Win a title, rip the Yankees.
For the second time in three years, the Bronx Bombers are being mocked by the reigning champions with Brewers manager Pat Murphy taking pot shots after winning the World Series on Wednesday.
While celebrating the 4-1 Game 5 win over the Rays to claim the franchise’s first title with ex-Yankee Jake Bauers, Murphy referenced the slugger’s time with the 2023 Bombers.
“You’re going to be a rich f–ker, but just remember when you were on that horses–t Yankees team and you guys were all playing for yourself, just remember, say ‘This is the way we used do it,” Murphy appears to say after Bauers presented him with the ball from the final out in Game 5.
Bauers is headed towards free agency after winning the NLCS MVP in a sweep of the Dodgers.
Warning: Graphic Language
Bauers spent just one season in The Bronx and it came during the worst one of the Aaron Judge era, the injury-filled 2023 season that resulted in an 82-80 record and the only season that did not feature a postseason berth since Judge became a regular in 2017.
The Yankees traded Bauers to the Brewers after he posted a .693 OPS across 84 games in a move that has worked out quite well for the NL Central squad.
That Murphy said that team was “playing for yourself” is certainly an interesting wrinkle, especially since he would not have first-hand knowledge, and his comments in totality add to the notion that some in baseball do not view the Yankees in the highest standing.
After the Yankees finished the 2024 World Series with a blunder-filled Game 5 loss that clinched the Dodgers’ title, several LA players called out their opponent.
Longtime Yankees rival — and ex-Red Sox — Joe Kelly particularly rubbed salt in the wound.
“We had seen it every single game just let them throw the ball to the infield, they can’t make a play,” Kelly said at the time. “… It was a mismatch from the get-go. If we had a playoff re-ranking, they might be ranked the eighth or ninth-best playoff team.”
Shortstop Miguel Rojas also said the Yankees had “lazy defense,” backing up a report from The Post’s Joel Sherman about how the Dodgers viewed the Yankees entering the series.
“What the Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings was the Yankees were talent over fundamentals,” Sherman wrote. “That if you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm as was exposed by Mookie Betts, Tommy Edman, Freddie Freeman, etc. That the value was very high to put the ball in play to make the Yankees execute.”
This year’s team added credence to the view about them lacking in certain areas.
They bumbled through an error-filled horror show in Game 2 of the ALDS before being swept at home by the Rays, extending their World Series drought to 17 years.
