Suzyn Waldman: “Yankees Got EXPOSED”

Suzyn Waldman: “Yankees Got EXPOSED”

We welcome in the legendary voice of the New York Yankees, one of my favorite people ever, Susan Waldman. Susan, how are you after last night’s tough defeat? I’m fine. And you know what’s really interesting about this and I’m listening to people talk about the surprise. If you’re surprised that the Toronto Blue Jays took it to the New York Yankees, you haven’t been paying attention because just think back to July when this team did exactly the same thing at the Rogers Center. They are totally balanced. They found a way to get through their pitching. Their pitching has been their Achilles heel. They found a way to fix that at least for this um at least for this series. And you know, a lot of the things that came down to what we talked about through the year. I mean, mistakes. Jazz Chisum. I know he feels terrible, but there it was. You make a mistake in this kind of game and you will probably lose. The one thing, Susan, that I am personally surprised at, forget about even Free and Rodon, that could happen to the best of them. Although I was a little surprised, but you just mentioned it like I thought the Yankees would hit. I knew the Blue Jays had a better lineup than Boston. I am shocked that the Yankees didn’t hit enough, especially in a bullpen game. Well, here’s here’s something that I when I was listening to to John Schneider and a lot of the guys I’ve uh spent a lot of time, you know, around there to find out what they were doing. Now, what they did was set up their pitching to match up with the lineup. They didn’t This was all planned. This guy’s coming in. Eric Lowry, you’re getting up. And they’ve had it all. And he sent a a text to Pete Walker, the pitching coach, and the assistant guys, and said, “Get ready. We’re going to have some fun tonight.” And they had it planned. They didn’t just say, “Oh, judge is getting up. Let’s do this.” It was planned. Yeah. And so they and they But of course, you all also have to execute. You know, I I actually thought, “Oh, a bullpen game.” And then I found out what they were actually doing. I said, “Whoa, this isn’t going to be as easy.” um as and they didn’t even have to use Yavich who was out there. Y Savage who was sitting there the whole time and that would have been interesting interesting too. But you talk about Freed and Rodan. Um if they do not lose three games to the Miami Marlins and don’t blow a couple of games that they have that we were all saying, “Oh well.” Well, it wasn’t oh well cuz it cost them a division which meant that Luis Heel had to go and pitch game one and not Max Freed. Well, well, Susan, so very smart uh take on what Schneider did, how it was planned out. That can’t get overlooked. He he hit the right buttons and his team his team rewarded him. Was there more Boone could have done last night? I with the with the way they play and the way they’ve played all year, I don’t I don’t think so. I don’t know. I mean, you’ve got some holes in this lineup. You had terrible holes in this lineup and that comes from I mean, Gisham had a great year with the home runs and all that. There was really never a leadoff hitter in this. Look what Toronto did. And I don’t want to They’re not the best team of all time. I was This was the team that I was worried about. I thought if they played anybody else, they’d get through it and get to the World Series. I was worried about them. And and it turned out to be true just because of the way the way they play. Look at their um no-names that and and I’m saying you they’re not no names now because the name of Ernie Clement we’ll all remember all the time now but those guys contributed every single time. John Schneider the way he ran this team and don’t forget this was a few years ago when that team was like this team home run or nothing and they’ve turned that around. Maddingley had a had a hand in that. All kinds of people had a hand in that. But everyone in this lineup on Toronto had at least something to do with one win over this series. Every single one of them. And the person that you feared the most was the one who didn’t get anything done. And that was George Springer, but everybody else did. Yeah. And Bette didn’t even play. I mean, so they’re set up well here. You know, listen, it it’s been like this for years. People call, and I don’t think it’s right, but people do it. Fire Boone, fire. Okay. You know that you’ve heard it a million times, but there’s got to be a point, Susan, where there’s an internal checkpoint for the Yankees as to how they build out rosters, what they teach philosophically. Will this facilitate some sort of real change? I I they didn’t last year when they did the it two years ago when they did the supposed audit when they called in a another uh analytics department to see if they were doing things right and they decided they were doing things great. You know, they believe in the way they’re playing and that sounds like it’s not an excuse. It’s just the reality. And all these people that are saying Aaron Boon is not the problem here. He really is not. and and if if they fired him this minute, they would bring in somebody just like him. Yep. Because they believe that that the manager is the conduit between the front office and the players. And most organizations work like that. But you if you’re