The 2024 New York Yankees had, objectively speaking, a tremendous season, reaching the World Series for the first time since 2009. When you go 94-68 in the regular season and make a deep postseason run, your weaknesses are usually overshadowed by your strengths. But "usually" isn't a word that applies to the Yankees, and given how embarrassingly the team went out against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, of course all fans wanted to focus on this offseason was how the team would go about fixing its flaws.
Really, one flaw in particular. The Yankees did plenty of things well in 2024; it typically takes hitting on all cylinders in order to put together a year like the Yankees did a season ago. But there was one thing they very obviously didn't: base-running, where New York put together a blooper reel that would make the Keystone Kops blush. Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone and Co. said all the right things over the winter about getting the problem addressed, and even seemed to factor it in when making roster decisions this offseason. But so far in spring training, it's just looking like more of the same.
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Aaron Boone still has no idea how to solve Yankees' base-running blues
A lot of the Yankees' mistakes were bafflingly mental, whether it was players not knowing the situation pre-pitch or trying to be overly aggressive in spots that didn’t make sense. Coaching contributed as well, most notably when Giancarlo Stanton was thrown out at home in Game 3 of the World Series to end the 4th inning while trailing by three runs.
One would think that this would be a point of emphasis for Aaron Boone’s squad heading into the 2025 season. If it is, it isn’t showing yet. In Sunday’s spring training matchup against the Atlanta Braves, the Yankees’ Pablo Reyes cost his team a run with a base-running error. With runners on first and second and two outs, Reyes attempted to go first to third on a shallow single to center field.
The throw from the outfield went to third and Reyes was tagged out before his teammate Oswaldo Cabrera could touch the plate. The run did not score and the inning came to an end. Thankfully for the Yankees, we are still in spring training and these mistakes do not have major consequences just yet. However, knowing this was a problem last season, it has to be concerning for Yankees fans to witness more base-running blunders already.