R.I.P. Yankees

The New York Yankees’ 2013 season is over.  It just is.  I hate to say it, but trade Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain for some prospects, don’t bother appealing A-Rod’s suspension whenever it comes down, and start scouting that 2014 free agent pool.  When I turned on Sports Center this morning only to see the news break about five minutes in that Derek Jeter was heading back to the DL, I took it not so much as bad baseball news as a sign.  Whose fault is it that the Yankees will miss the playoffs this year for the 2^nd time in the past 19 years?  Well, partly it’s the fact that the Red Sox, Rays, and Orioles are all awesome and even the bottom-dwelling, under-achiever Blue Jays are stacked for any given game.  But it’s not Joe Girardi, or the Cash Man, or A-Rod, or the inability to hit that inexplicably killed them in last year’s playoffs.  No, as lame of an excuse as it is, the Yankees have simply been killed by chance and injuries.  Let’s break it down a little bit.

Derek Jeter missed the first half of the season because of an injury in last year’s playoffs.  Teixeira and Granderson got hurt in the preseason.  Alex Rodriguez hasn’t played a game yet, and even when he comes back he may have a few controversies off the field that will be a little distracting.  The Yanks brought in Kevin Youkilis to dealt with this problem, and he himself ended up on the DL before long.  That’s 5 of the Yankees’ top 6 hitters out.  Everyone except Cano (thank god).  Oh, and Francisco Cervelli, Phil Hughes, Andy Pettite, Jayson Nix, Joba Chamberlain, Eduardo Nunez, and David Phelps have all spent time on the DL this year as well.  And yet somehow the Yankees remained relatively close in the playoff race coming into the All-Star break.  We were all thinking about a big second half and a remarkable comeback to steal the division.  But let’s talk about not just injury, but RE-INJURY.  Jeter comes back for 1 game and is injured again.  Teixeira comes back for 2 weeks and then gets knocked out for the year.  Youkilis came back for 2 weeks and got injured again for possibly the rest of the season.  Granderson only got a week back on the team before get injured more seriously.  He should come back late, but still will miss most of the regular season.  A-Rod might come back, might be suspended, and all of a sudden that “help from within” that Cashman and Girardi were expecting looks like it’s not going to come.  So I know a lot of people will hate on the Yankees and call them old after this year, and they are kind of old.  But this is beyond age, this is the baseball gods deciding that the Yankees must suffer.  And I can’t complain too much since this team has pretty much been a winner ever since I was born.  But Girardi and Cashman did nothing wrong, in fact they were pretty great this year keeping us afloat with the likes of Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells, and even if expecting an elite Jeter and A-Rod was silly, we never could have expected all this.

That said, I do have a lot of hope for next year.  As I said, the AL East is insanely rough so maybe the days of perennial Yankee pennants are coming to an end.  But if Jeter can rest up and come back healthy next year, the Yankees will re-sign Cano, Teixeira can get healthy finally, and pitchers like Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda can help us forget Andy Pettite and Mariano Rivera, I think the Yankees have great potential, at least for the near-future.  They’re going to get that crazy payroll below 189 million because of the luxury tax, so that means losing Granderson and probably Hughes.  But they will have just enough to sign a middle-range 3^rd baseman with power (looking at you Mark Reynolds) and then about 25 or 30 million leftover to sign two big-time starters, whether that means re-signing Kuroda or Hughes (don’t do it), or going out and getting a free agent (Matt Garza! Please!).  I have faith in David Robertson as he tries to replace a legend.  So don’t lose faith, Yankees fans.  This year is lost, but with a little luck (and I think we deserve some after this shitshow), the Yankees can return to elite status and show those pesky Tigers and Rangers that they’re not dead yet.