The Yankees lost two of three to the White Sox to drop their first series since the second week of the season. Both losses came in a doubleheader in which the Yankees scored one run in 18 innings.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees are 29-12. They have the best record in the majors. Up until this week, everything had gone right them. They had taken advantage of an easy schedule to date, they had stayed healthy, when the hitting disappeared the pitching remained constant, when the pitching was short of outstanding the offense came together, and most importantly, the manager was removed from the in-game equation for most of the first six-plus weeks of the season.

After getting swept in a home doubleheader on Sunday, while scoring one run on an Aaron Judge solo home run in the 18 innings, the Yankees have now lost three of their last four games. Certainly, the sky isn’t falling because of a bad few days (thanks to their 28-9 record before the four games), but things aren’t what they were on Thursday morning.

2. Chad Green has most likely thrown his last pitch as a Yankee. After leaving Thursday’s loss to the Orioles with forearm discomfort, Green needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of 2022, and he will be a free agent after this season. He turns 31 tomorrow (nothing like major elbow surgery to celebrate your birthday) and I find it hard to believe the Yankees will be willing to pay him as a free agent when they have been so good at creating relievers just like Green in recent years. Combine that with his dip in velocity and performance, and it’s easy to see why Green won’t be a Yankee in 2023 and beyond.

Green’s 2017 season was magnificent. He pitched to a 1.83 ERA (1.75 FIP) in 69 innings with 103 strikeouts and 17 walks. On a team that had Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances, Green was the Yankees’ best and most trustworthy reliever.

His signature Yankees moment (hat tip, Michael Kay) was when he relieved Luis Severino in the first inning in the 2017 wild-card game with the Yankees trailing 3-0 and runners on second and third with one out. Green got the Yankees out of that jam, Didi Gregorius hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the inning and the Yankees went on to get within one win of the World Series in a season in which they weren’t supposed to sniff the playoffs.

Green was outstanding again in 2018 (stats), but in 2019, after allowing 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings in April, he was sent down to Triple-A until mid-May. After his return to the majors that season, he struck out 91 with 15 walks in 61 1/3 innings.

In 2020 and 2021, Green’s effectiveness began to decline. He was no longer a sure-thing for a shutdown inning and after being overworked and overused in the first month of 2021, by midseason he was blowing every lead he was asked to protect. Up until his injury last week, he was doing the same thing this season.

The Yankees got Green (along with Luis Cessa) for Justin Wilson after the 2015 season. They got 272 combined starts, opens and relief appearances from him over 383 2/3 innings with a 3.17 ERA and 1.022 WHIP. When he was at his best he was arguably the best reliever in the majors.

There was a time when Aroldis Chapman was the best reliever in the majors. Unfortunately, he’s still be treated as if he is.

3. Chapman has continued to be the Yankees’ “closer” because of his name, his career history when he was at his peak and the money still owed to him. Not because he’s deserving of the role. Not because he should still be protecting close games in the ninth inning.

The idea that in 2022 baseball teams still manage their bullpen based on the made-up statistic of the “save” is truly hard to fathom. Chapman is asked to pitch the ninth inning of games in which the Yankees lead by three runs or less. At this point, managing like that is archaic.

It’s been a long time since Chapman could be trusted. Even last season when he began the year with 18 straight scoreless outings, any smart Yankees fan knew not to let their guard down because the Chapman we have seen of late still existed and it was only a matter of time until he came out.

Here is Chapman’s line from Opening Day through May 21, 2021:

18 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 7 BB, 36 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.667 WHIP

And here is Chapman’s line for the rest of 2021:

38.1 IP, 31 H, 22 R, 21 ER, 33 BB, 61 K, 9 HR, 4.93 ERA, 1.670 WHIP

Yes, 33 walks in 38 1/3 innings.

Here is Chapman’s line this season:

14 IP, 13 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 10 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 3.86 ERA, WHIP

Chapman has allowed 11 home runs and 43 walks in his last 52 1/3 innings. He has allowed at least one earned run in five straight appearances. With Green injured and Chapman possibly injured and not pitching well, along with Jonathan Loaisiga not pitching well, the bullpen is suddenly not nearly as strong as it was four days ago.

