An ALCS Sweep Provided Further Reminders The Houston Astros Are Who The New York Yankees Used To Be

Given their stately history, it will always be a little jarring when the Yankees get eliminated from the playoffs in resounding fashion, especially at home. But the sights and sounds early last Monday morning following their season-ending loss to the Astros weren’t unprecedented.

The Reds cemented themselves as one of baseball’s all-time great teams by finishing off a World Series sweep of the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in 1976. The Royals, who fell to the Yankees in the ALCS three straight times from 1976 through 1978, finally vanquished their demons when George Brett went third deck against Goose Gossage in the Bronx to provide the winning runs as Kansas City closed out a sweep of the best-of-five ALCS in 1980.

The end of the Core Four era officially came with the Tigers sweeping the Yankees in the 2012 ALCS, though it really ended when Derek Jeter suffered his career-altering broken ankle in the 12th inning of Game 1, after which the Yankees never led again. The Red Sox mobbed one another to Frank Sinatra after completing the most stunning comeback in baseball history by winning the 2004 ALCS at Yankee Stadium II — and then repeated the celebration, if not the historic path to it, after closing out the 2018 ALDS across the street at the new Yankee Stadium.

So yeah, the Astros cavorting to “New York, New York” after Aaron Judge’s comebacker produced the final out in their 6-5 win and four-game sweep of the ALCS was somewhat familiar. But it’s a scene the Yankees and everyone else have witnessed — again and again and again and again — delivered this time with a measure of authoritativeness that underlined how the Yankees are now in a position none of us have ever seen: Futilely chasing an opponent who embodies everything they used to be.

The Astros have won four pennants in six years by combining the arrogance of the 1977-78 Yankees — imagine “The Bronx Zoo” on social media — with the ruthless efficiency of the 1996-2000 dynasty. Everyone knew what was coming when Gleyber Torres and Isiah Kiner-Falafa miscommunicated on Jeremy Pena’s potential inning-ending double play grounder in the seventh last Sunday with the Yankees nursing a 5-4 lead. And it took just six pitches for the Astros to score the tying and go-ahead runs via hits by Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman.

The Astros have become baseball’s unquestioned superpower — sorry, Dodgers, the postseason is an unfair lottery, but you’ve still got to get to the World Series more than three times in 10 seasons — while the Yankees have gone 13 seasons without even appearing in the World Series, one year shy of tying the modern standard for Yankees suffering set from 1982 through 1995.

That period was one in which the Yankees were constantly undermined by George Steinbrenner’s meddlesome ways and in which there was no dominant team in Major League Baseball. Ten different teams won the World Series between Yankees pennants, with only the 1992-93 Blue Jays earning back-to-back crowns and only three teams reaching the World Series more than twice. The Cardinals, Athletics and Braves all went 1-2 in the Fall Classic.

Outside of setting the budget, Hal Steinbrenner is hands-off, almost to a fault per a large swath of Yankees fans old enough to rue George’s impatience in the ‘80s. But despite their ample financial resources and Brian Cashman’s streamlining of the baseball operations department, the Yankees are falling further and further behind the Astros.

The Astros’ trips to the World Series in 2017 and 2019 were punched via ALCS wins over the Yankees — seven- and six-game series, respectively, that were much more competitive than this walkover. And this run of sustained success by the Astros began in 2015, when Dallas Keuchel and a trio of relievers combined on a three-hit shutout in a 3-0 win over the Yankees in the AL wild card game.

The increasing ease with which the Astros have disposed of the Yankees in a best-of-seven series isn’t even the starkest reminder of the gap between the teams. The loss in the 2017 ALCS was supposed to usher in the “Baby Bombers” era for the Yankees, whose 10 nine players, per Baseball-Reference WAR, included eight players younger than 30 — everyone except 34-year-old Brett Gardner, a 2005 third-round pick, and 37-year-old CC Sabathia, the ace of the 2009 champions — and four 20-somethings who were signed or drafted and developed by the Yankees, including Judge, the AL Rookie of the Year following his record-setting 52-homer season.

But homegrown players have generated just 67.8 in WAR, per Baseball-Reference, for the Yankees over the last five seasons. More than half that figure has been compiled by Judge (29.2 WAR), who is headed for free agency and seems no better than a 50/50 bet to return, and Gardner (9.3 WAR), who went unsigned in free agency last winter and appears to have taken the Bernie Williams path into forced retirement.

Homegrown players have generated a whopping 126.3 in WAR for the Astros since 2018, a span in which they’ve not only lost George Springer and Carlos Correa to free agency but won consecutive pennants in the years immediately following their departures.

Pena, the rookie who replaced Correa at shortstop, won the ALCS MVP, highlighting that as cathartic as it is for most of America to loathe the Astros for their actions in 2017, it’s also almost equally futile. The only members of the 2017 team to appear in the playoffs this year are Bregman, Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel and Justin Verlander. This is an entirely new team generated by a remorseless baseball machine — one that seems equipped to continue tormenting the Yankees, regardless of how they look next season and beyond.

“This was…” Gerrit Cole said before pausing for four seconds early last Monday morning. “This was…I mean, they beat us in every facet of the way. My expertise is not in general managing or acquiring or building rosters, so it’s hard for me to answer (how the Yankees can close the gap). But I watched this series and I didn’t really see an area where we played better than them.”

Cole was only a little more than three minutes into the last press conference he is likely to hold before next February. But after a few more seconds, he exited because there were no more questions to ask — and for the first time in memory, no answers anywhere to be found for the Yankees.