The year 2022 was solid for New York sports teams, with nearly all of them competing for the playoffs in their respective sports.
On the diamond, both the Yankees and Mets reached the postseason, with the Mets winning 101 games and the Yankees reaching their third ALCS in the last six years.
But when it comes to the offseason, Sal Licata says the Bombers are lagging behind the rest of the City.
“A lot of teams in this town now are thriving, living up to or exceeding expectations…you look at the Mets and you say it’s been a very Merry Buckmas…they’re doing all that they possibly can,” Sal said.
“Which brings us to the Yankees, the former gold standard of how things go around here. The Yankees are the one team around here we can rely on to go out and dominate, to go out there to do whatever needs to be done to build their team. However, they right now are lagging right now behind the other New York teams. Not as far as results go, but in terms of living up to the expectations or going over the top to get the pieces needed to get by the Astros.”
The Yankees, as things currently stand, would enter the 2023 season with the second highest payroll in the league, but Sal notes that the majority of that spending was about retaining, meaning the current team is not much better on paper as the one that was swept by Houston in the ALCS, and there is more work to be done.
While other teams in New York are exceeding expectations, Sal says the one team that normally did that on a yearly basis is falling behind.
“The Yankees brought back [Aaron] Judge. Great! They needed to,” Sal said. “If they didn’t, it would have been an embarrassment. They brought in Carlos Rodon. I think most people are happy with that…they have really done nothing else. Tommy Kahnle? Look at left field. They tell you Aaron Hicks is gonna be the guy. Look at third base. They’re telling you Josh Donaldson is gonna be the guy. They are relying on the Perazas, the Volpes, the young guns to make them better. It might work out for them…but the Yankees have not done enough. They aren’t living up to the Yankee standard.
“They are not holding their own in this town where other teams are exceeding expectations. The Yankees are falling short here.”
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