HOUSTON -- The visitors' path to the team buses here snakes through a narrow, concrete-housed hallway underneath Minute Maid Park, a winding walk through three sets of double doors and right past the home clubhouse of the Houston Astros. A place which, early this morning, could have been confused for a nightclub, with music thumping through the other side of the wall on a never-ending loop, and grinning patrons intermittently emerging in damp disarray to collect themselves.
This was the journey that Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and the other Yankees had to make, one last in-your-face reminder that their season is over, and that the Astros -- who have now knocked the New York Yankees out of the MLB playoffs in three out of the past five seasons -- are moving on to the next round.
There were moments of mutual respect, as well. Aaron Boone, the Yankees' manager, completed his postgame news conference and then paused at the doorway that leads directly into the office of Astros manager A.J. Hinch. He leaned in and waited for Hinch to be extricated from the champagne celebration before congratulating him. Last year, Boone had made a similar gesture after the Yankees were eliminated by the Red Sox, going to see his friend and counterpart Alex Cora -- and he had looked utterly devastated. This year, Boone seemed more circumspect, and maybe he was, having been on the other side of a sudden and stunning walk-off home run, in 2003.
A little while later, members of the Yankees' front office passed quietly, but then Yankees general manager Brian Cashman doubled back and asked for the whereabouts of Hinch. He's finishing his news conference now, Cashman was told, and so Cashman waited five minutes, maybe 10, and when Hinch emerged, wearing the championship hat that he had been handed on the field, Cashman extended a handshake of congratulations.
One of the last visitors to walk down that hallway was Aroldis Chapman, who, an hour before, had stood on the mound after throwing the last pitch of the Yankees' season, his face split with an ironic, disbelieving grin, as he watched Jose Altuve's home run ricochet back onto the field. In the silence of the clubhouse that immediately followed Boone's final words to the team -- and the trading of hugs -- Chapman had sat at his locker still wearing his baseball pants, bent forward as he wordlessly absorbed the consolation of bullpen coach Mike Harkey and others.
After he dressed in his street clothes, Chapman moved slowly toward the buses, and Brent Strom, the Astros' pitching coach, stepped through the Houston clubhouse doors just at that moment. Strom saw Chapman and intercepted him.
"You are one of the best I've ever seen," Strom said, hand extended, looking Chapman in the eyes.
Chapman said something in acknowledgment and appreciation, and continued the long march into the baseball winter.
• The Yankees have won 203 games over the past two regular seasons, and because of their history and the expectations within their organization and fan base, the conversations will be about what they don't have. Even Judge deemed the season a "failure" in speaking with reporters Saturday night. As with the recent vintages of the Dodgers, there will be talk about what they need to climb to the next level.
1. They need more production from their rotation. They need a pitcher who could classify as a No. 1- or No. 2-type starter. The front office recognized this all season long, after Luis Severino suffered injuries early in the year, but leading up to the trade deadline, they didn't feel like they had an opportunity to buy a front-line guy. Marcus Stroman went to the Mets, but as Cashman has said, the Yankees didn't view Stroman as a significant upgrade. They had interest in Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler, but the talks with the Mets never really advanced. They had some interest in Madison Bumgarner, but the Giants informed other teams that the left-hander with deep San Francisco legacy really wasn't available.
So the Yankees will go through the same exercise this winter, with one obvious target in front of them: Gerrit Cole, a player they drafted out of high school but could not sign, a player for whom the Astros outbid the Yankees when Pittsburgh dealt him two winters ago -- a moment in time that seemed pivotal over the past 10 days.
Some Astros teammates believe that Cole will sign with a team in California, and there is an industry expectation that Cole will land with the Angels, who play in a stadium less than 10 miles from where he played in high school. The Yankees might face the same challenge with Cole that they did with CC Sabathia in the fall of 2008, when Sabathia was a free agent. Like Cole, Sabathia is a California native who, at that time, had a strong desire to sign with a team in his home state, most notably the Dodgers. But the Dodgers didn't really engage, and when the Angels offered Sabathia $100 million, the Yankees were told that they would have to crush the field with their offer to Sabathia, who didn't want to play in or live in New York.
The Yankees did that, outbidding the Angels by more than 60 percent, signing the lefty to a seven-year, $161 million deal.
Will they have to do that with Cole? Will they even have a chance to do it? There is an expectation that Cole's forthcoming deal will set a record, surpassing the $217 million contract that the Red Sox worked out with David Price, but which teams are willing to do that? The Angels? The Dodgers? The Phillies? Will the Yankees go that far, in the winter after they chose not to give Patrick Corbin a sixth year in their offer to the left-hander?
We'll see. If not Cole, they could pursue the likes of Bumgarner and Wheeler in free agency. They can hope for a bounce-back year from Severino, and Masahiro Tanaka is a rock-solid rotation piece. But with Sabathia now moving into retirement, the Yankees clearly need rotation help, amid growing conversation that teams overwhelmingly reliant on their bullpens are at a disadvantage in October. It's not a coincidence that the two World Series teams have baseball's best rotations.
