Also-ran Yankees face $180 million worth of questions
By Scott Miller | SportsLine.com Senior Writer Follow ScottNEW YORK -- Even in the immediate aftermath, with the Florida Marlins still wildly celebrating outside on the field, there was an air of change inside the stunned and somber New York Yankees clubhouse following their 2-0 Game 6 loss Saturday night.
For a team built on owner George Steinbrenner's largesse, there was no getting around the numbers. It was the greatest player payroll discrepancy in World Series history, the Yankees and their $183 million (including luxury tax assessments) against the Florida Marlins and their relatively paltry $52 million.
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| Brian Cashman will be answering plenty of questions from George Steinbrenner in the offseason. (AP) |
Even a cursory investigation into the whys and wherefores didn't take long to complete: The Yankees batted an embarrassing .169 (15-for-89) with runners on base in the six games. They batted an embarrassing .140 (7-for-50) with runners in scoring position, including 0-for-7 against Florida ace Josh Beckett in a Game 6 that was both unusual and telling.
The Yankees who once always found ways to win are now finding ways to lose. Be it Luis Gonzalez's ninth-inning bloop hit in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series that won it for Arizona, the Yankees' complete pitching collapse against Anaheim in the 2002 Division Series or their stunning lack of offense against Florida in '03, the failures are only fueling Steinbrenner's anger.
He was not in the post-Game 6 clubhouse -- or, if he was, he was keeping an unusually low profile in one of the back rooms. But after a blustery year in which The Boss cracked the whip harder than ever, the all-around sense in the losing Yankees clubhouse was that there was no telling when George's Reign of Terror will begin, only that it will begin.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he did not speak with Steinbrenner either in the late innings or during the immediate aftermath of Florida's clincher. He said he had no idea whether this winter will be any more difficult for him than previous winters working under the most demanding owner in the business.
"Whatever is going to be is going to be," Cashman said. "If it is, I'll be able to deal with it. Whatever is going to be is going to be.
"This club has a lot to be proud of. But right now, we don't feel that."
To term this season a failure for the Yankees, of course, is ridiculous to anybody outside of Steinbrenner's office. This is a team that won 101 games and an eighth consecutive AL East title and, as Newsday columnist Jon Heyman wrote, inflicted "so much torture on hated Boston."
But Steinbrenner's standards are different, of course, even in winters after the Yankees have won it all.
"We're under pressure all the time," Cashman said. "I don't see how much more pressure there can be. That's my opinion.
"I know what I work in. I know the ultimate goals are set high."
Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens have proved capable of stepping up and reaching those extremely high goals. What Cashman and his team of executives must wrestle with this winter is, can they fill in the proper pieces to build another championship team, or are they stuck with a collection of high-priced, talented players who ultimately don't have the makeup to take those final few steps into the throne room?
Collectively, this Yankees group had difficulty hitting good fastballs all series. Their swings were often late and erratic; thus the awful numbers with runners on base.
Though Jason Giambi's left knee was hurting so badly that he will have arthroscopic surgery sometime in the next couple of weeks, it's legitimate to question whether he has what it takes to help carry forward the Yankees' latest fading dynasty. He has been with the team for two seasons, and the only thing that's certain is that he is not the same feared player he was when he played in Oakland.
When manager Joe Torre removed him from the lineup before Game 5 in Florida, Giambi didn't protest. It is hard to believe the great Yankees of the past who have won, such as Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio or Lou Gehrig, would have come out of a World Series lineup so easily.
Jeter, who dislocated his left shoulder back in April, has been playing this entire postseason with two sore shoulders and a damaged finger. He was wrapped in more ice after every game than a shipment of shrimp en route to a restaurant.
Giambi, signed after the 2001 season for $116 million, seemed to take this loss as hard as any of the Yankees. His face was ashen for a long while after Beckett recorded the final out, and he refused to equate this season with the word "success."
"No, I wanted to win," said Giambi, who batted .235 with just one homer and one RBI (when he knocked himself in on that homer) in the six games. "I wanted to win it all, no doubt about it. It doesn't make me any happier because I got past the first round or because I got to the World Series.
