When the Kansas City Royals finished off their sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in their AL wild-card clash on Wednesday, many New York Yankees-friendly pundits rejoiced. The New York Yankees spent most of the 2024 season fiercely competing with the O’s for dominion over the AL East, and they would've presented a formidable ALDS challenge for the Bombers.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, however, doesn’t see the Royals as the preferred matchup. The manager issued a wise warning just before the ALDS matchup was set.
“I’m always careful what you wish for,” he said, per New York Post reporter Dan Martin. “I tell that to coaches all the time. We may be in June watching a game and you’re watching a division rival play another team and you’re pulling for another team, I’m like, ‘Hey, careful what you wish for. That team may knock us out.’ So I’m always like, ‘Let it play out, we’ll prepare as best we can for whoever comes our way.’ ”
Yankees fans may wonder if Boone is just providing perfunctory respect to Kansas City. After all, Baltimore was nearly New York’s nemesis this year. They easily handled the Yankees, winning the season series 8-5 and only losing the division because they slumped at the wrong time.
The Royals, on the other hand, were no trouble for the Bombers. New York went 5-2 against Kansas City, outscoring them 42-24.
But the Royals are pretty evenly matched with the Yankees. Both teams have similar KPIs: the Yankees are hitting .248/.333/.429 and 3.74 ERA, while the Royals are slashing .248/.306/.403. and have a 3.76 ERA.
Also, the team has the likely runner-up AL MVP, Bobby Witt Jr., and future Hall-of-Famer Salvador Perez to counteract the Yankees’ superstar offensive duo of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
On top of all that, the Royals will come into the Bronx riding the high from their wild-card sweep — and with less rust than the Yankees. So, the best-of-five series that starts on Saturday really could go either way.
