The postseason will again be without a representative from New York.
For the first time in 21 years, there will be two consecutive MLB postseasons without the New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers were officially eliminated from postseason play on Wednesday with a 9-5 loss to the Orioles.
Following the 1994 players strike, the Yankees made the playoffs an incredible 17 times in 18 seasons, the first 18 years of Derek Jeter's career. But after missing out in 2013, the Yankees are again home in October in 2014, the first time they have missed the playoff in consecutive seasons since going a dozen years without a postseason from 1982-93.
Brian McCann hit 20 home runs for a seventh straight season in his first year in New York, but surely the Yankees expected more than a .289 on-base percentage and .410 slugging average from their catcher in the first year of a five-year, $85 million contract.
Nobody truly stood out on offense for the Yankees, and having Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury battle in the low .400s for the highest slugging percentage on the team among regulars is no way to contend.
The Yankees in 2015 could benefit in a couple of ways. For one, it's hard to imagine next year's shortstop having a worse season than Jeter in his final year. Jeter hit .253, at or near the bottom among qualified regulars in the majors in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS, and was at or below replacement level depending on your defensive metric of choice.
Full, healthy seasons out of CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka will also go along way in determining New York's 2015 fate. Sabathia was 3-4 with a 5.28 ERA in just eight starts in 2014, and allowed 10 home runs in 46 innings. He had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in July, and is expected to be ready for spring training.
Tanaka was brilliant in his first year in the majors, 13-4 with a 2.47 ERA in 19 starts, with 139 strikeouts in 134⅔ innings, but missed two and a half months with a partial tear of a ligament in his right elbow. New York is hopeful the righthander, signed to a seven-year, $155 million contact last winter, can avoid surgery and be ready for spring training.