young) in Game 2. The Yankees had built an 8-3 lead but in the bottom of the sixth inning, Cleveland loaded the bases, largely thanks in part to an error in judgment by Girardi. Cleveland’s shortstop Francisco Lindor crushed a grand slam into the Cleveland night to bring the Tribe back in the game. All of the momentum was on Cleveland’s side. They tied it the next inning on a Jay Bruce home run and won it on a Yan Gomes walk-off double in the 13th to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Down 2-0 in a best-of-five series, not many people gave the Yankees much of chance to come back and win. However, Masahiro Tanaka was brilliant in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium by pitching seven scoreless innings. He got some help from his defense when Judge robbed Lindor of a two-run home run in the top of the sixth to keep it 0-0. In the bottom of the seventh, with former Yankee Andrew Miller on the mound for Cleveland, Greg Bird smashed a solo home run to deep right field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. David Robertson and Aroldis Chapman came on in relief and recorded the final six outs to give the Yankees the victory. In Game 4, the Luis Severino redeemed himself and threw seven solid innings of three-run ball. The Yankees won that game as well 7-3 to send the series back to Cleveland for a winner-take-all Game 5.

Even though they were facing Kluber again, the Yankees were not fazed. Didi Gregorius hit two home runs and C.C. Sabathia did just enough to keep the Indians at bay. The Yankees led 3-2 in the top of the ninth when they tagged on two insurance runs off of Cody Allen to give themselves a 5-2 lead and series win.

For the first time in five years, the Yankees were in the ALCS and this time they’d meet a familiar foe in the Houston Astros. The Yankees dropped the first two games in Houston, as both Dallas Keuchel and newly-acquired ace Justin Verlander dominated the Bombers’ bats. The Yankees however, showed their resiliency and won the next three games in the Bronx, including a dramatic Game 4 win when they overcame a 4-0 deficit and won 6-4 on RBI doubles by Judge and Sanchez. The Yankees were one win away from a World Series appearance but unfortunately came up short when they returned to Houston. Verlander was great again in Game 6 and the Yankees had no answers for either Charlie Morton or Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 7. Houston won four games to three to advance to the World Series, where they’d beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Analysis: If you asked Yankee fans what their favorite team from last decade was, I guarantee you a majority of them would say this team. This team was one of the gutsiest, grittiest and tenacious teams the Yankees had had in a long time. Nothing bothered them and they gave 110% every time they took the field. It’s a shame they didn’t win it all, and it’s hard especially because the Astros were involved in an illegal sign-stealing scandal. But through it all, 2017 was a very fun year and I love this team. I really wish they won it all because they truly deserved it.