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25 Smartest Moves of the Past 25 Years: Yankees sign Hideki Matsui

The 2002 New York Yankees won 103 games. They were good at baseball. But that year marked the first time since 1997 that the team didn’t advance to the World Series, as they fell to the Anaheim Angels in a brutal four-game ALDS. Those were the post-dynasty Yanks, without Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, or Chuck Knoblauch.

Besides Bernie Williams, that Yankees team had Raul Mondesí and Rondell White as starting outfielders — the former had a 96 wRC+ with the team in 71 games, and the latter slumped all the way to a 76 wRC+ in 494 plate appearances.