Hideki Matsui, in what turned out to be his last game with the Yankees, drove in 6 runs, including hitting a home run, a blast, off a "blast from the past," Pedro Martinez. I don't think any Yankee homer -- not by Chris Chambliss, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Don Mattingly, Jim Leyritz, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Derek Jeter, even Aaron Boone -- has ever made me feel better, because of what Pedro the Punk represents.
Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada, the holdovers from 2001, got their rings, Posada his 4th (his 5th title, though I don't think he got a ring for 1996), the others their 5th. For Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia, their 1st. And Pedro never appeared in another major league game.
The slates had been wiped clean. As Hank Steinbrenner requested, the universe had been restored to order.
But look at what has happened in the 10 years since:
2009 off-season: General manager Brian Cashman lets Matsui and Johnny Damon go. Keeping one of the other would have helped, but he kept neither. From this point onward, it's Cashman's team, not George Steinbrenner's or Gene Michael's.
2010: George dies. The Yankees win the American League Wild Card, and beat the Minnesota Twins in the AL Division Series, but lose the AL Championship Series to the Texas Rangers, who had never won a Pennant before.
2011: The Yankees win the AL Eastern Division, but lose the the ALDS to the Detroit Tigers. Pettitte retires.
2012: The Yankees win the AL Eastern Division, and beat the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS. But Derek Jeter breaks his ankle in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Tigers, and the Yankees get swept.
2013: The Yankees miss the Playoffs for the 1st time since 2008, and only the 2nd time since 1993. Rivera retires.
2014: The Yankees miss the Playoffs for the 2nd straight season, which hadn't happened since 1992-93. Jeter retires.
2015: There are now 2 Wild Card berths in each League. The Yankees host the AL Wild Card Game, but lose it to the Houston Astros.
2016: A-Rod retires. But on July 25, with the Yankees 7 1/2 games out of 1st in the AL East, and 4 1/2 games out of the 2nd AL Wild Card slot, both still reachable, Cashman trades relief ace Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs for Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford.
Chapman made the difference for the Cubs, who won their 1st World Series in 108 years, and then his contract ran out, and the Yankees re-signed him. Torres could help the Yankees win 10 World Series, and it wouldn't mean as much to us as that 1 means to Cub fans.
Torres turned into a star in 2018, and it certainly wasn't his fault the Yankees didn't win the Pennant in '18 or '19. But neither has he yet helped the Yankees win a Pennant. Warren had already failed as a Yankee twice, and does so again. McKinney played 2 games for the Yankees in 2018, before being sent to the Toronto Blue Jays for J.A. Happ. Crawford has played a grand total of 6 games in Triple-A ball, and, in 2019, had a rather ordinary year in Double-A ball. He's 26 years old. It's time to ask whether he's going to make it.
So even if this trade were a loan of Chapman for Torres and Happ, it still doesn't work in the Yankees' favor.
It got worse; Having already hurt the bullpen by trading Chapman, Cashman wrecked it by trading Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians for Clint Frazier, Ben Heller, Justus Sheffield and J.P. Freyereisen. Miller helped the Indians win the Pennant, and then they lost the World Series to the Cubs.
Frazier has shown himself to have a million-dollar bat, a two-bit glove and a five-cent head. Heller has been dogged by injury, appearing in just 25 major league games. Sheffield pitched in 3 major league games in 2018, and then was sent to the Seattle Mariners as trade bait for James Paxton. Feyereisen has spent the last 2 years at Triple-A, where he's been good, but hasn't gotten called up. He's 26, and should have had his shot by now.
And Cashman also traded starting pitcher Ivan Nova to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Stephen Tarpley and Tito Polo. Nova's pretty much been a .500, 4.10 ERA pitcher since 2014, but he still could have helped the Yanks these last 3 years. Tarpley has been a mediocre reliever at the major league level. Cashman traded Polo to the Chicago White Sox while he was still at Double-A.
So, to review: Cashman essentially traded Miller and Nova, and loaned Chapman, for Torres, Paxton and Frazier. There is no way we have gotten the better half of that deal in its 1st 3 years.
The Yankees did not make the Playoffs.
2017: Justin Verlander turned out
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