"This probably makes it worse, to get this far and come away with nothing."
While Giambi's contract makes his failures among the most noticeable, he had plenty of company. Second baseman Alfonso Soriano (.227, nine strikeouts in 22 Series at-bats) was so awful the Yankees must question how far his free-swinging ways can take them. Opposing advance scouts did as big a number on Soriano this postseason as they did on anybody. It will be a wonder if any pitcher throws him anything near the strike zone in the foreseeable future.
"I have to forget about everything and work hard for next year," said an overwhelmed Soriano, who batted .290 with 38 homers, 91 RBI and 35 steals during the regular season.
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| Don Zimmer has said he will not be back on Joe Torre's staff in the Yankees dugout. (AP) |
A pure fastball hitter, Boone consistently had difficulty with breaking pitches -- so much so that scouts question how successful he can be in the AL, a league notorious for not feeding its batters nearly as many fastballs as pitchers offer in the NL.
Cashman, if not removed by Steinbrenner, will examine every one of these flaws in what he likes to call his "winter program" -- a time when the team of Yankees executives analyze, assess and attempt to address the club's weaknesses.
And looking to bring in a big free-agent banger such as Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero or Atlanta's Gary Sheffield will not be all the Yankees do.
"We're obviously going to have some holes on the pitching side and in the bullpen," Cashman said.
Unable to find consistent middle-innings relief to set up Rivera, the Yankees employed a total of 19 different relief pitchers this season.
As for the rotation, Clemens plans to retire and Pettitte is a free agent the Yankees want back but who could decide to play closer to his Houston-area home, and if the club hadn't decided David Wells was more trouble than he was worth, his debilitating back condition might have decided it for them.
Wells, who was forced out of Game 5 after one inning (he threw only eight pitches) because of acute back spasms, was not available for Game 6 and would not have been available for Game 7. He almost certainly is headed for another back surgery, and at 40, his career very well could be finished.
So the Yankees figure to have at least two holes to fill in their rotation, perhaps three or four if Pettitte leaves. Jose Contreras theoretically will step in, but it's not like he displayed enough consistency this season -- or stayed healthy enough -- to soothe raging Yankee ulcers heading into '04. And Jeff Weaver only added to them. It's difficult to imagine an enraged Steinbrenner wanting him back -- even though he is owed $14 million through 2005.
They have plenty of work to do with their bullpen. And they must deal with an offense that was more silent in the World Series than a Charlie Chaplin movie.
The first question is whether Cashman will still be around to direct the winter program. Steinbrenner has said Torre will be back as manager, though there could be major changes in the coaching staff.
Bench coach Don Zimmer, carrying on a running feud with Steinbrenner that has been so petty that Zimmer's company car was taken away, maintains he will not return. Hitting coach Rick Down, a nice guy and a very hard worker, might be fired this week after the numbing Series performance of his hitters. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre is contemplating retirement.
Torre, speaking before Game 6, conceded that the transition to 2004 could be the biggest he has experienced.
"If my coaching staff is involved, it probably will be," he said. "As far as players, every year we have made changes. We had the MVP of the 1996 World Series (John Wetteland), and he wasn't our closer the next year.
"(David) Cone left, (Jimmy) Key left, (Jim) Leyritz has gone a couple of different times. Joe Girardi. It's something that we have had to deal with on a regular basis."
To date, the biggest changes on the field under the Torre Administration came when Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius all departed after the 2001 season. They were proven winners, and so far, no high-priced Giambis and Mike Mussinas have been able to replace them.
Cashman bristles at suggestions that the Yankees should have waltzed to the title this season based on maintaining the largest payroll in the game.
"The payroll issue and discrepancy, that's not a big issue with me," Cashman said. "That's my opinion. The Marlins wouldn't be here if it were."
Cashman noted that several other high-payroll clubs either didn't win their divisions or, for one reason or another, were sitting home watching the World Series.
"The bottom line is, you've got to play the best baseball," Cashman said.
The bottom line is, the Yankees didn't. And they know there will be a price to pay as a result.
"The only thing I can say is we went out and tried hard," Williams said. "Unfortunately, we're not in the business of trying. We're in the business of doing."
