Neil Keefe

Jul 2, 2025

Yankees Thoughts: Free Fallin’

The Yankees lost to the Blue Jays 12-5 and their division lead is down to one game. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I cringed when I heard it. I was hoping I wouldn’t hear it this season, but after hearing it in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, I should have known better.

“We obviously gotta play a little better,” Aaron Boone said after Tuesday’s 12-5 loss, “and we have the people capable of doing that.”

You know it’s summer for the Yankees when Boone starts telling you about how the players the Yankees have are “capable” of turning the season around. He said it in 2021 when the team had a .500 record for the season in July. He said it in 2022 when was slamming press conference tables as the Yankees went 15-27 in July and August and watched their 15 1/2-game lead dwindle to one game. He said it in 2023 went the Yankees went 14-30 in July and August on their way to missing the postseason despite 40 percent of the league getting in. He said it in 2024 when the Yankees went 11-24 from mid-June to late July. And now he has said it in 2025 with the Yankees having lost 12 of 18 and their division lead down to one game.

2. You know what’s next, right? “It’s right in front of us.” Phase 1 of a Yankees midseason meltdown is losing to bad teams and the Yankees just went 6-10 against five teams not holding a playoff spot in the Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Reds and A’s. Phase 2 is the division lead falling to one game. Phase 3 is Boone saying how “capable” his roster is. Phase 4 — the final phase — is him saying, “It’s right in front of us.” If the Yankees lose on Wednesday, it will be the first time since March 29 they aren’t alone in first place in the AL East. “It’s right in front of us” is imminent.

3. In 2022, Boone said, “It’s right in front of us,” on August 20. In 2023, he said, “It’s all there right in front of us,” on July 15. Last year, he said, “It’s all right in front of us,” on July 7. Each year it’s come a little earlier, but it always comes.

If the Yankees continue to play the way they have played over the last three weeks it will come in Toronto. After ending June with a 5-4 loss, the Yankees opened July with 12-5 disaster.

4. The Yankees scored two runs in the first to take an early 2-0 lead on a two-out, two-run single from Jasson Dominguez. (Dominguez drove in three of the Yankees’ five runs in the game. I bet Boone is upset he can’t bench Dominguez on Wednesday in favor of Trent Grisham, who has a hamstring injury.)

The Yankees still led 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Max Fried allowed a solo home run to George Springer. Fried bounced back to retire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk. He thought he was out of the inning when he got Davis Schneider to hit a ground ball to Jazz Chisholm, but Chisholm threw it away to extend the inning. Then Myles Straw drew a walk and Andres Gimenez crushed a three-run home run to straightaway center. The fourth inning should have ended with the Yankees leading 2-1. Instead, they trailed 4-2 because they continue to play a second baseman at third base, so that they can play an immobile 36-year-old at second because they owe him $22.5 million between this season and next. Boone is usually quick to shut down any suggestion of personnel changes, but even he said, “We’ll talk through that stuff,” when asked if continuing to play Chisholm at third and LeMahieu at second was the best alignment.

5. The Yankees tied the game at 4 in the seventh when the Blue Jays did their best Yankees impersonation by booting the ball all around the infield to allow two runs to score. The idea the Yankees would repay the Blue Jays for their error-fueled win the night before with one of their own was short-lived as the Yankees’ bullpen crumbled in the bottom of the seventh and allowed five runs and then allowed three more in the eighth for some icing on the cake.

Mark Leiter Jr. was the first reliever to be used in the game. He entered in the seventh with the score tied at 4. He faced three batters and retired one. Leiter Jr.’s WHIP this season is now 1.592. That ranks 150th out of 157 AL pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched (stat from Katie Sharp).

Luke Weaver relieved Leiter Jr. and he faced four batters and retired one and allowed a grand slam to put the game out of reach.

6. The Yankees scored two non-defensive-aided errors in the game and they both came in the first inning. Their ace allowed four runs in six innings. Their bullpen allowed eight runs in two innings. Their third baseman made a game-changing throw for the worse because he’s not a third baseman. Their catcher committed catcher’s interference for the second straight game and leads the league in that stat despite being 44th in games played for catchers.

7. “I didn’t help my team win today or yesterday,” J.C. Escarra said. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it’s something I can control.”

