The New York Yankees fell short of winning the World Series once again this season. They were eliminated in the American League Division Series after getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays. New York hasn't won a World Series since 2009, and fans are growing impatient. Aaron Boone's job could be in question, but others simply believe New York needs to make offseason roster moves. Former MLB star pitcher and current broadcaster John Smoltz recently shared his thoughts on the Yankees' playoff struggles during an appearance on the Flippin' Bats Podcast.
“You also have to have the players that play Yankee baseball,” Smoltz said. “And I don't know that there's a couple that play Yankee baseball. I thought their pitching and the way that they went about their roster was going to accomplish a lot more this year. Aaron Judge is a big piece, (Giancarlo) Stanton, all the different things that they rely on just weren't there at the end. And they're going to have to find an innovative way… I don't know if getting younger is the key.”
The Yankees have been an incredibly successful regular season team over the years. That simply isn't good enough for a franchise that has 27 World Series championships, though. This current Yankees team is good — it just isn't good enough, especially factoring in the injuries that impacted the roster.
Article Continues Below“They were heavily reliant upon a couple of people offensively, and they thought they could hide the rest of it through their run prevention, in my opinion,” Smoltz added.
The Yankees will attempt to figure things out and build a true World Series contender this offseason.