The Yankees gave their fan base two riveting and entirely different regular seasons in 2022. The first one was a story about a special team, and the second was a story about a special player.
Aaron Judge delivered as good a year as any New York athlete has had, in any sport at any time, and his successful pursuit of history in the late summer/early fall was something no witness will ever forget. As he broke Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 homers in a single season, Judge proved to be a combination of Derek Jeter and Babe Ruth.
He showed Ruth’s power, and then some. He carried himself with Jeter’s dignity, and then some.
But that magical part of the pinstriped program is over, meaning the Yankees now have to pivot away from their second season, the one that was all about the individual, and navigate their way back to the first season, the one that was all about the team.
At the halfway point of their journey, the 58-23 Yankees were on pace to surpass the 1998 Yankees (114-48) and to tie the major league record of 116 victories. They were hitting the ball and pitching it and catching it, and they were running the bases too. They had all the chemistry and feel-good vibes missing from Aaron Boone’s 2021 team.
So back in July, when the Yankees held a 15 ½-game lead in the American League East, what odds would you have gotten in Las Vegas that they wouldn’t even win 100 games?
Boone’s team suddenly lost its way, ultimately compelling him to slam a press conference table with his hand while barking, “And the great thing is, it’s right in front of us. It’s right here. And we can fix it. It’s right here. It’s there and we can run away with this thing, and we got the dudes in there to do it.”
Aaron Judge will need to get some help from Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres and other Yankees if they want to win the World Series, The Post’s Ian O’Connor writes. Getty Images (2); N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg; AP
The biggest dude, Judge, ended up being the biggest reason why the 99-63 Yanks did effectively run away with the division, beating Toronto by seven games and Tampa Bay by 13 after the Rays had cut their deficit to two in the loss column. The slugger set an all-time home-run record — non-PED division — and made a spirited run at the Triple Crown. What a staggering feat.
But the franchise player isn’t likely to carry the franchise to its first World Series title since 2009. If Judge were a superstar quarterback, like Tom Brady in his prime, or a superstar swingman, like LeBron James in his prime, he would touch the ball on every possession and dominate the mere mortals on the other side.
Baseball doesn’t work like that. The best players in the lineup go to bat virtually the same number of times as the worst players in the lineup, and the opposition can ensure that a juggernaut such as Judge doesn’t get many “touches” — i.e. good pitches to hit.
That’s why the Yankees need to reconnect with their first-half selves in a postseason run that starts Tuesday night in The Bronx, in Game 1 of their Division Series matchup with the young and restless Cleveland Guardians. Can Boone bridge the gap between what the Yankees are now and what they were in June? They did win 20 of their final 29 games, and they do figure to play the ALDS with the returning Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Matt Carpenter, who looked like a nonfiction Roy Hobbs before he got hurt.
During some dark second-half days, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that after being angry at the 2021 team “for six months,” he felt no such contempt for the 2022 team.
“This year’s team has been pretty spectacular,” Cashman told The Post at the time, “the more recent experience notwithstanding. It’s an extremely talented group that obviously cares a great deal for each other and for the win column. … I like this group a lot and I believe in this group and … I think this team has a chance to do some special things, including winning a World Series title that is certainly in our grasp.”
Though the Astros and Dodgers are favored to be the last two teams standing, the Yankees belong in a group of four or five contenders with a legit chance to win it all. Judge is going to need a whole lot of support, as no postseason pitcher will give a damn about getting booed by the Stadium crowd for walking him. It’s hard to imagine why the Guardians would pitch to Judge in such high-stakes games — until other Yanks make them.
That means damage needs to be done by the likes of Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton, whose postseason numbers are better than Judge’s. Gerrit Cole also has to be the $324 million ace he sure wasn’t in last year’s wild-card game at Fenway Park.
Judge will do whatever he can, whenever he’s given the chance. But as titanic a figure as No. 99 has become, the Yankees’ postseason world can’t exclusively revolve around him.
Special players don’t win championships in baseball. Special teams do.