At least Escarra was accountable for his error. Anthony Volpe would have said he will do the same thing every single time like he said about his wild play the day before.

Weaver defended his catcher — the worst catcher at interfering with swings in the majors.

“I feel like that’s a really unfortunate part of our game,” Weaver said. “I don’t think, personally, that belongs in our game.”

Let’s change the rule for Escarra. Rather than have him not hit the batter’s bat mid-swing, let’s just have the rule removed from the game!

8. The Yankees were 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, a day after they went 1-for-7. So they’re 3-for-24 in the first two games of the series with runners in scoring position.

“I will say the last two nights we’ve stung a number of balls with runners in scoring position,” Boone said. The New York Yankees: where process is more important than results. That’s what Brian Cashman told everyone at the 2022 end-of-the-season press conference.

9. “We’re going to have this conversation next year and the next year and the next year with what’s going on with runners in scoring position,” Boone said.

So Boone not only knows his job is safe for at least three more years through 2028, but he knows those Yankees teams will also suck at driving in runners in scoring position.

10. “That is baseball,” Boone said.

Nothing like a “That’s baseball” from a Yankee to evaluate their latest loss. Volpe used the same phrase on Monday. Aaron Judge said it last week. Boone says it all the time. If they lose again on Wednesday, someone else will say it. Or Boone will resort to telling us it’s right in front of them.

Blogs

Jul 1, 2025

Yankees Thoughts: No Accountability for Anthony Volpe

The Yankees lost 5-4 to the Blue Jays thanks to some more sloppy defense. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees played a good team on Monday, so you can guess how it went. They lost 5-4 to the Blue Jays.

It’s understandable the Yankees lost. When you go 6-10 against the Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Reds and A’s over your last 16 games, it’s easy to see how you would lose to a Blue Jays team that is now eight games above .500. A Blue Jays team that is now just two games behind in the AL East.

2. Through four-and-a-half innings on Monday, the Yankees led 2-0 and it looked like they may finish June with a winning record despite the last few weeks. It still looked that way when they led 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth. But then it all fell apart as a result of poor defense and poor decision making. The Blue Jays scored four runs in the sixth with just one ball reaching the outfield grass in the air.

The inning started with Carlos Rodon still on the mound. Rodon had put eight baserunners on in five innings, but had limited the damage to one run. Aaron Boone sent Rodon back out to for the sixth even though a right-handed batter in Davis Schneider was due up. Rodon asked out of the Yankees’ frustrating loss last week in Cincinnati after 88 pitches due to the heat and here he was at 90 pitches and drenched in sweat in the climate-controlled Rogers Centre being asked to pitch another inning. Rodon couldn’t put Schneider away and gave up a leadoff double. Boone promptly removed Rodon after the double. Boone’s plan to steal outs with his laboring starter despite having a well-rested bullpen backfired the way it always does.

3. Boone’s plan after the fifth inning was clearly to try to steal outs in the sixth with Rodon and if he couldn’t steal them he would get the final 12 outs by getting one inning each from Mark Leiter Jr., Jonathan Loaisiga, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams. Except the plan never got that far. Rather than give Leiter Jr. a clean inning to work with and back-to-back right-handed batters to face, Boone brought in Leiter Jr. with the tying run at the plate.

Leiter Jr. got Myles Straw — the first batter he faced — to hit a ground ball to short. Anthony Volpe fielded the ball and then threw it wildly to third base, a play he has consistently failed to make (and no instances more memorable than Game 5 of the World Series). The errant throw allowed Schneider to score and Straw to move to second. The Yankees’ lead was now 3-2 with the tying run on second and no outs. Nathan Lukes followed with a single on the ground to left field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Leiter Jr. bounced back to strike out Will Wagner, but a wild pitch moved Lukes to second.

With second and third and one out, the speedy Ernie Clement hit a ground ball to Volpe. The ball would score Straw to tie the game. With no play to get Clement at first, Volpe decided to hold on to the ball to keep Lukes from advancing to third with only one out.

Just kidding!

In an attempt to be a hero like he always tries to be on defense, Volpe threw the ball to first with his below-league-average arm for a shortstop even though Clement was about to reach the base before Volpe let go of the ball. Once Volpe threw the ball, Lukes took off for third. Volpe’s decision to inexplicably throw across the diamond put runners on the corners again with one out.

