The Yankees set their ALDS roster Friday just hours before taking on the Twins in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium.
Much of the roster won’t surprise the casual baseball fan, but manager Aaron Boone did have to make some tough calls for the 25-man group.
Ready or not, here we come.#NextManUp pic.twitter.com/yAIWruHDLY
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 4, 2019
Questions swirled around first baseman Luke Voit and his roster chances late in the season as he endured a 1-for-31 slump to end the year. However, his production throughout the year (21 home runs, 62 RBIs in 118 games) was enough to push Mike Ford off the roster despite a strong finish (11 home runs, 23 RBIs in August and September).
Edwin Encarnacion, who hasn’t played since Sept. 12 with an oblique strain, and Tyler Wade, Boone’s Swiss army knife off the bench, also made the cut.
In the outfield, Clint Frazier is the biggest name left out, likely because of Wade’s inclusion.
Boone announced Thursday that CC Sabathia would not be on the roster, and Friday we found out Tyler Lyons benefited by landing in the bullpen.
Now it’s time to play the actual games.
It’s hard to paint the Yankees organization as a failure. But for them, any season that doesn’t end with the World Series title is just that.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, several Yankees said they’re using the unpleasant memories of recent short-lived postseason runs for inspiration.
"My biggest motivator and biggest lessons I've learned are always from failure," Aaron Judge told reporters Thursday, looking back to New York’s series loss to the Red Sox in last year’s ALDS (via ESPN.com). “The little things we missed out on, the little details we missed that might not have affected a certain play but affected us later in the game or affected something later on. Failure is — that's a tough pill to swallow, but it can always be one of your biggest motivators."
Brett Gardner, one of only two players still on team who were part of the 2009 championship club (Sabathia being the other), added: "The last couple years, getting knocked out by the eventual World Series champion, more than anything we use those experiences to be motivated, not only by the failure but also by learning from what we didn't do well enough. We know what we need to do to win and our plan is to go out and do that."
Game 1 between the Yankees and Twins is set for 7:07 p.m. ET Friday.