PHOENIX – As the postseason progressed, plenty of attention was focused on a championship core of Yankees not expected to return next season. However, the team either installed or discovered a few items this season that should help it remain among the elite even if Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill vanish after this season.
Regardless of the outcome of World Series Game 7 last night against Arizona, the Yanks could be enthused by how Ramiro Mendoza, Mike Mussina and Alfonso Soriano performed this postseason.
That trio now joins established teammates Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams as a group of prime-year players with prime-time credentials as the Yanks plot their future.
Mendoza, a spot starter/long man on previous champions, replaced Jeff Nelson as the main righty set-up man this season and actually proved more versatile than Nelson, especially in an ability to pitch multiple innings. Going into Game 7, Mendoza had permitted one run in 12 1/3 innings this postseason.
Mussina is 2-1 in four playoff starts with a 2.63 ERA. As age clouds how much the Yankees can expect of Roger Clemens and Orlando Hernandez in the future, Mussina and Pettitte provide top-of-the-rotation stability for years to come.
Soriano and Posada led the Yanks in postseason hits (15) and, more important, Soriano’s two walk-off game-winning hits – one in the ALCS and one in World Series Game 5 – have accentuated that he is unafraid of this stage, a vital trait within an organization that expects to be playing these kinds of games annually.
And while matters had not gone well for the Yankees’ present in Phoenix, where they had been outscored 28-3 in the first three games at The BOB, the team’s future has enjoyed good news out of the state. Drew Henson and Marcus Thames have been two of the finest hitters in the Arizona Fall League.
Henson was batting .330 with five homers and 30 RBIs (second in the league) in 25 games. The touted third base prospect, whose hitting eye was questioned at Triple-A, had 17 walks and a terrific .438 on-base percentage. He may have sped his timetable to the majors from 2003 to sometime during next season, though his glove is still a concern (seven errors in 17 games at third).
Thames went from a marginal to legitimate prospect in his second season at Double-A. Now, against better competition in the AFL, Thames was batting .350 with four homers and 20 RBIs.
With O’Neill retiring and Knoblauch almost certainly gone as a free agent, the Yanks have outfield spots available. Thames and another prospect who really blossomed this year, Juan Rivera, could be contenders for jobs.
More likely, one or the other could be part of a package to land an established outfielder such as Darrin Erstad, Cliff Floyd, Brian Giles, Gary Sheffield or Larry Walker.
In the Yanks’ best scenario, they would acquire one of these outfielders, sign Jason Giambi to DH, install Nick Johnson at first and bide time for Henson to develop. Imagine a 2002 lineup that by midseason could be: Erstad, Jeter, Giambi, Williams, Posada, David Justice, Soriano, Johnson, Henson.
Making a trade for a top-tier outfielder will be difficult. The Yanks will not want to deal Henson, Johnson or Soriano, a trio that would be asked for in any major transaction. The Yanks will have to hope a package formed from their next level of prospects – Rivera, Thames, Erick Almonte, Brandon Clausen, Alex Graman, Randy Keisler and Ted Lilly – will suffice.
Bad decisions they made during this season hurt the quality of the package they could offer.
It has often been imagined how good the Yankee bullpen would be right now if the team had wisely re-signed Nelson and had him plus Mendoza and Mike Stanton to set up Mariano Rivera.
The failure to retain Nelson impaired the future, as well. In a futile attempt to replace Nelson, the Yanks traded for Jay Witasick and Mark Wohlers, who during these playoffs – most recently Witasick’s Game 6 humiliation – emphasized they are not championship players.
To obtain these righty non-entities, the Yanks wasted chips in dealing D’Angelo Jimenez and Ricardo Aramboles, prospects good enough to help round out packages this offseason.
That toughens a key transitional offseason for the Yankees. But win or lose the World Series, they at least have gathered substantial positive information about Mendoza, Mussina and Soriano.