Loaisiga then came in to relieve Leiter Jr. He got ahead of George Springer 0-2, but J.C. Escarra committed catcher’s interference to put Springer on and load the bases with one out. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. then singled in Lukes to give the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

4. If the ball is hit to Volpe in a big spot, you can be sure it won’t end well. I have never seen someone make so many defensive mistakes in crucial situations. If he’s not bobbling the ball, he’s throwing it away. If he’s not throwing it away, he’s making a low Baseball IQ decision on what to do with it. He’s the last person I want the ball hit to on the field on a team that is playing a middle infielder at third base, two of the oldest players in the league at first base and second base and a left fielder the team didn’t trust to play all nine innings of games defensively for the first month of the season.

It’s not just that Volpe sucks at hitting (13 percent worse than league average in 1,626 career plate appearances), is a horrific base stealer (caught in seven of 16 attempts this season) and has ruined countless close games late with his fielding, but his postgame interviews when he screws up are infuriating. (Who can forget his postgame last season when he walked home from third and didn’t score before the third out of the inning was made on the bases?)

After the loss, the media was at Volpe’s locker to ask him about his sixth-inning throws and choices.

“How frustrating was the sixth inning?” Volpe was asked.

“That’s baseball. It happens,” Volpe answered. “That’s baseball. It happens,” he repeated.

“That’s baseball” is the favorite go-to phrase of Volpe’s manager. It’s the easiest excuse for anyone in baseball to use and because Boone has needed to make a lot of excuses in his seven-and-a-half disappointing seasons as Yankees manager, it’s the one he has used most. So why wouldn’t the Golden Boy not use it? He hears his manger who has created a comfortable-with-losing culture say it nearly every time the Yankees lose. The team’s captain said it just last week when asked about the Yankees’ June swoon. Boone and Aaron Judge are the faces of this era of Yankees disappointment in which accountability is optional at best and Volpe was raised in this environment by those two. It makes sense he sounds just like them.

“Do you second-guess at all trying to make a play at first?” Volpe was asked.

“No,” Volpe said. “Not at all.”

“You thought you had a chance at Clement?” was the follow-up question.

“Yeah, I mean you gotta make that play,” Volpe said. “You gotta make a play on that ball.”

Umm, no you don’t? When Boone was asked if he thought Volpe had a play on Clement, the manager said, “No … From my vantage point I felt like he wasn’t going to have a play.”

“How would you sum up your first half?” Volpe was asked.

“I feel like I put myself in a lot of good positions to make a lot of plays,” Volpe said, “There’s obviously a lot of plays you want to have back.”

So he puts himself in position to make a lot of plays, but doesn’t make a lot of the plays? Got it.

“The error today, I’m going to go for that play every single time,” Volpe said.

It’s good to know that every single time a ball is hit in the hole with a runner already sliding into third base that Volpe is going to try to throw an already-safe runner out with his below league-average arm. Remember that quote the next time that same play happens because it’s going to happen again. Volpe told everyone he’s going to make the wrong choice the next time it happens because he said he’s going to make the wrong choice “every single time” that play occurs.

“The play at first base, you thought you had a shot on that play?” was asked one last time to try to get Volpe to save himself and admit wrongdoing.

“Yeah,” Volpe answered, avoiding admitting any wrongdoing.

5. Volpe could have said he needs to make a better throw to third base. He didn’t. He could have said he should have better understood the situations of both throws and should have put both throws in his pocket. He didn’t. He said he would do the same thing every single time in the future. He could have said he messed up and needs to be better, taken the blame and been accountable and no one would be talking about his apparently low Baseball IQ or his delusional self assessment.

Maybe it’s not Volpe’s fault he has no self awareness for his play. He was a first-round pick out of high school by the Yankees. He performed well in the minors. He was given the everyday job out of spring training two years ago and has never been threatened for even a second with being benched let alone sent down. He has been told his whole life how great he is, including by the Yankees. Now for the first time his ability is constantly and rightfully being questioned by the media and fans and he doesn’t know how to handle it or answer for it.

The Golden Boy never struggled in his baseball career before reaching the majors, and since reaching them, he has never for a second had to worry about losing playing time or his starting role. His name is on the lineup card every day and his manager defends him against any criticism like he’s his son. So why wouldn’t he be delusional about his performance?

