In the aftermath of his biggest bet of his offseason and one of the largest in his tenure, Brian Cashman acknowledged the stakes and the urgency.
“We’re just very proud of the fact we can call him a Yankee at this time,” the general manager said in December before his one guaranteed season of Juan Soto, “with the full intentions of taking a shot at a title.”
The shot missed. The Yankees now hurdle into an offseason of uncertainty after a season of a lot of joy, far too many mistakes and ultimately yet more disappointment.
The drought has reached 15 years without a World Series championship for the Yankees, whose dream died three wins short and at the hands of the Dodgers.
Dave Roberts’s group fought its way out of a five-run hole, with the hosts’ help, and celebrated on the field in The Bronx in a dramatic, 7-6, Game 5 Yankees loss on Wednesday that was part heartbreaker and part self-inflicted head-shaker.
“I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken,” manager Aaron Boone repeated, “and I’m heartbroken for those guys that poured so much into this. The ending is cruel. It always is.”
Aaron Judge, whose rough postseason finished with both a home run and a critical error, will return but for what will be his 33-year-old season.
As (likely) will Gerrit Cole, who pitched 6 ²/₃ mostly excellent innings (in which all five of his runs were unearned) and will turn 35 in September.
Giancarlo Stanton will reach his 35th birthday next week. The core is aging, and maybe the window is beginning to close without a title.
They do not know about the future of Soto, who is expected to receive the second-biggest contract in baseball history — behind only Shohei Ohtani, whose Dodgers hugged on the infield grass while Soto watched from the home dugout for what might be the final time.
The Yankees failed to do what every other World Series contender that dropped its first three games had failed to do: Force a Game 6.
They drilled the underbelly of the Dodgers bullpen in Game 4 before a Game 5 in which they jumped out to a five-run lead and threw it away in a mistake-filled, fifth-inning collapse.
“That inning’s going to sting for a while,” Anthony Rizzo said of a frame in which the Yankees gave the Dodgers six outs.
Wasted were early home runs from Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Stanton, the Yankees getting through the third inning with a 5-0 lead.
Wasted was plenty more on a night the Yankees left 12 on base, went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and allowed the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth inning.
Tommy Kahnle faced three batters and retired none before Luke Weaver entered and allowed sacrifice flies to Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts that became the game-deciders.
Wasted was the only year the Yankees knew they would have Soto.
The pending free agent cost plenty — including Michael King, who emerged as a star with the Padres — and enjoyed his time in The Bronx, but the money likely will dictate where he signs.
“Stay with us,” was the bit of advice Stanton offered.
The 2024 Yankees made progress — reaching the World Series for the first time since 2009 — but not enough by Yankees standards.
In a season in which the Yankees continually attempted to out-hit their mistakes, those mistakes made the difference in an inning that will haunt this franchise.
In the fifth, Gold Glover Anthony Volpe, the defensively sound Judge and a mental mistake from Cole, the brainiac pitcher, cost them.
It started with a single from Kiké Hernandez. Tommy Edman then hit a sinking liner to center, which is when things began to unravel.
Judge got to the ball and appeared to glance toward first to see if he had a chance to double-up Hernandez, and the ball then deflected off his glove for an error that left two on without an out.
Three were on without an out, as a batter later, Will Smith grounded into the shortstop hole and Volpe put a throw in the dirt to Chisholm in an attempt to get the lead runner.
Cole struck out Lux and Ohtani to move one step from escaping, but Cole’s steps failed him: Betts hit a cue ball to first base, where Rizzo fielded and Cole did not cover quickly enough, Betts reaching and a run scoring.
The first Dodgers run scored accidentally. The next four were more forceful, Freddie Freeman driving in two with a single to center and Teoscar Hernandez doubling over Judge’s head to tie the game.
“We just didn’t get the job done,” Judge said. “Just a couple mistakes along the way that hurt us.”
Such is how the Yankees’ season died: Bemoaning what could have been and maybe would have been while watching what was — a World Series that slipped away.