4. After giving up a go-ahead home run to the first batter he faced in the ninth inning of the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, Boone went with a trainer to talk to Chapman who talked Boone out of pulling him. After Chapman allowed another run to score, Boone finally pulled him and then after the game it was reported that Chapman is dealing with an Achilles injury.

Maybe Chapman is hurt and that explains his ineffectiveness. But that would only explain his 2022 ineffectiveness. What’s the reason for 2021?

To me, the explanation is easy: Chapman isn’t the same pitcher he was once was. His command and control is the worst it has ever been, he relies too heavily on offspeed pitches and because he no longer throws the ball as hard as he once did with consistency, hitters have an easier time sitting fastball and adjusting to his breaking pitches or vice versa.

Chapman is a real problem because when he’s available, he’s going to pitch and he’s going to pitch as if he’s still the guy the Yankees made the highest-paid reliever. If Chapman is healthy this postseason and is used like it’s October 2019 and not October 2022, he could end the Yankees’ season for third time in four years.

5. I wrote about Aaron Hicks at length on Friday. I finished my thoughts on him by writing:

I want to like Hicks. I want him to be able to make contact with a changeup when hitting from the left side. I want him to get good jumps on balls hit to him. I want him to throw the ball to the right base with runners on. I want Hicks to stay healthy and succeed because I want the Yankees to succeed.

Since then, Hicks misplayed a fly ball in left field, got picked off second base while representing the tying run in the first game on Sunday, failed to drive in a run in eight plate appearances and failed to record an extra-base hit as he still has just one double and one home run on the season, which is now 25 percent complete.

The Yankees love Hicks. Brian Cashman loves him. Boone loves him. Everyone who makes decision that actually impact the Yankees’ on-the-field product loves him, and all Hicks has done in his baseball career is put together a resume that should make no one love him.

Aside from the seasons when the ball was juiced to the point that Gleyber Torres hit 38 home runs and Brett Gardner hit 28 in a single year, Hicks’ career has been a disappointment. He was a first-round pick bust for the Twins that the Yankees thought they could save and solve, and have treated him like Bernie Williams for now seven seasons in trying to unearth some untapped potential that doesn’t exist. Hicks has missed more games due to injury than he has played in his career, and when he has played, he’s underachieved.

Hicks is now 32 and still has three more years left on his contract after this one. For a guy that went out of his way to proclaim his 2022 goal was to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases this season (he had never accomplished either in his career), he has one home run and five steals through nearly two months. (He’s been caught stealing at the base twice and picked off once.)

The Yankees have two bad third outfielder options in Hicks and Joey Gallo, and they seem unwilling to give Estevan Florial a serious or extended look in the majors. The Yankees chose to not upgrade their outfield in the offseason and went into yet another year believing Hicks would stay healthy and produce. He’s been healthy, but he hasn’t produced anything other than outs at the plate and on the basepaths, defensive miscues and a whole lot of runners left on base.

6. Leaving runners on base is a common problem for the Yankees. Getting runners on base is also a problem.

The Yankees are lucky they were playing at the Stadium on Saturday afternoon for DJ LeMahieu’s grand slam to be a grand slam, since it wouldn’t have been a home run at any other park in the majors. If not for that home run, the Yankees’ offense would have had a more miserable weekend that it had, and even with that home run it was a miserable weekend for the offense.

My biggest fear about this Yankees team is what my biggest fear has been about every Yankees team since their last championship: the offense. The frequent disappearing act for days at a time isn’t an anomaly when it occurs, it’s a trend. And come October, I fear the disappearing act will lead to another championship-less year.

When the Yankees’ offense has a bad game or games, it’s not like they’re hitting into bad luck. They just don’t hit. There’s no baserunners. There’s no traffic. There’s nothing. On Sunday night, the Yankees were shut out for the fourth time this season. Michael Kopech started for the White Sox and he’s capable of shutting down any lineup in the game, so it was understandable, especially without him having a control issues for a few batters last Sunday, he would have shut them out then too. But to be thoroughly dominated by 2022 Johnny Cueto like they were in the first game of the doubleheader is unacceptable.