6. I’m over Volpe. He does nothing well other than commit game-ruining errors, get caught stealing and hit weak ground balls to the left side. It’s gotten to the point that I’m checking in daily on George Lombard Jr.’s performance at Double-A since he’s the only way out of this mess. I could see the Yankees trading Lombard Jr. before he ever reaches the majors just so Volpe has no competition and can continue to be the team’s everyday shortstop. That’s how stubborn the organization is when it comes to trying to prove they weren’t wrong in their evaluation of a player who hasn’t improved offensively after more than two years and whose defense and baserunning has regressed.

7. Trent Grisham was 1-for-2 before leaving the game with a hamstring injury. Jasson Dominguez took over for him and picked up a pair of hits. It looks like Dominguez will finally get to play every day with Grisham likely to go on the injured list. Dominguez has hit .275 over his last 30 games, .341 over his last 15 games and .409 over his last seven games. He has a .338 on-base percentage and is 12-for-13 stealing bases. If only he was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey maybe he wouldn’t need another player to go on the IL to become an everyday player.

8. Jazz Chisholm hit a two-run home run and Cody Bellinger added a solo home run. Judge went 0-for-2 with two intentional walks. Giancarlo Stanton had an RBI single. The 6-through-9 hitters of Ben Rice, Volpe, Escarra and DJ LeMahieu went 1-for-15 with four strikeouts.

9. Before the series started, I wrote:

I trust the Yankees’ starting pitching. I expect strong starts from everyone in the rotation, so I’m not worried about the pitching not showing up this week in Toronto. I’m only really worried about the offense.

The starting pitching was good enough and the offense provided enough runs to win, but the managing (not giving Leiter Jr. a clean sixth inning) was poor and the defense was sloppy, the way it has always been and always will be under Boone. Thankfully, the Rays lost so the Yankees’ lead in the division remains two games. Except it’s now two games over both the Rays and Blue Jays.

10. The Yankees will turn to Max Fried tomorrow who only seems to pitch after Yankees losses. The Yankees are 13-4 when Fried starts and 35-32 when he doesn’t. Kevin Gausman gets the ball for the Blue Jays. The Yankees chased him in the third inning back on April 27 in an 11-2 win, a game in which Fried didn’t allow an earned run over six innings. Let’s do that again: Score 11 runs, take Boone and the bullpen and the possibility of a defensive disaster out of the equation and prevent any more ground from being made up in the division.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Jun 30, 2025

Yankees Thoughts: Jazz Chisholm Saves June

The Yankees took two of three from the A’s over the weekend. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. On Thursday, I wrote the following:

This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

The Yankees beat the A’s 3-0 on Friday, were routed 7-0 on Saturday and did the routing on Sunday with a 12-5 win to win the series. I’m much closer to believing the last few weeks were “That’s baseball” than thinking the summer the rest of the season is going to be what we have seen in June, but we will really know after the next week-plus against the Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs.

2. The Yankees did just enough to get to reliever-turned-starter Mitch Spence on Friday with three runs in five innings before being shut out for the final three innings by journeyman (and a not very good journeyman at that) Sean Newcomb. But three runs was enough because Will Warren went five scoreless and Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams all pitched scoreless innings as well.

“A baseball season is full of ups and downs,” Cody Bellinger said after the win. “But we’ve handled both well. I really like where we’re at.”

3. Aaron Boone was asked how we would grade the first half of the season and he said, “Incomplete,” but also said the Yankees “are a team to be reckoned with.” Nothing like talking about how great you are after beating the last-place A’s and winning for just the eighth time in 17 games. Then again, this is a man who said the “the league has closed the gap” on the Yankees after losing the 2021 one-game playoff despite having never won a championship prior to or since that loss.

4. On Saturday, Clarke Schmidt’s scoreless inning streak came to an end as the A’s got to him for four runs with a pair of home runs over six innings. Allan Winans gave up a couple of more in relief, though it didn’t matter since the Yankees couldn’t score. The offense was stifled by former Yankee JP Sears (5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) again as he allowed one earned run in 11 1/3 innings against his former team this season. Sears has a 0.79 ERA against the Yankees in two starts this season and a 5.74 ERA in his other 15 starts. The Law of Ex-Yankees playing against the Yankees never fails.

