New York Baseball’s Recent Past Featured Prominently in World Series.

Aaron Judge was in Phoenix Monday night for Game 3 of the World Series to accept his Roberto Clemente Award for community service and dish to reporters what changes he thinks will unfold with the Yankees in the wake of a disastrous 82-win season.

The last Yankee to win was Derek Jeter in 2009 when the Yankees were last in the World Series, meaning Judge’s appearance is the closest anyone connected to the Yankees will be this year’s Fall Classic.

While present Yankees are nowhere near this World Series, the recent past of New York baseball is prominently involved and seemingly at every turn.

The Rangers began this series by starting three pitchers in Nathan Eovaldi, Jordan Montgomery and Max Scherzer, who certainly bare varying degrees of familiarity to New York baseball fans in recent seasons.

The Diamondbacks, who lost five of seven games in New York last month also are deploying various connections to New York baseball’s recent past on their roster.

Eovaldi started the classic series opener which was decided by former Cardinal minor league Adolis Garcia’s dramatic homer off Miguel Castro, who is a former Met and Yankees and was actually part of the last trade between the two teams on April 3, 2022.

Before he became a clutch postseason pitcher, he was a Yankee for two seasons in 2015 and 2016. It is certainly likely he would have pitched in the surprising and fun 91-win season in 2017 if Eovaldi did not need Tommy John surgery after walking off the mound at Fenway Park in Aug. 2016 – right before Judge debuted with a homer in his first at-bat.

Instead the Yankees non-tendered him, the sides could not work out a new contract and Eovaldi rehabbed in Tampa Bay before pitching well enough for the Rays to be dealt to the dominant Red Sox in 2018. He honed his postseason reputation by helping the Red Sox to a title and then by getting four wins this year to help Texas win its first AL pennant since 2011.

Game 1 also featured Corey Seager’s dramatic tying homer off Paul Sewald, who lost his first 14 decisions with the Mets. Sawald debuted in 2017 and the first of those defeats came in relief off Matt Harvey, whose hyped major league debut occurred in Arizona in July 2012.

Sewald was not tendered a contract after the pandemic 2020 season after he made five appearances and given his numbers at the time, it was probably a decision that did not generate much consternation. Seattle picked him up and his performance improved but he is on Arizona because GM Jerry Dipoto attempted to get more offense at this year’s deadline despite trading his steady closer.

Game 2 was the night Jordan Montgomery’s magic ran out when he allowed four runs in six innings five days after pitching 2 1/3 relief innings in the ALCS clincher. His velocity was slightly reduced but it did not diminish what Montgomery achieved to this point.

And he is on Texas because St. Louis became sellers at this year’s deadline, a year after getting him in the now-maligned deal that sent Harrison Bader to the Yankees. While Montgomery succeeded for St. Louis, Bader was the Yankees’ among the best performers in last year’s postseason but struggled when he was not hurt and the Yankees cut him on Aug. 31.

Game 2 is also known as the Tommy Pham game since he went 4-for-4 to highlight a year which began with him as the fourth outfielder on the Mets. When the Mets became the biggest flops in baseball history in terms of payroll, Pham was productive and that was good enough for him to be attractive to the Diamondbacks at the deadline. Pham could have gotten the fifth at-bat but he ceded the at-bat in a lopsided game to Jace Peterson, who appeared in three games and took 10 at-bats in April 2018 with the Yankees.

The Rangers won Game 3 despite losing Max Scherzer to a back injury that could keep him sidelined for the rest of the series. Scherzer’s recent injury history was not enough to scare the Rangers from convincing him to waive the no-trade clause in the three-year deal he signed with the Mets and while he was injured Scherzer contributed to Texas doing enough in the regular season to get the fifth seed in the AL.

Game 3 also saw Aroldis Chapman’s first World Series appearance since Game 7 in 2016 when he famously allowed Rajai Davis’ tying homer before the Cubs finally won their first title since 1908 with a classic win in Cleveland. Chapman has allowed two runs in his eight postseason appearances for Texas, which acquired him from Kansas City in June.

Chapman signed a short-term deal after six seasons in his second stint with the Yankees. He totaled 133 saves in that stint but lost his closer’s job last year and did not show up for a workout in the ALDS, effectively ending his time with the Yankees, who originally acquired him from the Reds in Dec. 2015 and then traded him to the Cubs for Gleyber Torres at the 2016.

New York’s baseball teams are not the only organizations seeing former players thrive at this level. Ketel Marte, who has reached base in 19 straight is a former Mariner, while Gabriel Moreno is a former Blue Jay, whose trade is being questioned in the wake of Toronto’s disappointing early exit from the wild-card round.

It just is hard not to notice the connections to New York’s recent baseball past, especially in the wake of the disastrous seasons both teams are attempting to pick up the pieces from.