The New York Yankees were officially eliminated from the MLB postseason on Wednesday night after losing 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS.
New York simply didn’t play good enough baseball all around to beat a team like the Rays, who have been a step ahead of the Yankees pretty much all season long.
On Thursday, after having a little bit of time to reflect on another year falling short and now 17 consecutive seasons without a World Series title, YES Network announcer Michael Kay let loose on the organizational struggles facing New York right now.
Kay Doesn’t Hold Back Thoughts on Yankees
During his daily “Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York, Kay spoke about the team’s struggles when it comes to rising to the occasion in big games, pointing to some of the offseason decisions and signings made by GM Brian Cashman.
“I tip my cap to them being in the playoffs ever year. I tip my cap to them having a chance to win a World Series every year. But the cap tipping stops because they haven’t won one,” Kay said Thursday. “They must recalibrate how they’re doing business… it takes a certain amount of innards in a man to perform at a high level in this city, with this fanbase. And I know that’s one of the toughest things that analytics deals with. Because they can’t put a number on guts and heart.
“Are you getting the wrong people. Why are the people not performing in those moments and if you find out the reason don’t get those people no matter how sexy they look on a spreadsheet… David Coen was a dog, Tino Martinez same thing, Paul O’Neill, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada. They would kill to win big games. And they would slayed when they lost games… and I’m not asking to win four championships in five years. But none in 17, none in 17… it’s incomprehensible.”
ICYMI: Are MLB playoffs a crapshoot? If so, it hasn’t exactly worked out for the New York Yankees lately.
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Looking at the Yankees
For New York now, they enter an offseason where a lot of questions will have to be answered across the organization.
The main one is likely what the future holds for manager Aaron Boone, who has one year remaining on his contract. They also have several notable players hitting the free-agent market, so they’ll have to figure out who is worth re-signing and who is worth letting walk as they try to reassemble the roster.
Michael Kay Doesn’t Hold Back on Yankees After Playoff Elimination