5. With one day left in June, here is the OPS for each Yankee in what has been an abysmal offensive month:

Jazz Chisholm: .979
Aaron Judge: .975
J.C. Escarra: .867
Cody Bellinger: .845
DJ LeMahieu: .742
Trent Grisham: .683
Ben Rice: .671
Anthony Volpe: .661
Austin Wells: .647
Jasson Dominguez: .627
Giancarlo Stanton: .580
Paul Goldschmidt: .464
Oswald Peraza: .387

(Judge’s OPS looks much better than it has been after his two home runs on Sunday with the Yankees leading by five runs both times he went deep.)

6. Chisholm has been the Yankees’ best hitter since coming off the injured list on June 3. It was his solo home run that got the Yankees on the board on Friday and his bases-clearing triple that opened up Sunday’s game. When Chisholm went on the injured list on April 29, he was hitting .181/.304/.410. Since coming off the IL, he’s hitting .318/.379/.600.

7. After getting rocked by the Yankees in May (4 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K), Luis Severino was lit up by his former team once again on Sunday: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 HR. Severino had issues with pitch tipping with the Yankees, and with the Yankees aware of them, they had to have been on something or some things to get to him for 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings over two starts.

8. When Marcus Stroman went on the IL in April, I figured we wouldn’t see him throw another pitcher as a Yankee. I prayed we wouldn’t see him throw another pitch for the Yankees. On Friday, Boone said the Yankees wanted to see Stroman throw his latest bullpen session before deciding on if he would start Sunday, since a bullpen session is more than important than the actual on-field results Stroman has provided for the last calendar year. Sure enough, Stroman got the start on Sunday. Not because of his bullpen, but because the Yankees are paying him $18 million and it will be impossible at this point for him to reach his innings clause to guarantee his 2026 salary.

Stroman only allowed one earned run over five innings, which was better than Schmidt provided on Saturday, even if it was only against the A’s, who went 13-31 between Yankees series. The Yankees are going to keep Stroman in the rotation because of the money owed, though with days off and the All-Star break soon, they won’t need to use him that often if they don’t want to. (They shouldn’t want to.) As of now, Stroman is scheduled to pitch on Friday at Citi Field. That’s about as guaranteed as a loss gets in the majors even with how bad the Mets have been for weeks now. If Stroman does start that game, it will likely be the last big game of his career. Maybe he goes out and gives it all he has one last time and surprises everyone.

9. Before the Yankees get to the second half of the 2025 Subway Series they have an enormous four-game series in Toronto with the Blue Jays, who are only three games behind the Yankees. I’m much less worried about the Blue Jays than I am the Rays, but as long as they are this close, I’m worried. If the standings were based on expected wins and losses from run differential, the Yankees would have a 12-game lead on the Blue Jays. But in reality, the Yankees have played five games worse than their expected record suggests and the Blue Jays have played four games better.

10. There isn’t a Blue Jays starter that should scare me (the Yankees will see Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt), but with the inconsistent offense the Yankees have provided throughout the season, everyone scares me right now. If Sears can shut down the Yankees like he did on Saturday, any of those four names could duplicate that type of performance and all four have much more talent and ability than Sears to do so.

I trust the Yankees’ starting pitching. I expect strong starts from everyone in the rotation, so I’m not worried about the pitching not showing up this week in Toronto. I’m only really worried about the offense. Will we get the offense that blasted Gausman in April or that the offense couldn’t hit Kyle Hendricks at home two weeks ago? It better be the former.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Jun 26, 2025

Yankees Thoughts: Max Fried Maintains One-Game Lead

The Yankees won the last of their 16 games over the last 16 days, beating the Reds 7-1. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch is over. The Yankees finished their longest off-day-less part of 2025 with a 7-9 record. None of the five teams they played (Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds) currently holds a playoff spot.

It was a disappointing two-plus weeks. The Yankees were supposed to stack wins during this time, and instead, they stacked losses. When the stretch began they had a seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays. That lead is down to one game.

