4 Yankees who don’t deserve another season in 2022

Give the New York Yankees credit where it is due: they did a reasonably successful job clearing the dead weight off their 2021 roster ahead of the brand new season that may never come.

Did they fill any of the holes they created? Absolutely not! But hey, that’s a May problem.

Just because the Yankees sliced a few issues off their 40-man roster to accommodate some top prospects — who are now stuck in limbo, by the way, unable to play in the majors or minors — doesn’t mean they did a full, thorough evaluation based on who deserves to wear the pinstripes again in 2022.

Nobody loves a debate about who has and hasn’t earned their pinstripes like Yankee fans, right? We’re going to go ahead and add road grays to the equation, too. We’ve seen enough from all four of these folks to know it’s just not going to work out this year in the Bronx.

Now, caveat: we really like some of these people, and wish them well! Just because it hasn’t worked out in the Bronx doesn’t mean it won’t work out elsewhere, and we’ll be rooting for it.

Now, additional caveat: we really don’t like some of these people, and we do not wish them very well moving forward (though we are sure their MLB careers will continue beyond the Yankees’ boundaries).

These four people in the Yankees organization shouldn’t be in New York when the season opens, even though they likely will be.

4 Yankees who don’t deserve to be in NY in 2022

4. Domingo German, RHP

Enough is truly enough from Domingo German, whose 2019-torpedoing actions at a public charity event likely should’ve ended his New York script, but somehow haven’t.

German was suspended for 81 games at the tail end of the 2019 season under the domestic violence policy, and returned to the Yankees, despite our better judgment, to begin 2021. He apologized, and the team made it clear they would prioritize mid-level pitching depth over everything.

True to form, German performed perfectly averagely — occasionally quite well, occasionally quite terribly — in a number of roles in 2021. He did just enough to justify his place on an MLB roster without extenuating circumstances, but the Yankees can certainly upgrade his swingman spot based on performance alone.

German’s defining moment of 2021 was his seven-inning no-hitter in mid-July at Fenway Park that swiftly turned into a one-hitter, and then a 5-4 loss, in the blink of an eye. That was the third-to-last game German pitched on the year, pushed too far coming off so much inactivity.

He struck out 98 men in 98 innings. He occasionally twirled spectacular breakers and kept hitters off balance for entire starts (mostly in Baltimore), but would usually fall back to earth in his very next outing.

And, after his most memorable moment, he was basically gone.

We understand the Yankees will use the same excuses they did last year to keep him — you don’t just cut controllable pitching, we’re a little short anyway, etc. — but he’s been average since Day 1, and his baggage remains. A contender can do better.

3. Miguel Andújar

If you declared, at the tail end of the 2018 season, that Miguel Andújar wouldn’t be a piece of the Yankees future, we would’ve begrudgingly believed you.

After all, we’d all heard the noise.

He was a doubles machine at third base who couldn’t effectively play the position. According to some metrics, his defense undid his offense that year, which couldn’t be right, but clearly was. He was a second-place Rookie of the Year finisher for a reason, but he was no Shohei Ohtani.

If you declared, though, that he would’ve been essentially exiled from the Yankees’ future as soon as April 2019, we wouldn’t have believed that, though.

Oh, the Bombers sold high in trade? Annoying for continuity purposes, but we get it — oh, they didn’t? He just got hurt, was replaced by Gio Urshela, then spent three years trying to invent “positionless baseball” while arguing with higher-ups via his agent from the Scranton Shuttle?

Oh, boy. No thanks.

Andújar briefly got a semblance of his helicopter swing back in Summer 2021, but was also a prime indicator of the Yankees’ problems that season, playing left field in a clunky metaphor for outgrowing your surroundings.

His .253 average was an improvement last season. His -0.3 WAR, six homers, .284 OBP and 82 OPS+ were not. Still surprised he was tendered a contract in the first place, considering he hasn’t done anything to improve his value since Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS ended that Yankees season.

2. Aroldis Chapman

It remains unfathomable that the Yankees had an out in the Aroldis Chapman contract after his 2019 season ended walked-off, satisfied and smiling, Rob Manfred-style.

Not only did New York not use the opportunity to sever their ties with their overpaid closer — who, lest we forget, has also been suspended under the domestic violence policy and has since been acquired and reacquired by the Bombers — but they brought him back for three more seasons. Now, Chapman is tied to the Yankees through his age-34 campaign, and his no-trade clause was eliminated, keeping him firmly in place through ’22 unless something drastic happened.

Thank goodness! He’s only ended one additional season directly since then (2020), as well as one season indirectly by blowing a few unfathomable saves in a year that ended on the road, by one game in the standings, in a Wild Card Game loss.

The Yankees owe Chapman $18 million this season in the third year of his “new” deal. Theoretically, that’s a cash dump that a franchise such as this should be able to absorb effortlessly. Alas, every little bit counts these days, and any move the Bombers have ever made seems to preclude them from making new ones.

$18 million is also quite a hefty sum for a closer who started off 2021 on another planet, unleashing a splitter that made him the best pitcher we’d seen since Mo … leading to a mysterious finger injury, a disastrous fall, and as distrustful a June-July stretch as you’ll ever see.

Oh, and he can’t be traded.

The Yankees’ juju might be aided by finding a new home for Chapman, even though it’s far more likely that’ll be come 2023. A fan can dream, though.