going to do that, you have to have better roster construction and you have, you know, we’re talking about this, but look at the beginning. When was the first time I was on and say, “Why are there three left-handed catchers on this team?” Right? Why is there no third baseman on this team? There was literally not a third baseman on the team when the team started. Yes. Oswwell Cabrera. Yes. Right. But that was, you know, he was a utility guy. How many DHS? All of that stuff. We heard A-Rod referencing that last night as well on his pregame show or postgame show with Fox. Do So with that being said, Susan, it sounds like you don’t expect significant changes in the front office. Okay. What about significant changes to the look of the actual roster? I would Well, they’re going to have to have a have a a change. I mean, you know, you look at what is what is there. They’re going to have to decide. Is is Ben Rice a first baseman? Are you going to go forward with I know he’s going to hit. Are you going to go forward with Ben Rice as your first base? I think he’s terrible. You’d be my DH myself. Well, but that Well, you have a DH. Yep. You have a That’s what That’s what Alex was talking about yesterday. You look at it. Can you get a right-handed catcher? Maybe. Can we get somebody that is Austin Wells your catcher? If he is, can you get maybe a right-handed backup so there’s a little balance here? Mhm. What are you going to do about left field? Is Jason Dominguez going to play or is he not going to play? How many years is this going to go on? All right. And then Spencer Jones going to be next conundrum is Yeah. What? Spencer Jones next. All the young guys like that’s going to be Vulpi has failed and I think in part because of the organization. Dominguez, you mentioned him. Spencer Jones next. Like it’s been the same thing, Susan, year after year. Well, but here’s here’s what I want. You just said Bi has failed. Do you think that they think he’s failed? It doesn’t sound like it. No, but that’s a problem. Yeah. Is it or is he having a bad year? I mean, that’s they’re going to have to decide this. I really think this now. Do you signed Klay Bellinger or now I’m hearing Kyle Tucker? the Yankees, by the way, about signing. Um, if the I don’t ever think I remember a time when the New York Yankees did not get a player they wanted, except maybe the the Japanese guys who didn’t want to come to the East Coast. Has there ever been a time that Yankees have been outbid by somebody that they wanted? Um, you know, and they really didn’t get Well, but that was another thing once we got to the mother and the clothes option. I mean, that sometimes you go a little too far, but that see not not having soda was not the problem. Correct. I agree. Right. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s funny has nothing to do with this. I I’m I’m with you on that. I think a lot of people jump into it, but the reality is you’re right. All right. Now, quickly for we use his name. We when the Yankees made the last down the World Series, it was pretty clear he had no emotional connection to the Yankees and we didn’t know what was going to happen and then we found out. I feel like Bellinger could be a little different. His dad played here. He seemed to kind of tap into the emotion of being a Yankee. I think he loves it here and I think he’s a perfect fit. They’ve got to feel the same way. They have to, right? I I I don’t know. He’s going to be what, 34 years old? I don’t know. Is the analytics department going to say in a in a, you know, in the month of May in 2006, he’s not going to be the same? I don’t know what they’re going to do. Does he want to be here? You bet he does. He loves it here. He loves everything. The connection between his dad was so real. It was palpable. Opening day, he kept saying, you know, just one more day and it all comes around. He loves it here. And by the way, he’s one of these players. He is a manager’s dream. Anything you want. I mean, he would have caught if they asked him to. You know, Aaron Boon would say, “Can you play next Tuesday? Can you play first day?” Sure, whatever you want. You know, there’s high maintenance and low maintenance. He’s no maintenance at all. And he really was terrific. And this and and I think this uh heel was bothering him more than he let on because he did not look the same after he hurt his heel. We we saw A-Rod again say it last night. There were reports from Andy Martino of SNY last week saying that Boone is making the in-game decisions. A-Rod says otherwise. This is more for an office. Boon Jeter said it last night in the postgame, too. He doesn’t think that Boone’s making these decisions. I’ll ask you, Susan, who’s in touch with it more than anybody else. You’ve been around it forever and you’re there every day. Who is making those decisions in game? Okay. You’re not going to like this because it’s it’s but people think that Aaron Boon doesn’t is doing what they tell him to do. He is in lock step with him. I don’t understand why nobody understands this. He believes everything they believe. They go over a plan that they think this will happen, this will happen, and this will happen. If it doesn’t happen, Boon makes the decision of who can is who can come out. But don’t think that he disagrees with them. I mean, I don’t think anybody gets that concept. He when