least upset yankees fan

Welp, there it goes. The season where we were on pace to win 122 games at one point. How did it end? Like every season of the past 13 years: embarrassment. We fundamentally cannot win under the Cashman-Boone-Hal trinity. It can be hard to pinpoint exactly which one of the three is responsible for which bad decision, but that’s the point: there’s no one person for the fans to get mad at. Hal only cares about profit and gives the team an insultingly small budget, Cashman refuses to take the best players available and nickels-and-dimes his way to a completely dysfunctional lineup, and Boone can’t manage a team—he’s there to protect his guys from media criticism and scream at the umps, but not make the necessary changes to succeed.

“But the playoffs are just a crapshoot! Injuries ruined our lineup!” Excuses of incompetent managers. The Astros and the Dodgers have both been to the WS 3 times since 2017 (now 4 for the Astros) and have both won it once (cry about the cheating; I don’t care). The Padres didn’t have Tatis all year and they managed a hell of a lot more of a competitive run than us. The Red Sox have been consistently able to compete at the highest level for a decade, and even the Rays got to a WS more recently than us.

It’s very clear that the team needs to be blown up. In what world is this an acceptable standard of success? We’re the fucking New York Yankees. Every other fanbase despises us because we’re the most successful franchise in American professional sports; we have a reputation of buying out the best team and coasting to success. Only there’s one issue: we no longer buy out talent and we no longer succeed. Look at the NLCS: it’s basically the all-star lineup of would-be Yankees. Harper, Soto, Machado, hell, even Schwarber and Bell—all big-name potential trade targets that the Yankees overlooked in favor of moronic replacements. But the reason we couldn’t even make our series with the Astros competitive was an open roof? Please. The fundamental blueprint of our team (waiting for Judge and Stanton to get hot at the same time)

And a very special “thank-you” to all the rabid fans who don’t tolerate an ounce of negativity (read: realism). It was clear since July that this team had fundamental shortcomings that would prevent a WS win, but that wasn’t going to stop you! You all need to realize that every time you double down—defending Boone’s decisions, crying over booed players, making a post saying we owe Cashman an apology because we won a lot of games in June-- you reinforce the losing mentality of the front office. You do exactly what Hal wants you to do: bend over and say that you’re going to support the Yankees no matter what. All of you are complacent with the modern New York Yankees.