The Yankees publicly are on the same page: Hal Steinbrenner, like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone before him, said that issues with the club’s fundamentals did not hover over the team all season.
The 2024 Yankees were undone in a sloppy World Series with both baserunning mistakes and, most notably, three defensive miscues in the fifth inning of the deciding Game 5 against the Dodgers. Cashman and Boone have argued the Yankees played a poor series in an otherwise sound season, and Steinbrenner said the same.
“We did not play a clean World Series, I think we all know that,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday at the Owners Meetings in Midtown. “But those fundamentals got us to the World Series. Our play, for the most part, was solid during the course of the year. That’s why we won a pennant for the first time in 15 years.
“But no doubt in the World Series, they just played better than us, period.”
Several Dodgers players have said in post-series interviews that they were waiting for the Yankees to make mistakes. Injured reliever Joe Kelly was the loudest, saying the Dodgers were “saying every single game: ‘Just let them throw the ball into the infield, they can’t make a play.’ ”
The Yankees were rated as the worst baserunning team in baseball by FanGraphs. Several advanced analytics ranked them in the middle or slightly above average defensively, but they certainly had a poor series and a poor Game 5.
The Yankees are returning just about the same coaching staff under Boone, whose 2025 option was picked up. They are not of the belief that the club’s miscues were a systemic problem.
Still, the loss hurt.
“It stung. It still stings,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s interesting — when you’re that close and you don’t get there, it stays with you for a while. All of us feel the same way. We’re just going to have to get right back at it in March and get there again and get the job done next year.”
The Yankees picked up Boone’s option but have not extended their manager’s contract.
They declined to add an extra season to Gerrit Cole’s contract, which at the moment expires after the 2028 season.
Steinbrenner said he is open to further discussions with both.
Boone right now is a lame-duck manager. It is possible the group comes to a long-term agreement, but not until more free-agency work gets done.
“I’m going to have discussions with Cashman [about Boone] … in the very near future,” Steinbrenner said. “But there’s no huge rush to it.”
Steinbrenner said the biggest hurdle concerning the Cole discussions — in which the ace opted out, thus pressuring the team to either add an extra season to his contract or let him hit the open market, a move the Yankees countered by allowing him to become a free agent only for Cole to then rescind his opt-out — was the timing.
After Cole’s initial decision, the Yankees had two days to discuss their options with him.
“We only had 48 hours,” said Steinbrenner, who added that he still could meet with agent Scott Boras about Cole. “When the deadline came, I just wasn’t in a position where I was comfortable with going to a fifth year.”
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Renting out Steinbrenner Field to the Rays, who will play 2025 at the Yankees spring facility after Tropicana Field was wrecked by Hurricane Milton, was “the right thing to do for their fan base, many of whom are my neighbors and friends,” said Steinbrenner, who lives in Tampa.
The Yankees reportedly will receive $10 million to $15 million for loaning the ballpark. The biggest challenges, Steinbrenner said, will be logistics such as finding enough storage space for bottled water and food for a lengthy homestand. They likely will have to use outside storage.
The Rays will have to make modifications to the visitors clubhouse, Steinbrenner said. The Tarpons, the Yankees Class-A affiliate that typically plays at Steinbrenner Field, will play at the community-use field next door. They will have to add lights to the field.
Steinbrenner, who essentially said he does not know where the Yankees stand in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, said the offseason moves will not end if Soto does return to the club.
Even if the Yankees are adding $600 million to $700 million in salary, there will be other needs that have to be filled.
“We do have other things to add, whether that’s via a free agent, whether that’s via a trade,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ve got some things we need to improve upon. Every club does.”
Steinbrenner has not seen Roki Sasaki in person, but he has seen highlights of the star Japanese pitcher who will be posted by his NPB club.
“Tremendous pitcher, no doubt about it,” Steinbrenner said. “But we have not had any real discussions at all about any possible postings of Japanese players yet.”
