The New York Yankees 2021 season was a disappointing, confusing and bizarre year for the greatest franchise in baseball history. Yankee fans began this season excited but cautious. The Yankees didn’t really do much in free agency beyond re-sign Second Baseman D.J. Lemahieu, (which was much more difficult than it should have been) and sign pitcher Corey Kluber, who was very strong in the start of the year but dealt with a shoulder injury and was never the same. Nevertheless fans were excited headed into the season, and the season was… very inconsistent.
The season started off terribly, with the Yankees going 12-14 in April, and fans thought not much was going to come of the season. And they were sort of right. With the Yankees being just above .500, having a winning record, and going 17-11 in May and things began to look good, despite the fact they began to look a bit shaky, the Yankees had both a 6 game win streak and a 4 game losing streak in May. In June, the Yankees had fallen below .500 for the month (and their overall record for the year), but when the Yankees were at their lowest (which was really low and even included repeated unhelpful comments from the Yankees’ front office in which they basically said, “We can be good – we’re just not!”)…they started to look like a very competent (maybe even a good) baseball team, with help from their new additions from the trade deadline, Joey Gallo—we’ll get to him in a minute—and Anthony Rizzo.
The Yankees looked like they were in a great position after their 13-game win streak. Then, things fell apart quickly. The Yankees were on a 7-game losing streak with no production from their players, especially Joey Gallo who batted .160 with the Yankees, and honestly was one of the worst, most disappointing seasons in recent yankee history from a player. The Yankees had a very rough month in September. In the month they were out of the playoff picture at one point. But luckily a 7-game win streak (Thank you Bronxie, the Yankees pet turtle which D.J. Lemahieu reportedly likes to stare at) and a walkoff single from Aaron Judge put the Yankees into the playoffs. In the wild card game the Yankees got totally, completely, absolutely embarrassed, with only Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and I guess Anthony Rizzo playing well, and Gerrit Cole looking afraid to be pitching in a playoff game, which he is getting paid $364 million to do, the Yankees lost in the Wild Card game 6-2 to the Red Sox, the most disappointing and embarrassing season in recent history. The Yankees future looks, well… odd. Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees, has a contract that expires at the end of the season, so it’s unknown if the Yankees will re-sign him. Some fans want to blow up and rebuild this year, whilst others believe the Yankees could be good, but right now – they’re just not.