Why the Yankees Will Lose the Pennant Again, Pt. III.

 

The second of the three, crucial elements that are the key to Winning Long and Winning Short is—as the Pitching segment implied—depth. This is where Brian Cashman, with his almost touching, child-like anticipation that everything he does will go well, fails most consistently.

Let's look again at our examples of unmatched, Regular-Seaon-plus-Postseason Yankees Success: 1976-1981, and 1994-2001.

                                                                          DEPTH

When it came to position players, the 1976-1981 Yanks were almost lousy with bench.

In fact, the amount of depth they had almost hurt them, in that it played into Billy Martin's preference for platooning players—thus keeping the spotlight on his supposed genius—over playing superstars—thus moving the spotlight to theirs.

No matter. In this era, the Yanks had the likes of Oscar Gamble, Carlos May, Lou Piniella/Roy White, and Paul Blair, Bobby Brown, Bobby Murcer, available to back up the outfield. Reserve catchers included Fran Healy, Hot Rod Hendricks, and Cliff Johnson, who hit .296 with 12 homers in just 142 at-bats in 1977. When Heathcliff slumped in 1978, they could bring up Mike Heath. The infield was thinner, but they still had Chicken Stanley, Sandy Alomar, George Zeber, and Larry Milbourne ready to back up capably.

In 1994-2001, there was again an embarrassment of outfield riches. Tim Raines, Chili Davis, Chad Curtis, Gerald Williams, Shane Spencer, Ricky Ledee, Glenallen Hill, Danny Tartabull (hey, at the beginning), Clay Bellinger (who could play anywhere), and of course, Darryl, Darryl.

For the infield, there was Homer Bush (.380 in 1998), Luis Soto (Series-winning hit in 2000), Jose Vizcaino, Rey Sanchez, Charlie Hayes, Cecil Fielder, and Randy Velarde. Late in 1999, D'Angelo Jimenez and a certain young fellow I like to call Alfonso Soriano, came up late and jump-started a stalling stretch drive. Beyond the basic catching platoon of Jorge and Joe Girardi, there were also Mike Stanley and Jim Leyritz.

In other words, there were guys who could hit, hit for power, bunt, steal, catch, throw—do all kinds of things.  Again and again, they made key contributions, in October and earlier.  

On the 2024 Yankees' bench there is, well...Duke Ellis. And Trent Grisham. And with LeMahieu and Rizzo out, in the infield we have...hmm. There must be somebody backing up...right?...