2. At least the Yankees ended the stretch with a win. After being unable to score following the first inning on Monday, the Yankees blew a three-run lead late on Tuesday. That loss helped them increase their league lead for most losses (five) when leading by multiple runs at the start of the seventh inning and increased their league lead for worst road extra-inning record in automatic runner history. (Stats from Katie Sharp.) (The Yankees have scored two of 11 automatic runners this season and one of those two scored on a wild pitch). On Wednesday, they won behind Max Fried for the 13th time in 17 games, finally beating the Reds 7-1.

3. The Yankees are 13-4 when Fried starts and the only one of his 17 starts that should have been a loss was when he blew a three-run lead to the Dodgers at the end of May. The Yankees are 33-30 in games not started by Fried, which is a problem.

“I told him again today, ‘Just watching you more and more, I would not have wanted to hit off you,’” Aaron Boone said of Fried.

Boone was six percent worse than league average as a hitter in his career. I’m not sure there was anyone he wanted to hit off of.

4. The only run the Reds scored was unearned thanks to a throwing error from Jazz Chisholm. He has been shaky at third of late, but that’s to be expected when you’re being asked to play out of position. In his career, Chisholm has gone from shortstop to center field to second base to third base.

Chisholm is an exceptional talent. Since the start of the last season, he is one of five players with 50-plus steals and 35-plus home runs. The other four players are Elly De La Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, Jose Ramirez and Bobby Witt Jr. (Stat from Katie Sharp). In 96 games as a Yankee (regular season only), he has hit .257/.332/.483 with 22 home runs and 53 RBIs and has stolen 28 bases in 32 attempts. Again, he’s an exceptional talent. But it would be nice if he could stop talking all of the time.

5. On Tuesday, Chisholm had a 2-0 pitch called a strike that was clearly a ball. Instead of the count being 3-0 it was 2-1 and Chisholm eventually struck out swinging. Did the umpire force him to strike out swinging? No. But once the 2-0 pitch was called a strike he couldn’t compose himself and let the bad call ruin his at-bat. Eventually it ruined his game as he was ejected because he the extra long leash he was given to argue his point wasn’t enough.

On Wednesday, Chisholm hit a mammoth two-run home run, further proving how talented he is.

“After what happened last night, it felt great to get a hold of one, Chisholm said.

After what happened last night? YOU created what happened last night and your ejection. YOU couldn’t get over one missed call. (On Wednesday, a blatant strike was called a ball against Chisholm, but he didn’t have anything to say about that.)

After Wednesday’s win, Chisholm participated in the postgame, on-field interview and said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” Even if you believe that why are saying that on June 25 after you just managed to salvage a game against the crappy Reds, have lost eight of 12 and have watched your seven-game lead in the loss column over the Rays drop to one?

I like Chisholm. I want to like him more, but he makes it so hard.

6. Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez each had four hits in the win. Because Cody Bellinger sat on Wednesday (despite being 2-for-2 with two home runs in his career against Brady Singer) he won’t be sitting on Friday. That means either Grisham or Dominguez will sit coming off a four-hit game. (It’s going to be Dominguez as they continue to stunt his development.)

“The more games that you play, the more if helps your confidence,” said Dominguez who will be benched for at least one of the three games this weekend.

7. It was another ho-hum hitless night for Anthony Volpe. He went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts in the series, but he did have the fake triple in the second game that he, his manager and the front office will be able to live off of for a while. He’s 4-for-37 in his last 12 games. Those four: an infield single, a bloop single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a single turned into a triple. He’s down to .230/.418/.723 on the season. Fortunately for him, the Yankees’ roster construction allows him to keep playing every day.

8. Fernando Cruz struck out all three batters he faced in a scoreless eighth. It was the second time in three outings Cruz struck out all three batters he faced. He has 53 strikeouts in 32 innings and hasn’t allowed a hit in his last seven appearances.

9. The Athletics come to the Bronx this weekend for a three-game series. The last time the Yankees played them in the second week of May, the A’s were 20-18. Now they’re 33-49 with a game against the AL-best Tigers on Thursday. The A’s are 13-31 since the start of their last series with the Yankees.

