NEW YORK – When the midfielder is injured Harrison Bader Entering the Yankees’ club for the first time on August 3, he can’t help but wonder what his new teammates are thinking.
“I’m sure everyone here is like, ‘Shall we just trade this guy for a boot?’,” Bader said. St. Louis Cardinals by the deadline. “‘Are you serious?'”
That feeling of insecurity is the mood in the Yankees’ club these days. The Yankees are still comfortably at the top of the American League East standings, but dark clouds still hang over the Bronx – and the urgency is growing.
A month and a half ago, it was hard to find anyone in the dressing room without a smile on their face. Aaron Judge achieved record-breaking images of the moon. Clay Holmes and Michael King is the best painkiller duo in baseball. Matt Carpenter put together a comeback campaign for the record books. Giancarlo Stanton fired a laser at the Yankee Stadium stands. Nestor Cortes and Jose Trevino exploded with All-Star campaigns. New York’s hot start made them the third fastest team in franchise history to win 50 games in a season, recalibrating expectations for the 2022 Yankees to not only win the World Series but have done that in history.
Then those expectations fall, hard. Yankees are 4-11 in their past 15 games and 17-24 as of July 1, worse than rebuild Chicago Cubs and last place Oakland Athletics on the same paragraph. New York is looking up Houston Astroswho is currently the best performer in the US National Championship is entering a tense period.
In six short weeks, the good vibes were gone. And Gerrit Cole know.
“We needed a spark,” Cole said after the Yankees’ opening loss to second place Tampa Bay Rays in Monday.
Two nights later, they hope they’ve found one. Probably Josh DonaldsonThis past Wednesday could ignite a fire. Whatever it is, they’ll need it when the team kicks off a pivotal four-game series against divisional rivals the Blue Jays on Thursday, followed by the Subway Series’ home half against the Mets.
Around the club, players are focusing more on the details in recent weeks, trying to find a solution to the team’s sudden inability to score, but also angering some players.
“You can get in your way a little bit,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who shared his failures as a player. “It can get you down and anything, pressing, all that. I’ve been to that place a few times and I don’t care, I’d be willing to go. For me, a bit of a bottom. rock, that liberated me quite a bit.”
After they entered August as the top strike in baseball, scoring 551 runs while scoring .245/.331/.444, the Yankees’ output has fallen this month. With Stanton and Carpenter currently on IL, the team ranks 24th in runs recorded in August with just one line of .220 / .299 / .376.
This coincides with a team of team members who have been struggling in recent months. Prior to July 1, the Yankees ranked first in the employee ERA with 2.92. Since then, they’re 19th, at 4.03, with a beginner’s ERA up from 3.05 to 4.37 and an ERA up from 2.71 to 3.51.
Going into the All-Star break, the Yankees led 13 games in the league and had the best record in baseball. That stepping stone affected the mindset of the whole team.
Holmes, who landed on IL this week, said: “We’ve got the lead and we can play some sort of cautious stuff with injuries and other things. “We’re not playing our best baseball. I think there’s going to be a time when that sense of urgency comes back. Maybe that’s the spark. [Cole]are talking about. “
The Yankees’ roster move over the past few weeks shows a team looking for a solution. The slugger trading team is having a hard time Joey Gallo for Dodgers, as well as lefties Jordan Montgomery to the Cardinals for Bader, a midfielder interested in defense, on deadline day. Earlier in the week, they added a midfielder Andrew Benintendi from the Royal Family and Frankie Montas from Athletics. This week, in an attempt to straighten things out, the Yankees drew some young energy from the minor leagues, bringing utility man Oswaldo Cabrera and midfielder Estevan Florida from Triple-A before Wednesday night’s win.
Boone said he’s trying to create an environment where things are like “business as usual.”
“You try to get them to adapt and be as comfortable as possible with their surroundings,” says Boone of the newcomers. “No one expected or believed them to be the revelation that turned us around. Yes, sure, we wanted that spark and made things uncomfortable, but they’re here because they’ve earned it. get the way here.”
But the changing environment has been affecting the clubhouse. Aid Michael King has been away from the team for three weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken right elbow and noticing the difference. The recent roster change – with injuries, alterations and roster changes – has contributed to a very different atmosphere than when the team was operating at historic pace at the start of the season.
“It just creates another mojo in the dressing room. Once we get used to it, we end up rolling, but you just have to get used to it,” said King, who has decided to detox. with the team to help rebuild the team. . “We add three new faces to the team on the trade deadline, we lose people and then we have revenue that makes the whole club not uncomfortable, but different. We have to learn new people. and keep rolling.”
Start throwing the ball Jameson Taillon said the team is looking for players like Judge and in Midfielder DJ LeMahieu to reset the tune in the clubhouse.
“They know not to overreact to things like this,” says Taillon. “As long as we keep going out there and keep giving our best. … I think people are trying to pull their weight. You don’t want to overreact and overreact, and all It’s all going to be something worse.”
For Boone, igniting the fire in his group was one thing.
“Points,” Boone said. “We just need to score now.”
The judge is confident.
“We have a lot of great players here with a great track record,” Judge said. “We’re going through a small period like this, but it’s about how we come back the next day and respond.”
As the team tries to find a way out of this slump, which, amazingly, has yet to affect their playoff prospects in a more disastrous way, Boone has turned inward in search of optimism. He thinks back to 2002 and 2005, when he faced the biggest hardships of his playing career. Those ups and downs have shaped the solidity Boone brings to the club, which he hopes can take the Yankees out of their funk.
“The season, it was a great life lesson,” Boone said. “It’s 162. It’s very life-like. Faced with ups and downs, difficulties. Good people can find their way.”
There are signs of life, that things will not spiral into disaster. When the Yankees made a miraculous comeback on Wednesday with Donaldson’s great curtain down, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
“There’s a relief of joy and frustration,” says Donaldson.
For Boone, this moment is proof that the team can bounce back – and maybe the Yankees will find their way back.
“At our core, we know it’s a confident group,” Boone said. “We have to focus and sharpen and get over it.”
