Joe Girardi didn’t dance around the obvious: the Yankees’ best players weren’t really there when it mattered most.
That has been the defining frustration for New York over the last couple of seasons, and it came back into focus this postseason. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the two biggest names in the lineup and arguably its two most important bats before Ben Rice’s emergence over the past two years, both spent too much time unavailable. The result was a Yankees offense that never quite got the shape the team wanted.
Judge did not appear in either the Wild Card Series or the ALDS. Stanton managed one at-bat in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays, and it did not go well.
Former Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the injuries kept taking a toll on the roster and may have left both stars less than fully recovered when they returned.
“I think health continues to haunt this team. I really do,” Girardi said, H/T Heavy.
“Look, you’re playing without Aaron Judge for four and a half months. Don’t have him in the playoffs.
You don’t have Stanton for five months, he’s out. You lose guys during the course of the year… and they come back after 10 days, I’m not sure they’re completely healed.
I believe the talent was there. I expected them to go further.
But without Aaron Judge, it changes the whole complexion of the lineup.
“And even if he was somewhat not the typical Aaron Judge because he missed so much time, he still changes the lineup. They’re still careful, it’s one swing always from being a two-run or three-run home run… and I just don’t think they ever had their full lineup that they felt good about.”
Girardi’s point was simple: even a limited version of Judge alters how opposing pitchers attack the Yankees. But New York never got the version of its lineup that it could trust, and that, as Girardi suggested, may have been part of why the club held Judge out.
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