The New York Yankees are four wins away from becoming World Series champions for the first time in 15 years, and manager Aaron Boone believe his current team is the best he has led so far — for more reasons than one.
After an 82-80 season in 2023 that left the team out of the postseason entirely, the Yankees entered 2024 determined to right the wrongs of the previous year and contend for a title. While it certainly helped to add Juan Soto to a strong team, Boone said the team's success and potential championship is not just a result of talent.
“There’s no denying the closeness that these guys have with one another,” Boone said, via The Athletic's Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty. “The best team situation you can get into is when you can genuinely say at the end of the year, or any point of the year, not because you desire it but because this is how you feel: ‘I want it for the guy next to me more than myself.'
“That exists with this team, and that’s powerful.”
Yankees will play Dodgers in star-studded World Series
While there are high hopes within their clubhouse now, the Yankees have not been without their troubles this season. Notably, the team, after a 49-21 start to the season, seemed on the verge of collapsing. After its torrid start, from mid-June to late July, New York won just 11 of 35 games and slipped from first in the American League to third, behind the Cleveland Guardians and AL East rival Baltimore Orioles.
Fortunately for the Yankees, they pulled out of the skid and ultimately surpassed both Baltimore and Cleveland en route to the top playoff seed in the AL. And in the postseason, New York has done what it has needed to do; first, the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS in four games, and then they survived numerous scares and came up with timely hits to beat the Guardians in five games in the ALCS.
Now, the Los Angeles Dodgers await in the World Series, which will feature a highly anticipated battle of superstars.
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On one side, there is the Yankees' Aaron Judge, who will almost assuredly be named AL MVP for a second time in three years after a season in which he led MLB in home runs (58), RBIs (144), walks (133), intentional walks (20), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.701), and OPS (1.159). The other side includes Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese two-way phenomenon who, due to offseason elbow surgery, decided to make history in other ways.
Instead of pitching and hitting at a high level like he had with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani dedicated himself to hitting and baserunning in his first season as a Dodger. In doing so, he achieved a feat no one else ever has; on Sept. 19, he became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season. As a result, Ohtani will very likely win the NL MVP award, which would be the third MVP honor of his MLB career after winning the AL's version of the award in 2021 and 2023.
In addition to those MVP sluggers, the Yankees-Dodgers World Series includes stars such as Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
