2017 Yankees

The 2017 New York Yankees weren't supposed to be here. That's the part people forget. This was a team in transition -- a club that had just shipped Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for prospects, waved goodbye to A-Rod, and entered spring training with a roster full of kids nobody outside the Bronx could name. The projections had them fighting for a Wild Card spot. Maybe. And then Aaron Judge happened, and Gary Sanchez kept mashing, and Luis Severino turned into a freakin' ace overnight, and suddenly the Baby Bombers weren't rebuilding at all. They went 91-71, won the Wild Card, knocked off Cleveland in the ALDS, and came within one win of the World Series. The Astros needed seven games to put them away. One win. That's all that separated this team from a pennant.

Building the Roster

Brian Cashman spent the 2016 trade deadline tearing things down. He dealt Chapman to Chicago, grabbed Gleyber Torres as the centerpiece return, and signaled to the baseball world that the Yankees were playing the long game. Then he turned around that winter and re-signed Chapman to a five-year, $86 million deal -- because when you're the Yankees, you can do both. Blow it up AND reload. The rest of the offseason was quiet by Bronx standards. Matt Holliday signed a one-year deal to be the veteran voice in a very young clubhouse. That was basically it.

The rotation was a question mark. Severino had been a disaster as a starter in 2016 (8.50 ERA -- I'm not making that up) before moving to the pen. Masahiro Tanaka was solid but streaky. CC Sabathia was 37 with bad knees and a completely reinvented arsenal. Jordan Montgomery was a rookie nobody had heard of. And the fifth spot? A prayer.

The lineup, though -- the lineup had juice. Judge came into the year with 84 career at-bats and a .179 average from his 2016 cup of coffee. Sanchez had torched the league in his 53-game debut the year before (20 homers in 53 games -- still absurd). Didi Gregorius was finally looking like a guy who could make you forget about the Captain. (OK, not forget. But at least stop wincing every time he threw to first.) Brett Gardner was Brett Gardner -- reliable, gritty, perpetually underrated.

Nobody predicted what came next.

The Regular Season

April blew the doors off. The Yankees went 17-8, and Judge looked like he'd been hitting major league pitching for a decade. Homers were leaving the Stadium at angles that didn't make sense for a human being. Severino, the guy they'd nearly given up on as a starter, threw 97 with a wipeout slider and suddenly looked like the ace they'd been waiting for since Andy Pettitte retired.

May brought some turbulence. Greg Bird's ankle betrayed him again (the man's body hated him -- there's no other explanation), and Jacoby Ellsbury's durability issues meant Gardner had to carry the outfield. But Judge kept hitting, and the wins kept coming.

June belonged to Judge. He crushed 10 homers in the month and the "Judge's Chambers" -- that section in right field where fans dressed up in judicial robes and wigs -- went from novelty to institution. National media couldn't stop talking about the 6-foot-7 rookie who hit baseballs into orbit and then gave the most humble interviews you've ever seen. The kid was box office.

Then came the All-Star break, and Judge put on a show that turned him from a baseball story into a SPORTS story. The Home Run Derby on July 10 at Marlins Park was a one-man demolition. He hit 47 Derby homers, launched balls over 500 feet, and beat Miguel Sano in the finals while the entire country watched. If you didn't know who Aaron Judge was before that Monday night in Miami, you knew afterward.

The front office saw the moment and seized it. At the trade deadline, Cashman went full buyer -- Sonny Gray from Oakland for the rotation, Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson from the White Sox for the pen, and Todd Frazier for third base. Kahnle's changeup became a weapon of mass destruction. Robertson was the veteran arm who already knew where to park at the Stadium. And Frazier? The dude just fit. His energy matched the clubhouse perfectly.

August and September were a sprint. Judge blasted past 40 homers, then 50 -- the first Yankee to reach that number since A-Rod in 2007. Severino kept dealing. Chapman threw triple digits out of the pen like it was nothing. The Red Sox held them off in the East (93-69 to 91-71), but the Yankees locked up the Wild Card.

Judge finished with 52 homers, a 1.049 OPS, 127 walks, and the unanimous AL Rookie of the Year award. He also struck out 208 times (an MLB record at the time), but who cares -- the man hit FIFTY-TWO home runs as a rookie. That's not a stat. That's a myth.

