Stephen A. Smith couldn't hide his frustration Monday morning, mere hours after the Houston Astros eliminated the New York Yankees from the Major League Baseball postseason.
The Yankees, winners of 99 games during the regular season, defeated the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Division Series but were clearly overmatched in the ALCS by the Astros, who completed a four-game sweep with a 6-5 win Sunday night in the Bronx.
"Miserable. Miserable. I'm very disgusted with the Yankees," Smith, a Yankees fan, said Monday on ESPN's "First Take" during a segment with MLB insider Jeff Passan. "When everybody was celebrating Aaron Judge and his single-season home run chase, what did I say on national television? I don't give a damn about all of that. Congratulations, but these are the Yankees that we're talking about. It's not individual accolades we're chasing. It's the 'chip. And the fact is you haven't been to the World Series since 2009. Forget winning one. You haven't been there. And you repeatedly lose to the Houston Astros. I was like, 'I want to see what you do in the postseason.' And obviously, they got swept. And the (Astros) are celebrating in the Bronx, having champagne draped all over them in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse. I'm appalled. I'm appalled."
The Yankees now face a crucial offseason, with Aaron Judge's free agency being the most compelling storyline. Judge is coming off a 2022 campaign in which he set an AL single-season record with 62 home runs, while slashing an amazing .311/.425./.686, but the hulking slugger struggled in the playoffs, posting a .139/.184/.306 line with two homers, three RBIs and 15 strikeouts in 38 postseason plate appearances.
The smart money is on Judge returning to the Yankees, as the organization can ill afford to lose its best player and face of the franchise. They'll presumably face plenty of competition on the open market, though, with the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers among the other potential suitors with deep pockets. It all makes for an uncomfortable (and very un-Yankees-like) reality.
"God rest his soul, if (former Yankees owner) George Steinbrenner was still alive, this would not be happening," Smith said. "They would be spending money. They wouldn't be budgeting."
