If there was any thought that the Yankees might be feeling an added weight to win the World Series, the franchise’s first since 2009, because of Aaron Judge’s uncertain future you’d have been wrong.
While Judge’s future may be unclear after this season, it hasn’t put an extra emphasis on the team needing to win right now. That was at least the message Aaron Boone delivered the day before his team was slated to open their best-of-five American League Division Series with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I don’t look at it like that at all. You know, Aaron and I have been together now for five years, and you know, every year we have had a realistic shot at this, and we feel that way now,” Boone said. “I mean, we are so focused on the here and the now and the present that’s for another day. I think he understands that and has lived that and that’s who he is.
“Our focus is on this team and trying to be the last team standing. So that doesn’t even enter to my mind.”
Judge will become a free agent after this season with an expectation that he will be given a massive contract from whichever team woos him. On Sunday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman likened Judge’s next contract to a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
The new American League home run king is expected to play a big factor in the Yankees’ playoff run, though there should be a bit more normalcy to his at-bats. Up until he hit home run No. 62, Judge’s plate appearances became an event within the game as the entire stadium came to a halt.
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“This is the postseason now. Obviously, every pitch is huge and people are hanging on every pitch,” Boone said. “Similar to how it was down the stretch in his at-bats in games that weren’t affecting the standings towards the end there. You’re just super focused on the moment and trying to be victorious.”
“You know the postseason is a drug, right?”
Gerrit Cole will be on the mound to open up Game 1 for the Yankees as he looks to put some of the difficulties of the postseason behind him. By no means has Cole been bad this year — he finished with a 3.50 ERA and finished with 257 strikeouts — but he struggled with tough innings during outings that ended up being deciding factors in games.
Cole surrendered a new career-high 33 home runs this season.
“I feel like after every start, you evaluate what you could and could not have done better,” Cole said about his mindset going into Game 1. “You prepare yourself for the last one — or for the next one, rather. I think we’ve thrown the ball really well lately, and our process has been crisp in between in identifying what we need to do better based on successes and failures.”
Amed Rosario takes no joy in Mets loss
Cleveland’s Amed Rosario will take the field with his new team in the American League Division Series on Tuesday. His old team, the Mets, watched their run in the postseason come to an end on Sunday when they fell in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series to the San Diego Padres.
Asked if there was any reaction to beginning the playoffs in New York a few days after the Mets were eliminated, Rosario said he had moved on.
“I think we have to turn the page and leave things in the past,” he said prior to the Guardians workout at Yankee Stadium. “I’m happy where I am right now in this organization and our focus is here and we are ready to compete.”
Rosario had been traded from the Mets to Cleveland in 2021 in the deal that brought Francisco Lindor to Queens. Rosario had come up through the Mets farm system and he had been one of their top prospects.
