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This afternoon, the Yankees lost to the Kansas City Royals, 5-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. That was the last game of the 2023 regular season. They finished with a record of 82-80, good only for 4th place in the American League Eastern Division, 19 games behind the Baltimore Orioles, and 8 games out of the last AL Wild Card Playoff berth.
It was the team's 30th straight season with a winning record, but it s1st out of the Playoffs in 7 years. In fact, it's the 1st time in 30 years that a season has concluded with neither the Yankees, nor the Boston Red Sox, nor the St. Louis Cardinals making the Playoffs.
It could be worse: The Mets outspent every team in the history of baseball, including the Yankees, and finished 74-87, 30 games out of the National League East lead, 10 games out of the NL Playoffs. It's the last game as Mets manager for Buck Showalter, who has resigned of his own accord. It might be the last game he ever manages, in a career that began in 1992.
The Yankees had some good moments. Despite missing 1/3rd of the season with an injury, Aaron Judge was again one of the most productive hitters in baseball. Gerrit Cole will probably win the AL's Cy Young Award. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 400th career home run. Domingo Germán pitched a perfect game. Anthony Volpe overcame some struggle to have a nice rookie season. They may have found 2 good new starters in Michael King and Jhony Brito. Jasson Domínguez had a very impressive major league debut. And we finished ahead of the Boston Red Sox.
But, for the most part, this season was an abject failure. In spite of their milestones, Stanton and Germán were terrible. The injury situation was more ridiculous than ever, including with Domínguez, who may not be back until after next season's All-Star Break. The starting rotation was full of holes all season long, with Cole the only projected starter not to miss significant time.
Firing manager Aaron Boone would do no good. The general manager, Brian Cashman has to go. And the next GM has to realize that loading up on righthanded sluggers who can put the ball over the close left-field walls in Boston and Houston -- our historic arch-rivals and our recent bêtes noires, respectively -- doesn't fucking work when you play 81 games at Yankee Stadium. We need lefthanded power, contact hitting from both sides of the plate, and pitchers with control who can stay healthy, both as starters and as relievers.
Opening Day is Tuesday, March 28, 2024, away to those cheating Astros. It's 179 days away.