Happy New Year!

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Happy New Year! Happy 2025!

Especially to Yankee fans. Here is my early read on what I believe the Yankees are trying to do in the post Soto Season.

They are attempting to become a more mentally and physically tough team. I don’t know if it will work out, but that is a move that has to be made. Against the Dodgers in the World Series the Yankees showed they were as soft as marshmallows. The errors and mental mistakes of the fifth inning of Game 5 were an accident waiting to happen.

I truly believe there was so much focus on where Juan Soto was going to wind up, it affected the team in a number of negative ways, always waiting for that shoe to drop.

The biggest mistake the Yankees made as an organization was believing that Soto would choose to stay in pinstripes. They should have paid more attention to BallNine. I said from the moment Soto arrived in the Bronx that this was going to be a stopover to raise the ante for signing him to a Mets contract. I never wavered. I never believed Soto was going anywhere else than the Mets. This one was so easy to read – it was all part of the Soto Show – to get him the biggest contract ever and it worked to perfection for Soto, Scott Boras and the Mets.

The Mets had to sign Soto no matter the cost. It is part of who they are, such a signing was in their DNA; an art collector, the richest owner Steve Cohen owning this baseball art that is Juan Soto. Let the next chapter be written by Soto with the Mets.

There is a part of me that says the Yankees stayed in the negotiations just to raise the Mets price for signing Soto, but I don’t think they are that smart.

The Yankees have moved on from Soto in machine-like fashion. Soto could not wait to talk about his free agency even when the Yankees dead body was still warm after that Game 5 World Series disaster, and believe me, that did not sit well with what are now his former Yankee teammates.

The Yankees simply need to do what the Padres did, they became a much better team after Soto left. The Padres somehow lost the “best player in the game not named Ohtani’’ and yet somehow became a much better team. How did that happen? How did they overcome the “loss’’ of Soto?

By becoming a better all-around team. Funny how that works out.

In baseball that can happen if all the pieces fit.

The Padres’ pieces fit perfectly until the final two games of the NLDS when the Padres forgot how to hit and suffered back-to-back shutouts. They suddenly let the situation get too big for them. They got away from what the team had been doing the entire season and suddenly every Padres hitter was trying to become the hero instead of leaning on one another.

But that is also part of the Padres’ DNA. The Padres simply choked away that series to the Dodgers. That is so Padres, a team that has never won a World Series.

In essence the Yankees did the same thing – even though they have 27 World Series championships. The Yankees choked away the World Series to the Dodgers, totally collapsing in the Series’ biggest moments in Game 1 and in Game 5.

Aaron Boone made the worst possible decision imaginable, urged on I’m sure by the Yankees Nerds, to bring in rusty Nestor Cortes in Game 1, allowing Freddie Freeman to walk it off with a 10th-inning grand slam at Dodger Stadium for the 6-3 win.

The moves the Yankees have made are gambles worth taking.

When you lose that kind of game, it is a long road back; and the World Series ended in that Game 5 fifth inning at Yankee Stadium when Aaron Judge dropped a fly ball, Yankee shortstop Anthony Volpe could not throw out Enrique Hernandez at third base and newcomer third baseman Jazz Chisholm did not help the situation when he did not give Volpe a better target because Hernandez rounded off his slide – and then Gerrit Cole set the table for total disaster by not covering first base. Physical and mental mistakes cannot be made in the World Series.

Cole was caught walking off the mound thinking he got out of the jam, but Mookie Betts was safe on his spinning ground ball to first base and then Freddie Freeman lashed a two-out, two-run single and Teoscar Hernandez crushed a two-run double. The Yankees were done, it was only a matter of time until the Dodgers posted the clinching 7-6 victory.

Which brings us to 2025 and lessons learned.

The moves the Yankees have made are gambles worth taking. They signed free agent pitcher Max Fried to a ridiculous eight-year, $218 million contract but most of the free agent contracts this winter have been ridiculous. It is the price of doing business in the majors when you don’t develop your own aces. They also traded for slugger Cody Bellinger in a Cubs salary dump, traded for closer Devin Williams and got Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year, sink or swim deal, signing the aging slugger to a $12.5 million contract.

