The New York Yankees are in the eye of the hurricane.
Aaron Judge and company are already facing the pressure of a tense postseason campaign in a year of historic investment for the organization.
They took a 2-1 series lead over the Kansas City Royals in an ALDS Wednesday night, but they are still a long way from reaching the World Series.
Then Hurricane Milton hit Florida.
The Yankees own multiple sites in the state of Florida, many of which were in the path of the storm. This includes their spring training site, George M. Steinbrenner Field. The organization evacuated all of its minor league players from the training site earlier this week, and it was converted into a shelter ahead of the storm’s expected landfall for Tampa-based organizational employees and their families.
Some of the team’s potential playoff players, including veteran starter Marcus Stroman and promising reliever Clayton Beeter, were potential call-ups to be back on a potential ALCS roster, and they were in Tampa Tuesday throwing at the spring training complex before heading for safer ground by catching a flight to New York.
“It’s an uncertain time,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters this week “Just have to pray for the best and hope for the safety.”
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General manager Brian Cashman told reporters the team had to shut down its instructional league this week and moved its alternate rehab and training site out of the area.
“(Hopefully), the damage is minimal, but that’s probably not going to be the case,” Cashman said.
The hurricane has already proven powerful enough to wreak immense damage on much larger buildings. The Yankees’ division rival, the Tampa Bay Rays, had the roof ripped off their home stadium, Tropicana Field, by Milton’s winds Thursday night. The Rays did not make the playoffs this year, however. So, it won’t interrupt any postseason MLB games. However, that stadium was also reportedly being used as a shelter.
The center of the storm hit 60 miles south of Tampa near Sarasota, Florida, and more than 6.5 million Floridians in the Tampa Bay area reportedly were evacuated by Wednesday.
Milton reached the west-central coast of Florida at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. When it made landfall, the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. Fox Weather has reported that at least five people have died. Florida Gov. Ron Desantis has told reporters his state has not confirmed any deaths but did not rule out the possibility of casualties.
Multiple Yankees players have homes in the area, including Judge, DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres and Austin Wells.
“When you’re in the heat of the playoffs and everything that we’re playing for, there’s always doses of perspective that come in and do that,” Boone said before the team’s 3-2 win in Kansas City Wednesday. “Everyone that knows that we have a handful of guys obviously that have places down there or are based there, and it’s an uncertain time.”
Judge is the listed owner of an $800,000, 2,480-square-foot condo in Tampa Bay that he bought in 2018.
The players, including Judge, who has struggled, will have to bare that uncertainty for the time being. The Yankees captain will have to refocus in a hostile environment amid a historically bad stretch of postseason play Thursday night.
With an 0-for-4 game that included another strikeout Wednesday night, Judge took over sole possession of the highest strikeout rate in MLB postseason history at 34.3%. He has not hit a home run, nor does he have an RBI through the first three games of the series. And he is 1-for-11 with five strikeouts. His postseason batting average dropped to .203 Wednesday.
The Yankees won’t be back home in New York at the earliest until Friday. They play Game 4 against the Royals Thursday night with a chance to win the series.
The Yankees have taken their series lead via a pair of tight one-run wins in Game 1 and Game 3. However, the team has also displayed multiple vulnerabilities against a team with a payroll that is less than a third of the Yankees’.
Ace pitcher Gerrit Cole and fellow high-end starter Carlos Rodón had bad outings in Games 1 and 2. Starting shortstop Anthony Volpe has made multiple costly errors in the first three games that have resulted in Royals runs.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo is also out due to injury this season, leaving backups Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti to hold down that position. Neither has been the difference maker Rizzo typically is when he’s playing well.
The team will look to overcome all of those issues while worrying about potential historic hurricane damage. They are just one win away from reaching the ALCS, which they would host for the first time since 2012 if they can defeat Kansas City.
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