For the third time in their last three postseason trips, the New York Yankees were eliminated at home Wednesday night. The Yankees dropped Game 3 to the AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays and were swept in the best-of-five ALDS. New York again piled up wins during the regular season, then wilted against equal or better competition in the postseason.
Perhaps the outcome would have been different if reigning two-time AL MVP Aaron Judge had been able to play, or perhaps not. Judge was relegated to spectator during the postseason due a lingering September calf injury. Following the Game 3 loss, Judge implored the team's brain trust to go all-in this offseason, and improve the roster however they can.
I feel like they should go all-in and do what they need to do," Judge said. "And if we got holes, it's finding certain players or personnel, whatever we need, we got to go out there and get it. That's why I signed back here to play with the Yankees, is to fight for a championship every single year and go all-in.
That's what I do every offseason is to get ready to give this team and this city everything I got. So I expect them to do the same." Aaron Judge was asked if he thinks the Yankees' front office has gone all-in enough:"It's tough to say. I want to trade for everybody, sign everybody every single year, but I know that's not realistic.
They give us a winning team every single year, but that's not good enough… https://t.co/Pf4i8V3qCH pic.twitter.com/irIeCkjaiF This is a bad offseason to go all-in. The free agent class is very week behind reigning two-time AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, and the Yankees are one of the few teams that can plausibly say it doesn't make sense to prioritize Skubal. On paper, their rotation runs six deep with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Ryan Weathers.
Also, it is a near certainly the owners will lock out the players when the collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. At that point, the hot stove will freeze, and no transactions will be allowed. And, once the lockout ends, there will be a truncated spring training that won't leave much time for roster moves.
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