New York Yankees legend David Wells is not one to hide his feelings, and on Monday, he made some waves with his take on the mindset of the 2024 Yankees, who are enduring a 10-20 stretch since mid-June.
WFAN’s Brandon Tierney raised the point that during past losing streaks, “it became very heavy. Losing was felt. Everybody was uncomfortable.” He said that the “biggest difference been Hal’s (Steinbrenner) Yankees and George’s (Steinbrenner) Yankees is that when they lose, nobody’s incredibly uncomfortable.”
SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE YANKEES NEWSLETTER:
He teed up the answer from Wells, who played under George Steinbrenner’s ownership and has an old-school view of the game.
“They’re not (uncomfortable),” Wells said. “They’re getting paid so much money, so I don’t think they care, to be honest with you.”
One of the criticisms of manager Aaron Boone is that he is too much of a players’ manager, at least publicly. Boone has often defended his players after mental mistakes or a lack of hustle instead of taking a harder stance against them. Wells seemed to take a shot at that leadership style.
“In ‘98, for example, we lost like the first three or four games of the year, and (manager) Joe Torre was pissed, and he came in and laid it on the line,” Wells said. “That’s what you want a manager to do. He called (out) everybody; he called (Derek) Jeter out, he called Bernie (Williams out), he called everybody out. It was like, we got too good of a team here to be losing like we are. … It resonated with everybody.”
The 1998 Yankees lost four of their first five games en route to a World Series title after a 114-48 regular season.
Even after this rough stretch, the Yankees are 60-42 — 1 1/2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the AL East and holding a 3 1/2 lead as the first wild-card team. General manager Brian Cashman has the opportunity to make an all-in push at July 30′s trade deadline, too.
Wells pitched for 21 seasons — until he was 44 — including four with the Yankees, where he won a World Series and tossed a perfect game in 1998. In New York, he went 68-23 with a 3.90 ERA in 124 games (851 2/3 innings), and it’s clear that he thinks these Yankees have less fire than the ones he called teammates.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
