Replacing A World Series MVP

For third time in their last five championship off seasons, the Yankees will have a World Series MVP entering free agency.

In 1996, closer John Wetteland took home the hardware, appearing in 5 games, saving all four Yankee wins, and striking out 6 while posting a 2.08 ERA in 4.1 innings of work. Just 30 years old, Wetteland's contract expired following the season. The Yankees had absolutely stolen him from the Expos prior to the '95 season and he spent two memorable years as the Yankee closer. He recorded 74 saves in those two seasons, and his other stats were even more impressive: 167 ERA+, 1.03 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, 3.86 K:BB.

Yet, Wetteland didn't inspire a sense of confidence. Despite his impressive numbers, he always seemed to be walking a tightrope in the ninth inning, blowing 10 saves over the two years. He absolutely melted down in the 1995 Division Series, to the point that Buck Showalter wouldn't even use him in the deciding Game Five, instead allowing an exhausted David Cone to be relieved by an exhausted Jack McDowell, and by Wetteland's eventual replacement.

With Mariano Rivera turning in an astounding 1996 as Wetteland's set up man, the Yankees allowed their closer to walk, bequeathing the role of closer to Mo. The rest is history. Wetteland signed a four year, $23M contract with the Rangers, where he continued to excel as one of the league's best closers until back injuries forced him to retire following the 2000 season.

Two years later the Yankees found themselves in a similar predicament. Scott Brosius won the 1998 World Series MVP on the strength of his .471 showing with two huge home runs in Game Three, including a three run shot off Trevor Hoffman in the eighth inning, erasing the final lead the Padres held in that Series.

Unlike Wetteland, Brosius came to the Yankees almost as an afterthought. After two miserable seasons in New York, the Yankees were able to unload Kenny Rogers on Oakland following the '97 season for a player to be named later. Eleven days after the initial deal, the clubs agreed on Brosius, who was coming off a dismal .203/.259/.317 (53 OPS+) season. Perhaps the Yankees thought he could recreate the success he enjoyed in '95-'96 (.284/.369/.486 121 OPS+), but if nothing else the Yankees were rid of Rogers and had picked up a player who could be in the mix to replace the Wade Boggs/Charlie Hayes tandem at third base and was versatile enough to see time at shortstop and all three outfield positions.

Brosius went on to have a career year in the magical 1998 season, hitting .300/.371/.472 (121 OPS+) and driving in 98 runs while batting primarily eighth or ninth. He strong performance coupled with his historic showing in the World Series prompted the Yankees to re-sign Brosius to a three year $15.75M contract, despite the fact that he was 32 years old and the Yankees had Mike Lowell ready to take over. Lowell would be 25 come next Opening Day and had hit .304/.355/.535 with 26 HR and 99 RBI at AAA, a year after hitting .315/.401/.562 with 30 HR and 92 RBI.

With Brosius in tow for another three years, the Yankees flipped Lowell to the Marlins for three minor league pitchers, one of whom never appeared in the Bigs, one of whom never made it to the Bronx, and who pitched a combined 44 innings in the Majors. Brosius wouldn't come close to replicating his 1998 numbers for the remainder of his career. As likable as Brosius was, as good as his 1998 season was, as big as his HRs were in the '98 and '01 Series, electing to keep him over Lowell was a mistake.

Eleven years later, the Yankees face a somewhat similar situation with Hideki Matsui. Unlike Wetteland and Brosius, Matsui is not a new comer, being the most tenured Yankee outside of the "core four". He's 35, considerably older than both Wetteland and Brosius at the time of their WS MVPs. Unlike with Wetteland and Brosius, the Yankees don't have a young replacement waiting in the wings. Jesus Montero is still seen as a catcher and is still likely a year away; Juan Miranda has posted good numbers at AAA but doesn't project to carry his weight as a Major League DH.

Given that Matsui is strictly a designated hitter at this point, the Yankees do have some additional flexibility in that they don't have to have a direct replacement for him, but his offense (.274/.367/.509, 128 OPS+) will be difficult to replace no matter what they do.

Retrospective hindsight says the Yankees went 1 for 2 the last times they faced such a decision. Time will tell how they fare this time around.

1999 World Series: Game 3

[With the Yankees squaring off against the Braves this week, we thought it would be appropriate to take a look back at the two World Series during which they faced off in the late 90's]

Just before Game 3, Luis Sojo flew in from Venezuela to rejoin the Yankees. Just before the World series had begun, his father passed away unexpectedly. There was a tragic air around the 1999 Yankees and the World Series in particular. As Matt mentioned during the Game 1 recap, Darryl Strawberry was still recovering from cancer as the season began. Joe Torre was diagnosed with prostate cancer and Scott Brosius lost his father, Marty, after a long bout with colon cancer.

Further adding to the general gloom, on the travel day between Games 2 & 3, golfer Payne Stewart's death made national headlines. On the morning of October 25th, Stewart boarded a private plane flight out of Orlando, bound for Dallas and the season-ending PGA Tour Championship. While en route, the cabin lost pressure and everyone on board was killed almost immediately. The Learjet, presumably still on autopilot, continued it's journey, flanked by F-16's until it crashed in an unpopulated area in South Dakota. Just a month removed from the American's dramatic Ryder Cup victory at Brookline, and four months past Stewart's U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst (the first of Phil Mickelson's many seconds), the American sporting landscape had lost one of it's more iconic characters.

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The temperature at game time was an unseasonably warm 62 degrees with a steady breeze blowing out to right field. Lefties Tom Glavine and Andy Pettitte took the hill for the pivotal Game 3. Both had turned into two excellent starts thus far in the '99 postseason, but each stumbled out of the gate.