7. But that performance from Cueto is one we have seen from many mediocre and bad starters against the Yankees. (That’s not to say Cueto is bad, but he hasn’t been the Cy Young-worthy version of himself in six years.)

Jordan Lyles: 5.1 IP, 1 ER
Bruce Zimmerman: 5 IP, 0 ER
Michael Pineda: 5 IP, 0 ER
Tyler Wells: 5 IP, 2 ER
Yusei Kikuchi: 6 IP, 1 ER
Dane Dunning: 6 IP, 1 ER
Glenn Otto: 5 IP, 2 ER
Jon Gray: 4.1 IP, 0 ER
Kikuchi: 5.2 IP, 2 ER
Dallas Keuchel: 5 IP, 0 ER
Lyles: 7 IP, 2 ER
Johnny Cueto: 6 IP, 0 ER

That’s not including games in which the Yankees were shut down by front-end starters like Kopech or Alek Manoah. Those are just games in which the Yankees were held to minimal to no runs by average to borderline major leaguers starters. In most of those game, the Yankees were held to just a few hits and baserunners, and in a startling amount of those games, they were no-hit through four or five innings.

8. Bad offensive performances are going to happen over 162 games. But for the Yankees, they happen all the time. The Yankees have the record they have because of their pitching. Even in the 13 games in which the offense scored six or more runs, the pitching only allowed 3.8 runs per game. The Yankees are 28-3 when they score three runs. That’s how good their pitching is.

And the pitching was great against this weekend, even if they lost two of three and lost their first series the second week of the season. Nestor Cortes was good and Jameson Taillon (7 IP, 1 ER) and Luis Severino (7 IP, 0 ER) were awesome.

9. The Yankees have the pitching to win in October, which is something they haven’t had in a really long time. If last October lasted more than one game, they were going to have an injured Gerrit Cole, an unreliable Corey Kluber, Nestor Cortes and Jordan Montgomery to navigate through the postseason. (Taillon was hurt and Severino was in the bullpen after his return from Tommy John.) If the Yankees survived the wild-card game, they weren’t going to survive the Rays or Astros.

The Yankees’ championship chances in 2022 come down to health. When healthy, they have the best team in the American League. If the roster was managed and optimized correctly for the entire season, they would undoubtedly be the best team in the AL. A bad weekend against the White Sox doesn’t change that. But it did further prove the Yankees are from perfect and they have flaws that can be exposed in a short series, which is what the postseason is.

10. When in need of a bounceback performance and to prevent a two-game losing streak from evolving into something worse, you either want to play a bad team or have you ace on the mound. Fortunately, the Yankees have both of those as they will open a three-game series at home against the Orioles with Cole pitching.

One loss in the seven games between last week and this week against the Orioles is all the Yankees can afford, and they used that up in last Thursday’s blown game. After Wednesday, the Yankees will play the Rays (their closest competition in the division) in a four-game series, and they will only have six games remaining for the rest of the season against the Orioles. It’s a big week for the Yankees, and adding to the win total before going to the Trop.

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The Yankees have the best record in baseball. It feels like the old days and the old days were amazing.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees went to Baltimore and won yet another series, winning three of four against the Orioles to improve to 7-3 on the season against the last-place Orioles.

The Yankees could have swept the four-game series, but blew two different two-run leads in the series finale before getting walked off on. Oh well. Losses like that are going to happen. (I wish they didn’t happen when I have a sizable investment on the Yankees.) At least the Yankees kept their streak alive of only losing winnable games this season. They have yet to lay an egg or get routed and all 10 of their losses have been a game in which they had a chance to win in the eighth inning or later.

2. Everything is going right for the Yankees. OK, not everything. They have the worst offensive catcher situation in the majors, have a shortstop with no power and questionable defense and they may have just lost one of their Top 3 or Top 4 relievers for the season in Chad Green. But none of that is worse than Aaron Hicks. I’m going to change the Thoughts format for this one and focus on Hicks.

