Yankees’ Brian Cashman on club’s sloppiness: ‘We played poorly in the World Series’

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — As long as the New York Yankees’ championship drought persists, 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 grandest stage.

Aaron Judge dropped a routine line drive, Anthony Volpe misfired a short throw to third base, and Gerrit Cole failed to cover first. Each of those moments contributed to the Yankees blowing a 5-0 lead and ultimately losing the World Series in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But it wasn’t just Game 5. In Game 1, a series of misplays — small yet critical — could have altered the outcome in the Yankees’ favor had they executed more efficiently. Throughout the World Series, they also committed several base-running blunders. The Yankees were roundly criticized for their lack of fundamentals, and Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly didn’t mince words, mocking the Yankees by suggesting their sloppy play was a known weakness. He even quipped that the Yankees were the eighth- or ninth-best team in the postseason and claimed Dodgers’ scouting reports indicated that putting the ball in play would force mistakes from New York’s defense.

“I acknowledge that we played poorly in the World Series,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said at MLB’s general managers’ meetings Tuesday. “We all saw that. Unfortunately, our A-game didn’t show up when it mattered most.”

Cashman said Kelly’s comments were overblown and he felt the reliever was making a personal attack against the Yankees. When he was with the Boston Red Sox, Kelly was involved in a brawl with the Yankees after plunking 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 at large.

BIB on the Go: Joe Kelly Isn’t Letting Up On The Yankees
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Still, the Yankees’ sloppiness was a consistent issue throughout the year. Privately, as the postseason approached, several high-ranking executives expressed concerns about the team’s defensive lapses and base-running mistakes, particularly in the second half of the season.

Despite these shortcomings, the Yankees’ overall defensive metrics were still respectable. They finished 10th in outs above average, ahead of the Dodgers, who ranked 18th. The Yankees also placed 12th in defensive runs saved and 10th in FanGraphs’ defensive runs above average. Though the critical mistakes are the ones that will be remembered the most, this wasn’t a team that regularly kicked the ball around the field, as some have suggested in the aftermath of the World Series.

“The question posed is if the Dodgers are exceptionally excelling in all categories at every position. They’re the world champs and get all the credit, but I don’t think it’s a fair representation at the same time,” Cashman said. “I think it’s more fair to say that we just played poorly in that series and underperformed. I think we underperformed more so than ‘(we were) lucky to get into the World Series, and how did we even get there?’ We had a good team. Unfortunately, we just didn’t play our best when it counted the most.”

Base running, not defense, was the Yankees’ most glaring weakness throughout the season. They ranked dead last in FanGraphs’ base-running runs above average metric and in Statcast’s comprehensive base-running metric. They were also tied for last in team sprint speed. The root cause of their struggles on the basepaths is clear: Nearly every regular is slow. Aside from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Volpe, the other seven members of their regular starting lineup posted sprint speeds below the 50th percentile. It’s difficult to excel at base running when the majority of your lineup lacks speed.

What might surprise some fans, however, is that the Yankees’ director of speed development and base running, Matt Talarico, is interviewing for three MLB coaching jobs, according to Cashman. Talarico, who works with the major-league and minor-league staff, 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’re considered one of the best in the business with our base-running program,” Cashman said. “It’s not representative, clearly, with what you saw with the major-league club. It certainly is an emphasis for us.

“If we’re so bad, then why are so many teams asking for permission to talk to our base-running expert that 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 base runner. Though 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’ base running in 2025. Cashman mentioned Caleb Durbin as a potential internal candidate to take over 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 much-needed speed to the lineup.

Despite not being the most fundamentally sound team in baseball, the Yankees still made it to the World Series. Of course, the goal is to win it all — and their fundamental mistakes certainly hurt them in their quest for a title. However, Cashman remains adamant that poor fundamentals were not the primary reason for their downfall.

“We had a struggle with our base running this year. We were a bad defensive team, without a doubt, at times this year. And when you add it all together, we were a really good baseball team that earned the right to win the American League East and make it all the way to the World Series,” Cashman said. “We’re really super proud about it.”

(Photo of Aaron Judge making an error in Game 5 of the World Series: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)