These Yankees have something to prove in 2022

TAMPA, Fla. — Several Octobers ago, Brett Gardner provided not only the perfect epitaph for postseason baseball in general but for the Yankees of the last five seasons.

“Just came up a little short,” Gardner said in 2018 while standing in the mostly silent home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium after his team was dispatched by the Red Sox in four games in the Division Series. “This is the time of year when good teams get sent home and great teams move on.”

The Yankees have been plenty good since essentially rebooting the franchise by choosing to sell at the trade deadline in 2016 (they stayed in the race after the sell-off but missed the postseason for the third time in four years).

Not a ton was expected in 2017, but the Yankees, sparked by Aaron Judge’s 52-homer American League Rookie of the Year season, surprised many with a run to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series before their season ended at the hands of the Astros.

That would be the first of five October setbacks — the loss to the Red Sox in 2018 followed by a six-game ALCS loss to the Astros in 2019, a five-game ALDS loss to the Rays in 2020 and a loss to the Red Sox in the AL wild-card game at Fenway Park in 2021.

Gardner, now 38, was a part of all of those disappointments. If the Yankees break through this season, the outfielder, who has spent each of his 14 big-league seasons with the Yankees, isn’t likely to be a part of it.

As of publication of this section, Gardner was not back with the Yankees. That prospect was a long shot, barring a glut of injuries to the outfielders in camp. The team has been trying — successfully in some areas and it remains to be seen in others — to get more athletic and more flexible with its roster.

So can the Yankees break through this season and win the World Series for the first time since the franchise’s last appearance in the Fall Classic in 2009?

There is skepticism among a fan base that was steaming after the wild-card loss to Boston and remained angry throughout the offseason as the big-name free agents signed elsewhere.

This was not a surprise to those paying attention to how the club has operated under managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner. Despite some of the reporting to the contrary at the national level, the Yankees were never seriously involved in any of the big-ticket items on the free-agent market — Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Corey Seager and Freddie Freeman, to name a handful.

All along, the winter plan was for a roster makeover not necessarily on the cheap — the Yankees will have the biggest payroll in franchise history this season at roughly $256 million — but without dispersing a $200-million-plus megadeal or even a $100-million-plus one.

The biggest move came late on the night of March 13 when the Yankees sent catcher Gary Sanchez and third baseman Gio Urshela to the Twins — who surprisingly wound up with Correa because of an oddly structured three-year deal that has an opt-out after the first year — in exchange for third baseman Josh Donaldson, shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and backup catcher Ben Rortvedt.

“We feel by doing this trade that we’ve upgraded defensively and offensively at third, defensively at shortstop, placed Gleyber [Torres] at a position he’s best at — at second base — so on the infield side, we’ve upgraded three different ways,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “And improved the defense on the catching side as well. It was with one transaction with one particular team that solved a lot of areas of focus that we had targeted.”

After being unable to trade for top target Matt Olson from Oakland in hopes of filling another area of focus at first base, the Yankees brought back Anthony Rizzo. He quickly fit in last season after being acquired from the Cubs at the trade deadline.

The rotation, led by ace Gerrit Cole, has some questions but looks solid overall. Organizational depth in that area could become an issue, the reason Cashman continues to look for upgrades there. The bullpen again should be one of the best in the league.

The offense should be significantly better than last year’s wildly inconsistent edition, especially if Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are able to stay healthy for a second straight year and the unit gets the expected bounce-back seasons from Torres and DJ LeMahieu.

“This is a championship-caliber team,” managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said on March 16, speaking just after the Sanchez trade. “This team’s got a lot of experience, it’s a veteran team, it’s got a lot of heart. And I think we’re going to see great things this year.”

October, however, will be the final determinant of just how great and, ultimately, if the 2022 Yankees are good enough.