Yankees icon explains why he left Astros after front office defection.
After a lengthy playoff run that left aggravating Mr. May questions in the inbox of Yankees MVP Aaron Judge, it would be really nice to have Mr. October back in the franchise’s good graces. Luckily, after the latest update from Houston, that seems imminently possible.
Following almost four years of advising Astros leader Jim Crane on personnel decisions and massaging Jose Altuve’s shoulders, Reggie Jackson has informed the Yankees’ enemy that he’d like to move on.
Jackson, now 78 years old, intends to step away from the game (for now) to spend more time with his family, but in the process, he endeared himself once again to a Yankees fanbase that wasn’t entirely sure how to handle his earlier defection.
As Jackson told the New York Post, “[New York] has always been a home for me. I’m a Yankee. I’m still a Yankee.”
https://t.co/Xv5eVXIsKK. NEWS: Reggie leaves Astros post and tells @nypostsports why. With @Joelsherman1
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 9, 2024.
Yankees could woo Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson back to NY after he finally left Astros
He cemented that link by reportedly visiting Hal Steinbrenner during the 2024 World Series, a departure from previously held animosity.
Back in 2023 during the postseason, Jackson reiterated — to Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez on FS1’s playoff pregame coverage — that he’d felt that his opinions were no longer valued at the time he left the Yankees. Jackson was, of course, a trusted confidant of the late George Steinbrenner, but felt untethered in the years after the Boss’ death.
Whether he returns to the organization as an active participant or just a link to the successes of the past, it obviously feels great to see that Astros hat get chucked aside and replaced with an interlocking NY. Since 2017, Houston’s been the gold standard of winning at all costs, and the Yankees have been unable to match their propensity for coming up huge under the spotlight. Based on recent Brian Cashman interviews, the Yankees’ organization remains entirely unconvinced that all that success was legitimate.
The Astros’ cheating scandal predates Jackson’s 2021 defection, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. Ideally, these fences will be fully mended soon.
