Aaron Boone told reporters this week that he believes the 2024 Yankees are the best team he has had as manager, especially when factoring health at the end of the season.
Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata decided to use those comments as a way to debate if these Yanks are better than any during Aaron Judge’s tenure, meaning since 2017 (the year before Boone arrived), and while BT says this team is the best, Sal doesn’t agree.
“I think ’17, ’18, I understand there was no Gerrit Cole or Juan Soto, but they played a better brand of baseball then,” Sal said. “If I’m looking at it from the Judge years, I still think 2017 and 2018. I remember thinking in the regular season that, ‘This is a dominant team that can win it all.’
“While Cole and Soto are certainly difference makers on the roster…There were times I looked at this team and thought, ‘They’re a bad team.’ from June on, they were a team that was under .500.”
The Yankees were indeed a mediocre team for months during the season, but they have since gone 7-2 in the playoffs and have reached a place they have been fighting to get to since coming one win short of a pennant in 2017. Sal believes the Yanks have gotten it done thanks to their talent, but overall, he believes there have been better teams in recent years.
“The way they play, the stupid baserunning decisions, the sloppy defense, the inconsistency…how could this team, this talented team, be two games under .500 from June on?” Sal said. “I’m not ready to say this is the best team.”