Alex Rodriguez insists “there’s no bigger fan than me [of] the Yankees.”
But after slamming them for their poor roster construction following their playoff ouster in the ALDS, Rodriguez had a somewhat surprising answer on Monday when asked what the Yankees need to fix to get over the hump and win their first title since 2009.
“They just need some stability,” Rodriguez said at the premiere screening of the HBO documentary “ALEX vs. AROD,” which dives into the former Yankees slugger’s rise and fall through his complicated career.
“If you see a lot of the teams that do well in October, you see the same guys coming back. We lost in ’04, and it took five years with the same core to get it right. But if you switch everything out every year, it’s hard to get that continuity that you need. Continuity is synonymous with championships.”
Heading into the offseason, the Yankees do appear to be planning on largely running it back next year, with Aaron Boone set to return for his ninth season as manager and a core led by Aaron Judge. Brian Cashman, of course, will be in his 29th season as general manager next year.
Many of the supporting actors around Judge have changed over the years, but no combination yet has been able to bring a championship back to The Bronx.
This year’s version was outplayed in the ALDS by the Blue Jays, who eventually fell to the Dodgers in a classic, seven-game World Series.
“We saw the greatest World Series in my lifetime,” Rodriguez said. “You saw the level of play was at an all-time, exquisite level. I believe in the Yankees. There’s no bigger fan than me [of] the Yankees. I wish I could say I love everything they’re doing. But I’m hoping they get it right and I have faith they will get it right.”
The Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the 2024 World Series and on Saturday became the first club to win back-to-back titles since the 1998-2000 Yankees, “have become the class of baseball,” Rodriguez said.
Whether the Yankees do enough this offseason to catch up to them remains to be seen.
“They’re separating themselves from the world,” Rodriguez said. “They’re incredible. They have incredible resources, but they’re deploying it in a beautiful way.”
