Yankees’ Brian Cashman on the club’s sloppiness: ‘We played poorly in the World Series’
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – As long as the New York Yankees’ championship drought continues, the fifth inning of Game 5 in the 2024 World Series will be a symbol of their humiliation. In stunning fashion, the Yankees embarrassed themselves on baseball’s biggest stage.
Aaron Judge dropped a routine line drive, Anthony Volpe botched a short throw to third base and Gerrit Cole failed to cover first. Each of these moments helped the Yankees take a 5-0 lead and ultimately lose the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
But it wasn’t just Game 5. In Game 1, a series of mistakes – small but crucial – could have changed the outcome in the Yankees’ favor if they had acted more efficiently. They also made several base blunders during the World Series. The Yankees were roundly criticized for their lack of fundamentals, and Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly minced no words, mocking the Yankees by suggesting that their sloppy play was a known weakness. He even joked that the Yankees were the eighth or ninth best team in the postseason and claimed that Dodgers scouting reports indicated that putting the ball in play would force mistakes from New York’s defense.
“I recognize that we played poorly in the World Series,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Tuesday at the MLB general manager meetings. “We’ve all seen that. Unfortunately, our A-game didn’t show up when it mattered most.”
Cashman said Kelly’s comments were exaggerated and that he felt the reliever was making a personal attack on the Yankees. While with the Boston Red Sox, Kelly was involved in a brawl with the Yankees after teasing Tyler Austin with a pitch in 2018. Cashman said he had conversations with members of the Dodgers organization who said Kelly’s comments were more indicative of how a small segment of their club felt rather than the organization as a whole.
BIB on the Go: Joe Kelly won’t abandon the Yankees
Listen here ➡️ pic.twitter.com/iaXMRIXfv3— Baseball is not boring (@BBisntBoring) November 4, 2024
Still, the Yankees’ sloppiness was a consistent problem throughout the year. As the postseason approached, several high-ranking executives privately expressed concerns about the team’s defensive lapses and basic mistakes, especially in the second half of the season.
Despite these shortcomings, the Yankees’ overall defensive performance was still respectable. They finished 10th in outs above average, ahead of the Dodgers, who ranked 18th. The Yankees also ranked 12th in defensive runs saved and 10th in FanGraphs’ defensive runs above average. While it is the crucial mistakes that will be most remembered, this was not a team that regularly kicked the ball down the field, as some have suggested in the aftermath of the World Series.
“The question is whether the Dodgers excel exceptionally in every category and at every position. They are the world champions and they get all the credit, but at the same time I don’t think this is a fair representation,” Cashman said. “I think it’s fairer to say that we just played poorly and underperformed in that series. I think we underperformed more than ‘(we were) lucky to get to the World Series, and how did we even get there?’ We had a good team. Unfortunately, we didn’t play our best when it mattered most.”
Base running, not defense, was the Yankees’ most glaring weakness throughout the season. They ranked last in FanGraphs’ base-running runs above average and in Statcast’s extended base-running metric. They also tied for last place in team sprint speed. The root cause of their struggles on the basepaths is clear: almost every regular is slow. Apart from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Volpe, the other seven members of their regular starting lineup achieved sprint speeds below the 50th percentile. It’s hard to excel at base running when most of your lineup lacks speed.
What might surprise some fans, however, is that Matt Talarico, the Yankees’ director of velocity development and base running, is interviewing for three MLB coaching jobs, according to Cashman. Talarico, who works with the Major League and Minor League staffs, has had success developing speed in the Yankees’ minor league affiliates. Their Triple-A and Double-A teams finished in the top three in stolen bases this season.
“I think we are considered one of the best in the industry with our foundational program,” Cashman said. “It’s clearly not representative of what you saw at the Major League club. It is certainly a point of attention for us.
“If we are so bad, why are so many teams asking for permission to talk to our base running expert who does our major leagues and our minor leagues?”
The Yankees could lose Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres to free agency; each is considered a below-average baserunner. While the team has made it clear that re-signing Soto is a top priority, replacing the other three with more agile players could immediately improve the Yankees’ starting lineup in 2025. Cashman mentioned Caleb Durbin as a potential internal candidate to take over at second base. next season if they decide not to re-sign Torres. Durbin, who is on pace to break the Arizona Fall League record for stolen bases, could bring some much-needed speed to the lineup.
Despite not being the most fundamentally sound team in baseball, the Yankees still reached the World Series. The aim, of course, is to win it all – and their fundamental mistakes have certainly hurt them in their quest for a title. However, Cashman remains adamant that poor fundamentals were not the main reason for their demise.
“We struggled with our base this year. Without a doubt, we were a bad defensive team at times this year. And when you put it all together, we were a very good baseball team that earned the right to win the American League East and reach the World Series,” Cashman said. “We are really proud of it.”
(Photo of Aaron Judge fouling out in Game 5 of the World Series: Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)
