NEW YORK — Friday night was an example of why very good may not be good enough.
The New York Yankees’ player-development machine may relegate two of the best hitters in baseball, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, to just a single playoff game this year. A nearly $237 million payroll — the Red Sox couldn’t even acquire Steve Pearce without asking the Blue Jays to spare some change — may be just good enough to watch a cheaper Yankees team, stacked for the present and the future, jolt past them.
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Well before the Yanks’ 8-1 drumming of the Red Sox on Friday night, there was reason to believe the Yanks were the best club in the American League East. There is cause to think that Yanks general manager Brian Cashman has assembled the team to beat because of the depth of the farm system, even though the last two division titles belong to the Sox.
Four Yankees home runs Friday and a dominant outing from CC Sabathia, before Chad Green was unleashed from the bullpen, highlight the monster that lurks down I-95.
Cashman reiterated before the game that he’s not done.
“If we go with what we have, so be it, but that would be more reflective of the inability to find a [trade] match comfortable enough to follow through with,” Cashman told reporters of the trade market, including Newsday. “Clearly, final call is always going to be ownership, so I’ll stay engaged with Hal Steinbrenner and make sure he has every piece of information every step of the way. We’ll make our recommendations.”
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Yanks second baseman and top prospect Gleyber Torres is a couple months younger than Rafael Devers. Torres has played 22 fewer games this season, and already has one more home run.
No one’s denying Devers and the Sox are good. No one could. The Yankees and Torres just might be a hair or three better.
On a whole, Friday night’s game is one of those few in a season that the Sox need to wash away. There was little redeeming for the Red Sox, unless you count Eduardo Rodriguez’s ability to stretch six innings out of a start that could have ended in the fourth.
“Stuff was there,” manager Alex Cora said. “It was kind of like a weird game, honestly.”
Cora was talking about Rodriguez, but what was weird on a whole Friday night is how outmatched the Sox looked. That hasn’t often happened. After the Sox had to turn to Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez on Thursday, poor Justin Haley was thrown to the wolves, a mop-up man who served up homer No. 21 to his college teammate, Aaron Judge, and Greg Bird’s second of the night.
As the 2018 season has thrown three super-teams front and center in the American League, the Yankees will continue to be a measuring stick. The only one that matters, in fact.
Yanks third baseman Miguel Andjuar is 23. So he’s a little older than Devers. He hit his 12th home run of the season in the fourth inning.
“He's under control in the batter's box,” Cora said. “He’s a guy who will expand, at the same time he's able to get to pitches out of the zone. That pitch was up, he got to it. A week ago, two weeks ago there was a breaking ball down and in and he got to it. He's a very talented kid. I know a lot of people were talking about him in the offseason, especially with [the Yankees pursuing] Gerrit Cole and all that, that he was somebody Pittsburgh wanted. I can tell why they wanted him, he's a good player.”
Steve Pearce made his debut for the Sox in the clean-up spot on Friday night and doubled on the first pitch. He had added a single later on.
He’s a good pick-up who helps the Sox bench. Cora went as far as to call it "a great baseball move."
This year, the Yanks may always have an even more impressive move to make.