10. This weekend will show us a lot of about what to think of the Yankees. If their June swoon has ended and their annual midsummer poor play is done, they will take care of the A’s. If the Yankees can’t beat up on the AL West’s worst at home in the middle of the A’s nine game road trip then we will know this recent two-and-a-half-week slide is much more than the “That’s baseball” the Yankees tell us it is.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Jun 24, 2025

Yankees Thoughts: June Swoon Continues

The Yankees lost to the Reds 6-1 on Monday to fall to 10-11 in June. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. If you thought the Yankees’ 9-0 blowout win over the Orioles on Saturday and their 3-2 comeback win over the Orioles on Sunday would put an end to their annual midsummer swoon, you thought wrong. The Yankees followed up back-to-back wins over the Orioles with a 6-1 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati on Monday. Aaron Judge hit a first-inning home run and the offense followed with 8 1/3 scoreless innings.

2. The Yankees went 8-for-36 with one walk and 13 strikeouts. They stranded nine baserunners, going 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. It was the type of offensive performance Yankees fans have come to expect this month from Aaron Boone calls “one of the best offenses in baseball.”

“We didn’t put the ball in play with runners out there when we had opportunities,” Boone said, stating the obvious.

3. Paul Goldschmidt went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Anthony Volpe went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. DJ LeMahieu went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Giancarlo Stanton went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. (Jasson Dominguez went 2-for-4 and will probably be benched on Tuesday.)

“I think it’s just going back to guys having intent, going up there with a plan and trying to execute,” Judge said. “You’re not always going to drive the guy in or move him over, but as long as we continue to have good at-bats, I like our chances.”

4. The Yankees placed Ryan Yarbrough on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain that bothered him for two starts. They called up the 29-year-old Allan Winans with 40 career innings in the majors to take his place in the rotation. Winans faced the minimum over the first three innings on Monday in his Yankees debut, but then unraveled after the Reds’ lineup saw him for a second time.

“He’s not overpowering with his stuff,” Boone said, “so his mix has got to be good and his command has got to be right.”

Winans through the third inning: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Winans after the third inning: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR, 2 HBP

“I feel like there’s another gear I could hit, probably,” Winans said. “A couple of missed execution pitches, a couple of fastballs I’d like back.”

5. Winans had a golden opportunity to pitch well and keep a rotation spot while Yarbrough is out and possibly keep one for a while if he were to continue to pitch well and someone else were to go down. If he does have another gear, he should have gone to it on Monday as now he’ll likely be replaced in the rotation by Marcus Stroman.

6. After not starting on Sunday, Anthony Volpe returned to the lineup and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and misplayed a ball for good measure. Volpe went nearly a week without getting a hit, then had a three-hit game on Saturday (his three hits were an infield single, a home run off the short porch foul pole and a bloop single), walked as a pinch hitter on Sunday and then had his fifth 0-for-4 in eight days on Monday. His OPS+ dipped below 100 after Friday, making him once again worse than league average, but went back above 100 after Saturday. It now sits at 101. Please turn out to be great, George Lombard Jr.

7. The Yankees will face Chase Burns in his major-league debut on Tuesday. In 66 innings this season across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft has struck out 89 and allowed only 38 hits. The Yankees struck out 13 times on Monday and it wouldn’t surprise me if that number is surpassed on Tuesday.

8. With the right-hander starting, I’m sure Boone will go back to hitting Trent Griffey and Ben Bonds at the top of the lineup and will give us something like this:

Trent Grisham CF/Ben Rice 1B
Ben Rice 1B/Trent Grisham CF
Aaron Judge DH
Cody Bellinger RF
Jazz Chisholm 3B
Jasson Dominguez LF
Austin Wells C
Anthony Volpe SS
DJ LeMahieu/Oswald Peraza 2B

9. The Yankees started out June with four wins in five games. Then they lost two to the Red Sox, swept the Royals, were swept by the Red Sox, lost three of four to the Angels, won a home series against the Orioles and were shut down by the Reds. They have lost eight of 11 and are now 10-11 in June. The 16-games-in-16-days stretch was supposed to be an opportunity for the Yankees to stack wins against some mediocre teams in the Royals, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles and Reds, and instead, they’re 6-8 against them.

10. There are two games left in the stretch before the Yankees’ first day off since June 9. (Poor Yankees, 16 games in 16 days!) Carlos Rodon gets the ball in the first of the two looking for his first great start in three weeks, as the offense looks to do to Burns what a major-league offense is supposed to do to a rookie starter in their debut. The Yankees need to get back in the win column as their lead in the loss column is down to two games.

Author: Neil Keefe

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