Yankees deserve more grief than Dodgers

(Photo: Kim Klement — USA Today Sports)

The storyline of this year’s World Series features the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are vying to win their first World Series championship since 1988. They played in the Fall Classic for the third time in four seasons.

Baseball fans ridiculed the Dodgers for falling short of a championship, and understandably so since they boast one of the highest payrolls in baseball.

The Dodgers are three wins away from ending their 32-year championship drought after an 8-3 thrashing of the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.

Interestingly, the Dodgers are being ridiculed while the Yankees haven’t won a championship, let alone played in the World Series since 2009. If everyone labels the Dodgers as underachievers, what are the Yankees?

The Yankees failed once again to get championship No. 28 after losing in five games to the Rays in the AL Division Series. This team spent money this offseason to contend for a championship. Instead, they are watching another team being crowned as a champion. All this after spending $109 million (source: Spotrac) just to fail.

Laugh at the Dodgers all you want, but at least they get to the World Series until they fall apart. The Yankees fans wish their team would fail in the World Series these days.

The Yankees underachieved these last few seasons. They were better than the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, and they fell short to them in the playoffs. Cry all you want about the Red Sox and Astros cheating if it makes you feel better, but the Yankees couldn’t get the big hit or big strikeout like they did in their championship years in the 90s.

At some point, the time has come to question if their core players such as Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge can deliver the goods. All three of them bombed in the postseason in the last few years. They don’t bring memories of Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada. They may be great regular season players, but it means nothing if they can’t get it done in October.

Their core players failed them more than anything.

Their free agents over the years struggled to shine for the Yankees, and their acquisitions flopped more often than not.

This year’s postseason flop serves as an open season for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Cashman for not building a team good enough to win the World Series, and Boone for not doing enough as a manager to get the team to the fall classic.

Cashman gets a free pass from Yankees fans and his boss, Hal Steinbrenner. It’s remarkable since his teams constantly underachieve in October since 2001. Yes, the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, but they won in a field where not many great teams participated in the tournament.

He spends money, but he is not getting much for his bucks. He touts about drafting players and developing players, but what exactly have they won?

Here’s the reality: He won championships under the work of late Gene “Stick” Michael, who built that Core Four of Jeter, Williams, Posada and Mariano Rivera. Ever since he built his team, his players underachieve. Someone has to take the blame for that, no?

Also, Cashman hired Boone to replace successful Yankees manager Joe Girardi. It had nothing to do with a manager being a new voice that would take the team to the next step. This was more about Cashman being more involved in the managerial decision and using Boone as a messenger.

Girardi displayed flaws by relying too much on the binder of spreadsheets in managing a game, but he could manage the team and get players to play at their best every night. No one can say that about Boone. Everyone knew Boone was not managerial material from the start.

Boone showed in his three seasons as a manager that he can’t manage a game. I can’t come up with anything about his moves that helped his team win a game.

The Dodgers finding a way to go to the World Series with a big payroll should bother the Yankees. There’s no reason the Yankees should not be there every year.

The Yankees are nothing than just a team that is just there in the postseason rather than doing something in the postseason.

It speaks how the roster is just not good enough to get it done.

Interestingly, no one in America calls the Yankees out for constantly failing in the postseason. Not even their fans think it’s a big deal.

The Dodgers provide cover for the Yankees for now.

But if the Dodgers finally achieve that championship goal, the Yankees officially take the mantle as baseball’s underachievers, and they can’t hide from it.

You can email me at: lesliemonteiro97@gmail.com