“I like what the Yankees have done,’’ one longtime talent evaluator told BallNine. Fried is the key to the entire offseason.

“I like him if he stays on the field,’’ the scout said. “I don’t know how much he is going to stay on the field.’’

Fried is a workaholic. There should be no issues with him covering first base. Having Cole and Fried at the top of the rotation is a dynamic duo, especially when it comes to playoff time.

The really good news for the Yankees is that no other teams seem to match up with them in the American League, so if the Yankees play well, they should be able to return to the World Series in 2025. Don’t be surprised to see a Yankees-Dodgers rematch, and if young Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki signs with the Dodgers that will be another coup for LA.

As for Goldschmidt, his bat clearly slowed down in 2024. He will have to find a way to get back to who he was as a hitter in 2022. I think being paired with Judge will be a benefit to Goldy, who is a terrific first baseman and by all accounts is the perfect teammate. In a video conference call with reporters on Thursday, Goldschmidt said, “I still think I can play at a really, really high level.’’

One Cardinals person described Goldschmidt this way to me. “He’s a perfect one-year possible rebound guy for a team that needs him to be a complimentary player. His defense and base-running will be a huge upgrade. He’s the consummate pro. Wants to win.’’

That fits into my theme that the Yankees are trying to get physically and mentally tougher as a team. If they can get back to the World Series, they will have to face a tough team like the Dodgers again. Bellinger is a former Dodger, so it is always good to want to beat your former team, that is yet another part of the Yankees’ equation of 2025 changes, in the post Soto Season.

You can be sure Judge will be motivated like never before after his crucial take your eye off the ball error. It was also interesting that in Aaron Judge’s year-end Instagram look at 2024 featured a host of Yankee teammates, some are former teammates, there was not one picture of his wingman from 2024 Juan Soto. Judge knows the deal.

Can’t wait for the Yankees to play the Mets next season. Instant theater and that is good for baseball.

Along those lines, some in Yankeeland were upset that the Judge error ball was auctioned off and sold for $43,510. Get over it. That’s baseball life. Heck, Mookie Betts’ glove that two Yankee fans tried to separate from his body could have been auctioned off too. That, Yankee fans, is called living up to typecasting and that is exactly how pretty much the rest of the baseball world figures how Yankee fans act.

The Yankees need to lean into their World Series failures – and learn from them – and take nothing for granted. This 2025 season must be a leave no doubt mission of success. No matter who is the opposition, no matter what time of year it is the Yankees need to be in a World Series mindset and take care of all the little things. Little things matter. The Yankees did not do that during the regular season, and it came back to bite them big time.

But no real Yankee fans were surprised by all that. They could see it coming under the kumbaya “leadershhip’’ of Aaron Boone. Here at BallNine we have tried to warn the Yankees and Boone over and over to take care of the little things, but Boone’s arrogance never allowed him to take care of business the way it should be taken care of. He is not there to be the Yankees players’ best buddy. He is there to lead and demand accountability and not just from the umpires. I’m guessing we will see a more demanding Boone in 2025 and with the players the Yankees have added this offseason, there is already more accountability – so Boone’s message should be listened to that much more intently.

By the way, against the Angels, Pirates, Cardinals and Nationals, the Yankees were 6-9 last season. And of course, you know they were 0-4 vs. the Mets.

There is a time to roast marshmallows with the fellas and a time to demand excellence and accountability. That is the great lesson of the World Series for the Yankees. They certainly had enough talent to be there, but they did not have the overall level of concentration that the World Series demands. You can’t just turn that on. That must be a staple of the program from Day 1 of spring training.

Some motivating chips on their shoulders will be a welcome addition to these 2025 Yankees and not just when they play the Mets and former Yankee Juan Soto. Play up to your capabilities, don’t play down to the competition.

I’m not saying Aaron Boone needs to go out there and get into it with a Minnesota marshmallow salesman like Billy Martin once did, but Boone’s Yankees need to take care of business against the marshmallow teams so when the real battles come along, they are ready for the fight.

Happy New Year!