To begin the top of the first, Pettitte gave up a single to Gerald Williams and a double to Bret Boone. Williams was driven in on a groundout by Chipper Jones, but Pettitte avoided further damage. Chuck Knoblauch reached on an E9 and was advanced to third on a fly ball by Derek Jeter. A single by Paul O'Neill evened the score at 1.

After a scoreless second inning for both hurlers, Pettitte ran into trouble in the third. He gave up a single, two doubles and another single, and by the time he had recorded three outs, the Braves were up 4-1.

Already facing the top of the order for the third time in the fourth inning, Pettitte gave up a triple to Williams and a double to Boone, making the 1-2 hitters for the Braves 5 for 6 against Pettitte with three runs scored. The next batter, Chipper Jones, finally chased Pettitte with a single. Andy had put up another poor performance in the Fall Classic, getting tagged for 10 hits and 5 runs in 3 2/3 IP. Jason Grimsley mopped up nicely however, keeping the Yanks in the game with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Meanwhile, Glavine rolled along up until the 5th inning, when he allowed a solo shot to Chad Curtis. He didn't allow another hit until he gave up another homer to Tino Martinez in the 7th. 5-3 Braves.

Jeff Nelson came on after Grimsley and also did his part admirably, pitching perfect 7th and 8th innings. The Yankees had clawed back to within two runs when Joe Girardi led off the bottom of the 8th. He singled to center, bringing up Chuck Knoblauch, owner of exactly one home run in 160 postseason at bats. He lofted one just over the short porch in right, tying the game at 5. Bobby Cox decided he had seen enough and brought in his closer, John Rocker to close out the frame. Despite the 5 runs, (4 earned) Glavine pitched pretty well, but like Pettitte, he would not factor into the decision.

With the Yanks having pulled even, Torre brought in his closer to try to keep it that way. Mo faced the minimum three batters in the top of the 9th, but Rocker sat down the side in order in the bottom half to take the game into extra innings.

Bobby Cox burned through three pinch hitters in the top of the tenth, but all he got in return was a two out single by Ryan Klesko, who never made it past first.

Since Rocker had already pitched two innings, Cox called on Mike Remlinger to extend the game. He did not. Chad Curtis hit his second home run of the game, brought the house down and gave the Yankees a seemingly insurmountable lead of three games to none in the series.

During his postgame interview with Jim Gray, Curtis informed Gray on live television that the Yankees were upset with his treatment of Pete Rose two days earlier and that they refused to speak with him. When asked by the media after the game, Joe Torre said that there had been no meeting. There in fact had been an agreement between the players only to which Torre was not privy and Tino Martinez informed the manager that was the case. Curtis, asked Torre to set the record straight since the mix up had shown Curtis in a bad light, but Torre never did. Curtis remained bitter about the incident and was traded to Texas during the ensuing offseason for Brandon Knight and Sam Marsonek.

Sitting on the verge of yet another World Series sweep, the Yankees would still have to traverse another loss, but not on the field.

Number of Days Until Spring Training: Scott Brosius (#18)

Scott Brosius was only a Yankee from 1998-2001. However in his four seasons with the team he became a Pinstriped Hero. Every year he was on the team the Yankees won the AL Pennant. Not to mention the 3 World Series titles that came during those years…

Brosius arrived in the Bronx in 1998 from the Oakland Athletics in a trade that sent away one of most maligned Yankees ever, Kenny Rogers. Most Yankees fans were ecstatic to see Rogers sent away so anything that Brosius provided would be Sicilian gravy. In his first season with the club, Brosius provided a very generous helping of that said sauce — batting .300 with 19 HRs and 98 RBI. For his efforts he was named an All Star but most importantly to Yankees fans, he was the MVP of the 1998 World Series. Against the Padres, Scott hit .471, 2 HRs and 6 RBI. Both of these HRs can in Game 3 of the World Series and one of them was off of perennially choking closer Trevor Hoffman to give the Yankees a 3-0 Series lead.

Another memorable World Series moment provided by “Brosius The Ferocious” (obviously a John Sterling creation) occurred in Game 5 of the 2001 World Series. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees down two runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Scott crushed a 1-0 B.H. Kim slider into the left-field seats of the Yankee Stadium to drive home Jorge Posada and tie the game. The previous night, when Brosius had went 0 for 2 against Kim, New York first baseman Tino Martinez launched a two-out, two-run home run to tie the game as well. It marked the first time in World Series history that this had ever occurred.

In four World Series appearances, Brosius had a .314 BA/.333 OBP/.529 SLG with 4 HRs and 13 RBI.

He was a slick fielding third baseman, a master of the bare-handed scoop for balls slicing down the third baseline. In 1999, he won the AL Gold Glove for his glovework at 3rd.

Brosius’ “clutchiferousness” is one of the reasons why current 3B Alex Rodriguez is maligned by Yankees fans. Fans could always count on the trusty but unsexy Brosius to plate a go ahead run or make a game-saving defensive play. Yet the sexy, regular season monster A-Rod cannot seem to buy a big play in October. If you ask me and most other Yankees fans, we would take Scott over A-Rod every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Coincidence or not, the Yankees have never been to a World Series with A-Rod manning the Hot Corner.

Brosius retired after the 2001 World Series and now is the head baseball coach at his alma mater Linfield College in Oregon. In 2005 he was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. In 2007, he appeared at his first Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium. Hopefully he will become a mainstay in the future.

Thank you, Scott! We miss you!