2. The Yankees need to pick a shortstop. Didi Gregorius is eligible for free agency, coming off an injury-shortened regular season in which his performance dipped markedly. A year ago, it seemed inevitable that the Yankees would work out an extension with Gregorius, and now it appears more likely that unless they can work out a team-friendly, short-term contract that represents a safe bet on a bounce-back season, somebody else will be at shortstop.
Gleyber Torres demonstrated in Gregorius' extended absence that he is good enough to play short on a daily basis. If Torres takes over at shortstop, the Yankees could move DJ LeMahieu to second base, with Gio Urshela at third and Miguel Andujar returning from his shoulder surgery to share time at third and/or first base.
3. The Yankees need more left-handed hitting. The most right-handed-hitting lineup in Yankees history set a franchise record for home runs, but in the AL Championship Series, the team's collection of big, burly sluggers was shut down. Giancarlo Stanton, limited to fewer than 50 at-bats after June, was overwhelmed by high velocity, as was Edwin Encarnacion. The Yankees hold a $20 million club option on the 36-year-old Encarnacion, which they presumably will decline, given the flood of home run hitters who will be available in free agency this winter -- and Encarnacion's struggles in the postseason could be the first sign of what's to come against high-end pitching.
LeMahieu, Stanton, Judge, Torres, Andujar, Urshela and catcher Gary Sanchez are all right-handed hitters. The Yankees need to find more lineup balance for next season, if they're to beat the best teams in October.
News and notes
Not long after Jose Altuve signed a $151 million contract extension last year, he waited for his turn of batting practice and made this plaintive argument to a reporter: He is overpaid, he said.
The reporter countered with an argument about production value in baseball: Altuve's extraordinary numbers at the outset of his career, in the years in which he was making minimum wage or not far over minimum, meant that Altuve could be sidelined for the duration of his new contract and he would still be underpaid. From 2012 through 2017, he had averaged nearly 200 hits a season, batted .319, won three batting titles and an MVP Award, finished in the top 10 of the MVP voting three times, collected a Gold Glove, and shared in the World Series title in 2017 -- and been paid a total of $12.3 million.
Altuve pushed back, earnestly. "No matter what I make," he said, "I'm overpaid." He gets to play baseball, something he loves to do, and the idea that he is well-compensated in that joy seems almost surreal to him.
That grounding has held, with the money part of the sport more of a source of anxiety for him than relief, because when Altuve doesn't play well -- when he doesn't get hits, like at the end of last year, when a sore knee was killing him -- the failure to do his part gnaws at him. Success, on the other hand, provides relief for him. Within minutes after Altuve propelled the Astros into the postseason with his home run off Chapman, Altuve immediately pivoted from a question about the walk-off, and in measured words and emotion talked about all the others who had helped to construct that moment of opportunity for him. Yuli Gurriel with his three-run homer in the first inning. Michael Brantley with his incredible seventh-inning catch-and-throw. George Springer, with a great plate appearance and walk that preceded Altuve's home run.
When the Astros worked out on the eve of the American League Championship Series, Altuve was asked about what he might like to do after retiring, and where he'll live. He's interested in scouting, Altuve said, and he'll always keep his home in Houston, and raise a family. But doesn't he like the idea of having a place where he can see the ocean?
"Like California?" the reporter asked.
Altuve shook his head. "Too expensive," he said.
The reporter noted the obvious: Altuve will amass enough wealth to own just about any strip of sand that he wants. He'll make $29 million annually for each of the next five seasons.
"Too expensive," Altuve repeated. "Maybe in Costa Rica."
He paused and grinned. "To see the ocean in Costa Rica ..." Altuve mused happily. "That would be amazing."
And with that, he walked away, bat in hand, to do what he really loves.
• Carlos Correa wandered across the infield not long after Altuve's home run, looking up at the stands, at the crowd, still processing all that happened in the ninth inning Saturday -- the tying home run by DJ LeMahieu, and Altuve's walk-off homer.
"A great series," he said. "We knew they had a great team. Like they call themselves, they're savages. But in this jungle called the American League, we're the apex predator."
• As the Red Sox's search for their next head of baseball operations drags on, with some signs that they may focus on in-house solutions, one theory has emerged outside of the organization: The roster and payroll bloodletting to come is so enormous that it might behoove Boston to take the first steps of reshaping before the hiring of a front-office star. If the Red Sox hire a big name now, that person would immediately be saddled with the responsibility of perhaps trading the franchise's best player, Mookie Betts, for less than what his perceived value is, cutting salaries in a way that owner John Henry has indicated, and waiting out the last years of the expensive contracts of David Price, Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Sale.
"Whoever does all that work may be so damaged by the time they begin to turn the corner that [he or she] is going to get fired," a rival executive said. "The job could look a lot more attractive in a few years."