The New York Yankees consummated another year of disappointment for their fans by failing to qualify for the postseason. The team will be out of action in October, for the first time since 2016, extending its drought without a World Series since 2009.
The Bronx Bombers sealed their elimination and their hopes of fighting for the American League Wild Card over the weekend by falling to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a crushing loss.
Aaron Judge: “It’s a failure“
This undoubtedly set off alarms for captain Aaron Judge who showed up to face the media and give his assessment of the Yankees’ campaign, especially in light of the high expectations behind the New York organization.
“If I’m not standing here in front of you after a championship, it’s a failure,” Judge confessed last Sunday after 7-1 loss. “After all of the work you’ve done in the offseason, training, preparation, coming out here on a daily basis, rain or shine, to play a game. It’s about bringing a championship back. That’s why we play. That’s why I’m here.”
Aaron Judge on being officially eliminated from postseason contention:
"There's a lot that went wrong."#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/WDeZt82VRE
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 24, 2023
Also, the reigning American League MVP was clear about his perspective toward the changes that must be made internally within the team if it is to aspire to the place it “should be.”
“That’s why I came back to New York with this group of guys, to build something and get New York back to where it’s supposed to be. When you don’t show up and produce and get kicked out like this in the regular season, that’s a big failure. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of internal talks, a lot of stuff we’ve got to figure out,” Judge said.
It should be noted that Aaron Judge’s absence for a large part of the season was one of the most pointed elements that affected the decline of the ‘Bronx’ team by missing 54 games. In addition to the prolonged injuries to the starting pitching staff of Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes and Luis Severino.
With a pair of series remaining against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals, theYankees can only bid farewell to this season and set in motion the next year’s plan to demonstrate why they are the team with the second highest payroll in the MLB.