Yankees Delusional to Their Comedy of Errors

On the surface, Chisholm isn't wrong. The Yankees do have a slew of Gold Glovers, but there is a clear pattern here. When the games matter most, sloppy play emerges. You can almost anticipate the defensive gaffes at this point. It's Pennywise the Clown appearing from the sewers every generation like clockwork. The clown and the defensive lapses bring the same level of haunting and trauma for anybody involved and always seem to be on cue.

In 10 games against the first place Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees have 12 errors. Last night, they added another four to their season total.

What's worse is that it doesn't matter how messy the Yankees seem to be. The messaging is always the same. It's Chisholm bringing up their pedigree as if a four-error game is an outlier. It's Aaron Boone in 2022 saying Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a great shortstop because Defensive Runs Saved likes him. They can say what they want. Playing poorly and then gaslighting fans and media into oblivion doesn't cover up the stench.

Anybody paying attention understands this isn't anything new. In what should have been the perfect sendoff to John Sterling, the Yankees besmirched his intelligence in a World Series run by playing a bedraggled brand of baseball in October that had the legendary announcer proclaim that they ran the bases like "drunken sailors."

That was about base running, but the point remains the same. Sterling's funny line had only been proven more in the World Series during that infamous fifth inning against the Dodgers, which saw them hand over the last bit of life and momentum they created the night before. Home runs by Aaron Judge and Chisholm were glossed over by malevolent glovework.

The numbers back the ugly defensive play, too. Their -9 Outs Above Average ranks them as the tenth-worst team by that metric. Defensive Runs Saved likes them a little more. Their 26 DRS is 13th in MLB. They also have the seventh most errors in the sport. Their 74 errors are comparable to those of worse teams, such as the Angels, White Sox, and Rockies.

The Red Sox have the second-most errors at 98, but when they come to New York, it always seems like every outfielder becomes Willie Mays and every infielder has a vacuum fo r a glove. When Rafael Devers was still in Boston, he magically became Graig Nettles during these division battles. Coming up big when it matters most is the mark of a good team after all.

Being clean used to mean something to this organization. Whether it was on the field or in terms of basic standards of grooming, these Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and Aaron Boone-led Yankees have lowered the criteria in terms of appearances and glove work.

It will be on Max Fried to steady the course. If not, that's okay. The Yankees have a positive DRS on FanGraphs. Boone can hold his head high after the game with that one.

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