October

The Wild Card Game on October 3 was a coronation. Severino carved up the Twins, the offense dropped eight runs on them, and Bird -- poor, broken, beautiful Bird -- launched a homer that felt like a year's worth of frustration leaving his bat at 110 mph. Yankees 8, Twins 4. The Baby Bombers had arrived and they weren't going anywhere.

Then Cleveland. The Indians had just ripped off a 22-game winning streak -- the longest in AL history -- and they had Corey Kluber, who threw baseballs like a man who genuinely disliked opposing lineups. Game 1 was ugly. Kluber shut the Yankees down and Severino couldn't find the zone. Indians 4, Yankees 0. The skeptics dusted off their "too young" takes.

But this team didn't care about the script. They won Game 2, came home and took Game 3 in front of a Stadium that was shaking, dropped Game 4 to set up a winner-take-all Game 5 back in Cleveland. And Gregorius -- Sir Didi, the guy with the emoji tweets and the sword celebrations -- put the team on his back. He smashed a two-run homer, Judge went deep too, and Severino came back from his Game 1 disaster to deal on the biggest stage. Yankees 5, Indians 2. Didi owned that series. Homers in big spots, clutch hits all over the place, and the kind of October performance that makes you a Yankee forever.

The ALCS against Houston was baseball at its absolute best -- and it still stings.

The Astros took the first two in Houston. The series looked over. Then the Yankees came home and won three straight at the Stadium. THREE STRAIGHT. They led the series 3-2 and were one win from the pennant. The Bronx was ready to explode. Game 5 -- the last one at the Stadium -- was pure chaos and pure magic.

But Houston had Justin Verlander, and Jose Altuve, and Carlos Correa, and a roster built to win right now. They took Game 6 at Minute Maid Park, then closed it out in Game 7 -- Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers combining to shut the Yankees out, 4-0. Season over.

And here's the thing that made it worse (way worse): the Girardi moment. Game 2 in Houston, Todd Frazier got hit on the bat knob -- replays showed it clear as day, ball hit the bat, not the hand -- and Joe Girardi didn't challenge the call. He admitted afterward that he'd made a mistake. "I should have challenged. That's on me." Whether that one call changed the series, we'll never know. But it became the image that defined the end of Girardi's tenure. The Yankees let him go after the season. Ten years, a championship in 2009, 910 wins -- and a missed replay challenge in October became the thing people remember. That's cold. That's also baseball.

Key Moments

I made a mistake. I should have challenged. That's on me.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did the 2017 Yankees do?

The 2017 Yankees went 91-71, finished second in the AL East (two games behind Boston), and earned the AL Wild Card. They beat the Twins in the Wild Card Game, knocked off Cleveland in a five-game ALDS, and lost to the Houston Astros in seven games in the ALCS -- one win short of the World Series. A young core dubbed the "Baby Bombers" -- headlined by Aaron Judge's historic 52-homer rookie season -- powered the whole thing.

How many home runs did Aaron Judge hit in 2017?

Aaron Judge hit 52 home runs in 2017, leading all of MLB and setting a Yankees franchise record at the time. He slashed .284/.422/.627 with a 1.049 OPS, drove in 114 runs, and drew 127 walks. He won the AL Rookie of the Year unanimously and finished second in AL MVP voting behind Jose Altuve. He also won the Home Run Derby at Marlins Park in July, hitting 47 Derby homers.

Why was Joe Girardi fired after 2017?

The Yankees declined to renew Joe Girardi's contract after the 2017 season despite the team's overperformance. A critical factor was Girardi's failure to challenge a hit-by-pitch call during ALCS Game 2 against Houston -- replays showed the ball hit Todd Frazier's bat, not his hand. Girardi admitted the mistake publicly. The front office also cited a desire for a different leadership style that matched the young roster's energy. Aaron Boone replaced him for 2018.

Who were the Baby Bombers?

The "Baby Bombers" referred to the young core of the 2017 Yankees: Aaron Judge (RF, 25 years old), Gary Sanchez (C, 24), Luis Severino (SP, 23), Greg Bird (1B, 24), and Jordan Montgomery (SP, 24), with Didi Gregorius (27) and Brett Gardner rounding out the group. Gleyber Torres was still in the minors but considered the crown jewel of the farm system. The nickname played on the classic "Bronx Bombers" moniker and captured the infectious energy of a team that played with visible joy.

Ninety-one wins. One game from the pennant. And a 6-foot-7 rookie who hit 52 homers and made the whole country fall in love with the Yankees again. The 2017 season wasn't supposed to happen -- and that's exactly why it felt so damn good.