he had his interview here, one of the things that they did was make out lineups and the the analytics did it and he did it and he did it for a long time. He matched them all the time. He thinks just like this. I mean, what do they think they do? That somebody calls down from Catchman Suite and and there’s a phone in the dugout that says, “Bring in this guy.” No. No. I these decisions these ingame they’re his but the plan is that whole group. It’s a group. It’s not somebody sitting upstairs and coming down. They It’s a It’s together. And anybody thinks that Aaron Boon doesn’t agree with them. That’s why he got this job, right? Yeah. You know, he think he he believes in all this. If you think back to when he was on ESPN, he was always bringing up this weird analytic stuff. Back then weird analytic stuff. He was, you know, think back. He was he was really out there. And sometimes I’m you’d watch him and you think, “What?” We didn’t know what that was back then. That’s a long time ago. It was Oh, man. You said, “What is he talking about?” Okay. And And so he’s It’s Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, we’re The three of us are on the same page. I think it is just abjectly disrespectful the way people belittle or position Boon. I think it’s inaccurate and I think it’s just wrong. Okay. So, we all believe that. But I want to go back to something you said about him being in complete agreement with the with the front office or the analytics. I’m of the mindset, Susan, that that that disagreement sometimes is healthy. That disagreement can spur debate or a new philosophy or a new thought. I don’t want 10 people saying, “Yep, and I’m not saying it goes like this, but yep, I agree. I agree. I agree.” No, I want somebody to stand up and say, “Hey, we’ve been doing this for a couple. This isn’t working.” I wouldn’t mind that. Well, I think a lot of people wouldn’t mind that. And I’m not in on those meetings, but obviously not a lot has changed. out there, but it was if you look look at what Brian Cashman and who Brian Cman brought in here and the way they and what he did at the um at the deadline. You need a third baseman, he went and got a third baseman. You need to overhaul the bullpen. He went and overhauled the bullpen. It should have worked. It did not. Um there are there are reasons I think for that because you have to you do have to understand people and I’m not quite sure that that’s part of the equation um anymore, but that’s the that’s neither here nor there. But he did everything. I think Brian Cashman did everything he could to fix this roster. The roster was at the beginning was the problem. And if you spend all year trying to fix it, you know, then then it leads to these kinds of kinds of things. Um it’s not I think if they had lost to the Red Sox, which was clearly an inferior team, this would have been devastating. The the Blue Jays are are good. I mean, they are really good. and what they have done with their lineup and how they mix and match. Their problem is their bullpen, but that, you know, pitching is a whole other thing. You can’t always develop pitching. And most of those kids that are that we saw Little and Fisher and Flu Hardy, they’re all 5 years old, so they will get better as it goes on, but they know what they’re doing there. It’s the way they use their roster that I think is different from here. Um, I mean, Amed Rosario was brought in to hit uh left-handers, which he does. So, he only played when there’s a left-hander. I mean, you he’s a good player. Every time he played, he did something. You don’t The roster itself was not did not lead to um the kind of games that the Toronto Blue Jays had. So, it’s been 16 years, Susan, since the Yankees have won a World Series. It is the longest drought between championships in their history. How would you fix their issues? Well, I am not um I I am a different kind of person. I mean, I know information is great. I don’t make decisions on the past does not equal the future. To me, information is absolutely great, but there has to be some kind of um more inclusive kind of way to do this. It’s the is it the player’s fault? Is it their fault? Is you got to look at who’s here? Jazz Chisum. I mean, he’s exciting. He loves it here. He tries to play. Is that the kind of person that you want there? Is you have to decide about Vulpi? What is What is he? Is this a bad year? Are we going to go through this every year with somebody having um a competition with Anthony Vulpi until George Lombard gets here? And then what do you do? They’ve got some decisions. Are they going to go with Spencer Jones next year? give him a shot. Why would that be different from the shot they really didn’t give Jason Dominguez? Why would they treat him differently? They don’t really give Dominguez any runway. Well, because he couldn’t he didn’t he couldn’t play left field. You do have to be able to do it. I don’t know if he can hit. He can’t hit right-handed yet. Yeah, he was supposed to be a switch hitting. I mean, he’s still 23. I don’t know what to do. And Susan, can you help me out with my partner here because he keeps saying he wants Dominguez in center field. Can you tell him Dominguez can’t play center fielder? They don’t want him in center field. He’s He’s not Joe Deaggio out there. I know they keep saying that, you know, he was a center fielder. No, he