Sal's Thoughts on the Yankees

By Sal Maiorana

October 2, 2024

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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It wasn’t exactly a scintillating finish for the Yankees, and now we have to hope that it was merely a case of them not caring about these games over the weekend. In any event, they finish the season 94-68 which is 12 games better than 2023, and rather incredibly, that was enough to not only win the AL East, but to finish with the best record in the league.

It’s a good thing the Yankees were able to salvage the last game against the Orioles on Thursday to clinch the AL East, because if not for that victory, game 162 on a rainy, miserable Sunday against Pittsburgh would have been pretty darn nerve wracking.

While the Yankees were losing the first two games to the Pirates, once again proving that their homefield in the Bronx is not much of an advantage this season, the Orioles won their first two in Minnesota against the carcass that is the Twins. Man, be glad you aren’t a Twins fan after the collapse they just completed.

The Orioles then completed the sweep Sunday, and had they not yanked ace Corbin Burnes after five innings Thursday night, that 10-1 Yankees victory may not have happened. Instead, with Burnes saving bullets for his wild-card start, the Yankees were able to attack Baltimore’s suspect bullpen and thankfully got the one win they needed during an otherwise sloppy, mostly lousy six-game homestand.

Just imagine if the Orioles had completed the sweep in New York. The Yankees lead might have been down to one game starting Sunday and if the Yankees lost, the teams would have been tied atop the division and Baltimore would have won it because it owned an 8-5 head-to-head tiebreaker. Alas, it didn’t matter as the Yankees did end up salvaging the finale against Pittsburgh.

Even losing four of six on the homestand, the Yankees finished No. 1 in the AL because the Guardians lost at home both Friday and Saturday to an Astros team that could not improve its seeding and had nothing to play for. That enabled the Yankees to back into a clinching of the best record in the AL and homefield throughout the AL playoffs, though again, I’m not so sure that’s a good thing as they finished an uninspiring 44-37 at Yankee Stadium.

Look, thanks to their great West Coast trip, the Yankees put themselves in cruise control mode for the final week of the season. Of course, cruise control is fine as long as you don’t fall asleep at the wheel and the Yankees were certainly swerving from lane to lane because there sure wasn’t much to like about how they played against Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Now they have days of inactivity and rest before they open the postseason Saturday night. People seem to think professional athletes can just flip a switch, but I’ve covered professional athletes for my entire career and I can tell you that’s not the case.

However, the Yankees are going to need to do that because they sputtered to the finish line, and they’re going to be facing a young, hungry team in the first round, whether it’s the Orioles or Royals.

Other Notes:

➤ Carlos Rodon made a career-high 32nd starts and finished the regular season 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA and 1.223 WHIP, and even though he gave up 31 home runs, tied for the second-most in MLB, he was so much better in 2024 than his disastrous 2023 debut half season with the Yankees.

➤ Pirates phenom Paul Skenes pitched only two innings before the team decided to shut him down for the rest of the season in a meaningless game which meant his final ERA was an incredible 1.96 and his WHIP was 0.947 in 23 starts. While he was out there, he embarrassed the Yankees. He retired all six men and struck out three including Soto and Judge in the first, the start of a truly horrific day for Judge. My God, if Skenes stays healthy, he could become an all-timer.

➤ Judge and Soto finished possibly their only season together with a combined 99 home runs and 253 RBI. Judge led all of MLB in homers, RBI, OPS (1.159), on-base (.458), slugging (.701), walks (133). His Triple Crown chase ended just short as his .322 average trailed Bobby Witt Jr. (.332) and Vlad Guerrero Jr. (.323). He should be the unanimous MVP, though some smart alecks will vote for Witt who, yes, had a tremendous year, but he wasn’t Judge.

➤ Thanks to TV scheduling, there will be three off days built into the series if it happens to go all five games. Just stupid grabage from MLB, but again, this is all about TV trying to maximize what it believes to be the best windows. Here’s the schedule, with all the games on TBS, and no start times announced yet. That’s right, no more games on YES, Amazon, or Apple.

• Game 1: Sat. Oct. 5, Yankee Stadium.

• Game 2: Mon, Oct. 7, Yankee Stadium.

• Game 3: Wed., Oct. 9, on the road.

• Game 4: Thurs. Oct. 10, on the road (if necessary).

• Game 5: Sat. Oct. 12, Yankee Stadium (if necessary)