Defense Wins Championships just don't tell the Yankees

 The New York Yankees and their fans will remember the 5th inning of Game 5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers for a long time. Like they remember Luis Gonzalez’s bloop in 2001. Or Josh Beckett and Miguel Cabrera in 2003. Or 2004. And of course, the cheats down in Houston in 2017 and 2019. That’s what happens when you’re supposed to win and don’t. The Yankees were supposed to win Game 5 of the World Series, get on a plane out west, and continue to try to pull off the unthinkable.

It didn’t happen.

All because of self-inflicted wounds in the 5th inning. It started with Aaron Judge’s first error of the season on what seemed to be a harmless fly ball to center. It continued with Anthony Volpe making a poor throw to Jazz Chisholm on a ball hit to his right and the only play that Volpe had to make was the one that he made, it’s just that the Yankee shortstop couldn’t complete the play. And the top was blown off of the inning when Gerrit Cole didn’t cover first base on a weak ground ball to Anthony Rizzo at first. The Cole brain fart is the one that hurts the most because if he covered first base; the Dodgers would have gone into the bottom half of the 5th still down five runs. But, when you give a championship caliber team six outs to play with instead of three, that’s how a five-run lead ends up being a tie ball game.

But that’s what this Yankees team has done all season long.

If you isolated the 5th inning of Game 5 against the Dodgers and told a Yankee fan that this is an inning from a random game in the middle of August, that fan would probably say something along the lines of “this is what they’ve done all year, they can’t play defense well, and they won’t make a deep playoff run because of it.” That fan would have been right about two of the three things but it is that third part that is why they just couldn’t fight another day. 

The Bombers ranked 7th in errors committed this season with 94. The top five all none playoff teams (1. Miami [117], 2. Boston [115], 3. Washington [109], 4. the Angels [97], 5. Cincinnati [96]).

Looking at the World Series defensive alignment it leads a lot to be desired and makes you wonder just how in fact they made the World Series. In left field, Alex Verdugo, who ranks second in Ultimate Zone Rating (7.5) and Defensive Runs Saved (8) for all left fielders in baseball. Verdugo also only committed one error this season. In center, Aaron Judge who is good in center but is playing out of position and is otherworldly in right field. Judge had a negative six in Outs Above Average (OAA), a negative nine in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), and a -0.2 in Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) this season in center. In his last full season in right field, Judge recorded one DRS, had a UZR of 1.7, had three outfield assists, and zero errors.

Over in right field this season, Juan Soto, was one of the poorer fielders at his position with negative six OAA, negative one DRS, and a negative six in UZR. In the infield, Jazz Chisholm was learning third base on the fly, and while sure handed for the most part, made mental errors at the position because his 59 games played (including postseason) were the only 59 games he’s ever played third base professionally. Anthony Volpe is the reigning gold glove winner at shortstop and continued to rank out well with 14 OAA (6th), 6 DRS (6th), and a 0.2 UZR (10th). However, the sophomore shortstop committed 16 errors this season which was second on the Yankees and 10th among shortstops in baseball. At second is Gleyber Torres. Not only was his 18 errors the most among Yankees, it was also first among second baseman around the league. Torres finished with negative 11 DRS, a UZR of negative 5.9, and negative four OAA. Anthony Rizzo at first has been one of the best defensive first baseman over his career but due to his two broken fingers on his glove was compromised in the playoffs. Behind the dish, Austin Wells committed 11 errors, third most on the Bombers, but did have 11 DRS and threw out 22 base stealers out of 80 chances… 

As a team the Yankees ranked 12th in Defensive Runs Saved as a team (33) however the Dodgers were third in baseball with 66. In Outs Above Average the Bombers came in at 25th with negative four while Dodgers landed at 13th with 1. Defense is a massively underrated part of the game and one of the key reasons the Yankees were outclassed by the Dodgers over five games. The Yankees had five errors to the Dodgers two over the five games.

If the Yankees want to finally capture championship number 28 they will need to take a serious organizational look at how they play defensively because while the Yankees can hit with the best in the world they can't catch with the worst of the little leaguers.