HOUSTON — As the Yankees dressed and packed for their flight to Florida late Wednesday night, their former closer fired the first pitches of his new life on a television just outside their clubhouse door. Aroldis Chapman uncoiled on the mound at Wrigley Field, whipped a fastball and announced his presence with the Chicago Cubs: 101 miles an hour. The crowd loved it.
The Yankees have moved on from Chapman, who was their carnival act and litmus test. He delivered, and they passed. They are better for the future and still strong enough in the bullpen to hang around the edges of the pennant race.
Though they fell meekly to Lance McCullers’s power curveball Wednesday, the Yankees took two of three games in their series with the Houston Astros. It was their third series victory in a row and the fourth in their last five, all against contenders. Three games with the last-place Tampa Bay Rays await this weekend at Tropicana Field.
Facing Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco and Houston, the Yankees went 11-6. Maybe, at 52-49, a team without superstar sizzle really can be compelling to watch for the final two months. A miserable start has coated every game with urgency.
“You’ve got to keep the momentum going,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “You’ve got to keep going in the right direction.”
Lately, the Yankees have had baseball’s best tool for sustaining momentum: a reliable rotation. Their starters have allowed two runs or fewer in nine of their last 11 starts, helping the Yankees survive a chronically sluggish offense.
“Our starting pitching has been more consistent, because we haven’t really scored a ton of runs since the All-Star break, to go 8-5,” Girardi said. “I don’t know how many runs we’ve scored, but we haven’t scored a lot.”
The Yankees have scored 41 runs since the break, or 3.15 per game. Their on-base-plus-slugging percentage for the season, .702, ranked last in the American League after Wednesday’s loss.
This is the third year in the last four in which the Yankees have been outscored by their opponents. In all three, Girardi has found a way to get his players to outperform those baseline numbers and produce winning records. That should not be too much to ask from a team with a $226 million payroll, but this is a new era. Sellers can be quickly rewarded, and the Yankees — until the Chapman deal — had recoiled at the idea.
The question now is how much they should keep selling — or rearranging, as General Manager Brian Cashman put it. For the moment, they have hope, because the expanded playoff field gives a chance to teams that rise just above mediocre.
“It’s exciting,” first baseman Mark Teixeira said. “You want to play meaningful games this time of year. There’s nothing worse than going into the All-Star break or coming out of the All-Star break and being out of the race. That’s just no fun at all. We accept the challenge. It makes the game more fun.”
The holdovers from the Yankees’ last championship team, in 2009, must understand what is happening. Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner and C. C. Sabathia have been part of a genuine powerhouse.
The 2009 Yankees averaged more than 5.6 runs per game. Seven players hit at least 22 homers, and another, Derek Jeter, hit .334 with 30 stolen bases. Teams do not need to slug like that to win the World Series, of course, but that is the pinstriped ideal, and in that way, the Yankees have fallen far.
Girardi was the manager then, and Cashman the general manager. They surely recognize the gap between these Yankees hitters and those of the past, not to mention those of the other contenders. Now they should make a hard choice.
Remember, Cashman said the Chapman trade had been an “easy call” for him. He had to convince Hal Steinbrenner, but he was able to make the case that the return in talent for a redundant — if dominant — reliever facing free agency made too much sense to resist.
Right fielder Carlos Beltran faces free agency, too. He is 39 and might help the Yankees find a building block. To modify the old saying, if they are last in the A.L. in O.P.S. with Beltran, they could be last without him.
If a team will bite on starter Ivan Nova, the Yankees should trade him, too. Nova can be a free agent after the season and is probably not worth the risk of making a qualifying offer, meaning he would not bring back a draft pick if he leaves.
With two years remaining on his contract, the All-Star reliever Andrew Miller would bring back the biggest haul. If a team overwhelms the Yankees, they should make the same calculated decision they did with Chapman. They still have a closer to spare in Dellin Betances, and free agency offers them more bullpen choices this winter.
If dealing Miller gives the Yankees dynamic pieces to use or trade, they should do it. The team needs to flood its organization with as much cheap, controllable talent as possible so it can spend big again on the epic free agent class (Bryce Harper, Jose Fernandez, Manny Machado) after the 2018 season.
No one can question the effort and preparation of Girardi’s teams. Clawing their way to contention is entertaining, but unless the Yankees have a real shot at the World Series, it is ultimately hollow. The Chapman trade was a start. Now the Yankees must keep building.
