New York Yankees spent billions to win World Series only to strike out in last decade
The New York Yankees have spent the last 10 years doing something fans are not accustomed to: being average.
The Yankees were eliminated from the MLB Postseason on Saturday night when Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve hit a game-winning home run in the ninth inning off of Aroldis Chapman to send the team to their second World Series in three seasons.
While New York scratched and clawed their way to even get to a Game 6 in the series, the team has spent a decade failing to win, or even make it, to the World Series. Saturday’s loss was just another cruel notion that no matter how much money the team spends it’s not a guarantee that a long and grueling regular season is going to reward them with rings and bottomless champagne.
New York won the World Series in 2009 – their 27th championship and first since 2000 at that time. Since then, The Wall Street Journal reported the team spent more than $2 billion on player salaries to get back to the championship. The team has yielded little success.
Since 2010, the Yankees have made the American League Championship Series four times, won the American League East division three times and has only won more than 100 games twice. When the Yankees were thought to be in a rebuilding mode following the 2016 season, they surprised everyone and made the ALCS only to lose to the Astros in seven games.
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The hope was that New York was going to quickly build upon that and make the World Series the following year. They didn’t and lost to the rival Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.
Oddly enough, the Astros in 2017 and the Red Sox in 2018 went onto win the World Series after going through New York. Houston might be on track to do the same thing again this month.
The Yankees this decade also completed an unnerving feat that no other baseball team since 1900 has ever done, the Journal reported, citing Stats LLC: Be the winningest team of the decade by regular season and fail to win a pennant.
New York Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner prepares to take batting practice before Game 6 of baseball's American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The Yankees’ opening-day payroll exceeded $200 million this season and it is poised to repeat next year. New York is rumored to be targeting pitching help once the free-agent market opens. Gerrit Cole and Madison Bumgarner are expected to be free agents. Stephen Strasburg, Chris Archer, and Yu Darvish could also be free agents but each player either has a player or team option attached to their contracts.