he’s not. No, you don’t you don’t want to see that. You I don’t He’s not a left fieldielder. So I I just get rid of him at this point. I understand that. So now that’s why that’s one I think so I think that’s one of the people that Alex was saying is another DH. That’s why I said there were five of them, but he was supposed to be a a a a switchhitting uh DH or left fielder and he never hit right-handed because they did not give him a runway. They tried. They really did. I think they’ve worked with him. Maybe he I think what you have to do if you were going to make Dominguez a left fielder when he came up last year, you put him in left field and you leave him there. You leave him there for five months and see if he can do it. But you can’t because this is not, you know, this is not the Kansas City Royals. You can’t you can’t do that. Mhm. You know, a couple of balls go through. There were lot you know, it’s it’s um Aaron Boon said this was the most talented team that he has had and the most complete team. On paper, he is absolutely right. On paper, I agree. Put down those names and who they are and you look at this roster and you go, “Wow.” And for whatever reason, it doesn’t play. That’s why you know you don’t what? You don’t play games on paper. Yeah. That’s why there’s a heartbeat. Last thing for me, Susan, I think our audience would like to hear this. And I don’t know how wrapped up or how much you care about this, but you certainly know the history as well as anybody that we can possibly call up, which is why we called you. When you don’t win a championship for the Yankees, there’s there’s a different level of scrutiny. Donnie doesn’t have one, but Donnie, you had no pitching and a bad back, and it’s a different relationship, I think, a little bit with Donnie with Judge. If he never wins one, I know I’m pushing this forward a little bit here, but if he never wins one, do you believe he can be viewed as I as an alltime Ruth Deagio Mantel bearer Yankee Titan Jeter? They all had one thing in common, didn’t they? They all won. I I think he will be the next to me. I think Aaron Judge is probably to watch him for the last eight years and he’s unbelievable. He’s as good a player as I’ve ever seen in every single way. uh a better person and he’s um he will be like Mattingly here. I mean it was like nobody was more beloved than Matting. And by the way uh when I went to say goodbye to some of the Blue Jays, one of the things I said, “All right, congratulations. It’s very nice. You better get Don Mattingly his ring now.” I’m with you on that, too. I hate Toronto, but winter for Donnie. I’m with you. I’m with you. Yep. Um I And I I do feel, you know, Aaron Judge is going to be what, 34 in April or 35, whenever his birthday is. Um, is he going to be this is he going to be this person? We are watching something really special really. And sometimes you know you’re in the middle of it like you know when you saw Mariano you knew that you take every everything in this is never coming back again. And you know players are different every there’ll be another one in generation. This is as good a player as as I’ve ever seen. And what he doesn’t have that the other have is rings. Where would you rank that moment? went the home run off the foul pole, you know, because of where it was. I mean, you know, it was a division series. It was really wonderful. It was I was glad for him because now this will stop. But they didn’t win. So, is that going to be See, that’s part of it. It was a wonderful moment. Did they win? No, they did not. Susan, you are the best. Love listening to you. By the way, John Mattingley, I still remember hitting .417 in the in the wild card. Hey, Susan. So, hold on to your home runs are right. I was at every one of those games. He hit the ground rule double in Seattle. Oh my. That was amazing. Yankee fans wanted him to be the manager. Susan, yeah, a lot of people wanted him to be the manager. Salman, whatever. It’s a It’s a really long time ago. A really long It’s 20 years ago. Almost 20 years ago. God, what happened there? We’ll discuss it discuss it over lunch one day. Interesting. Susan, you are the We’ll pick up the bill to hear this story. Susan, you are the best. We love you. Great job on the call. Thanks for having me on. Yep. Sorry it didn’t work out. March 25th. Our f March 25th. Opening night in San Francisco. Nothing says opening day like a night game in San Francisco. Okay. The chase for 28. She’s already fired up about that. We love you, Susan. Netflix. Yes. Can you imagine Netflix opening night? New York Yankees is going freaking That’s a joke. She’s right. Maybe more people will be listening to you on the fans. Point. Thank you, Susan. All right. Thank you. Byebye, guys. She is the best. I love having her on. She’s awesome. Oh, man. Makes me smile. Yeah. And look, there’s a lot there, you know, whether it’s the We got to get that Donnie story. We have to get that Donnie story. I knew a little bit of Tell me off the air. Tell me something. All right. BT and S all def.

Yankees legend Suzyn Waldman joins BT & Sal and absolutely goes off on the state of the Bronx Bombers! She calls out the front office philosophy, questions Aaron Boone’s role, and delivers a reality check on Aaron Judge’s legacy without a championship.

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