TYLER PACOS
Sports Editor
Although the Yankees still have to play game five in the opening round of their playoff appearance this season, New York faithfuls are still weary that the first-round curse will strike the Yanks again.
The American League Divisional Series isn’t officially over until Oct. 17, but as the 2022 American League East Champions see it, this series should’ve been over after game three.
For the past three seasons now, the Yankees haven’t advanced farther than the divisional round of the playoffs.
Although to some, this may be seen as an accomplishment. How could a team making the playoffs be a bad thing? The issue isn’t that the Yankees continue to make the playoffs — it’s the way they perform during the postseason that is highly concerning.
For starters, the Yankees have the third highest payroll in the entire MLB. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone after acquiring Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole and Josh Donaldson, but with the amount of money they pay certain players, it should be highly concerning for the front office in the Bronx when these players aren’t showing up in the postseason.
Specifically speaking though, star player Aaron Judge is the main culprit. Judge is coming off a historic regular season for New York, hitting 62 home runs and breaking the ‘unspoken’ American League home-run record. He rejected the Yankees offer this spring of a seven year, $213.5 million deal, respectfully so.
He passed legends like Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, so he should have earned his right for a big paying contract, right? Yes and no.
Although Judge did something that may never be done again, he still seems to struggle heavily in the postseason, a point in time where performance matters the most.
As of the final pitch in game four of the series, Judge sits on one home run in the entire series, was struck out for every at-bat during games one and two, and has a batting average of .125. In 2021, his average was .250 and in 2020, .133. To compare, he had a .311 batting average during the regular season, hitting 177 times off of 570 ‘at-bats.’
We are facing yet another situation in the sports world where a player who might not always be reliable during trying times is searching for a huge pay-check. When will it ever go back to payments and contracts based on performance?