3. I’m tired of writing and talking about Hicks. Now in his seventh year as a Yankee, I have Aaron Hicks fatigue. I spend an inordinate amount of time being frustrated with Hicks and even more time being frustrated with the front office and the manager for continuing to treat him like he’s Bernie Williams. Unfortunately, it’s not going to end anytime soon.

Hicks is under contract this year … and next year … and the year after that … and the year after that … and then the year after that he will be bought out for $1 million. So after an enormous extension and a mediocre career, he will get paid an additional seven figures to not play for the Yankees in 2026.

4. When Hicks received his extension, the common response was that it was a fair deal for both the player and the team for a player who was close to free agency. It was a no-brainer for Hicks to sign. A team was willing to give him seven years of security and generational wealth in $70 million despite not being worth the years or the money. It was enough money where it was a sizable investment for the Yankees, but not enough where they couldn’t get out of it eventually if they had to. It wasn’t necessarily an immovable contract, but it wasn’t an albatross deal like the one the Yankees are worried of giving to Aaron Judge.

The Yankees were willing to gamble that a 29-year-old who had spent his entire 20s mostly either injured or underachieving his first-round draft status would be healthy on the other side of 30 and productive through his age 35 season. For an organization that portrays being meticulous about data and sample sizes, everything about Hicks’ career through 2018 suggested not committing to him through 2026. The Yankees did it anyway.

5. Since the day Hicks signed the deal, it has been a disaster. Shortly after agreeing to the extension, Hicks hurt his back on a 29-minute bus ride in late February in spring training 2019, but Aaron Boone said he would be ready for Opening Day. Hicks missed the first six weeks of the season, and after appearing in 59 games, he tore his elbow, which would need offseason Tommy John surgery.

Had the 2020 season started on time, Hicks would have missed the first half recovering from the surgery. Because the season didn’t begin until late July, he didn’t miss any time and played in 54 games.

In 2021, Hicks was named the No. 3 hitter in spring training by Boone. When Hicks went 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the season-opening series against the Blue Jays, Boone was asked if he would move Hicks down and sarcastically laughed at the media for asking the question, claiming Hicks would “be fine.” Less than two weeks later he was moved down in the order and after 34 games, he needed season-ending wrist surgery.

From 2016 through 2021, Hicks played in 493 of a possible 870 regular-season games (57 percent). From 2019 (when he got the extension) through 2021, Hicks played in 145 of a possible 384 regular-season games (38 percent). He has experienced just about every injury a baseball player can experience in going on seven seasons as a Yankee.

6. The only time Hicks has missed in 2022 has been due to paternity leave for the birth of his son.

Having a baby is obviously no joke. Whether or not Hicks makes $10 million to play baseball, he still has a one-month-old at home consuming a lot of his time and drastically altering his life and routine. I have a 20-month-old and a one-month-old and every minute of my life I feel like I have the bases loaded with no outs against me and Mike Trout, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper are due up. I get it.

Or at least I would get it if Hicks sucking in 2022 was solely tied to his performance in home games when he’s living and sleeping at home and prone to middle-of-the-night wakings. But Hicks is hitting .229/.386/.314 at home and .177/.297/.194 on the road. He’s been replacement level at home and Kyle Higashioka on the road.

7. Hicks is a problem. He’s nearly always been a problem, though in the past his problem was that he was never healthy and provided mediocre production when he was healthy and the baseball wasn’t juiced. Now he’s healthy, but he sucks, and this is a new level of suck. Hicks went into this season claiming on CC Sabathia’s podcast that he wanted to be a 30/30 guy. Yes, a guy who never stole more than 13 bases in a season and only ever exceeded 15 home runs in a season in 2019 when the ball was juiced and Gleyber Torres hit 38 and Brett Gardner 28 thought he would suddenly become a superstar.

Hicks has one double and one home run this season. In 2021, coming off a shortened season and the elbow surgery, he posted a .627 OPS before the wrist injury. It’s not unfair to attribute to his lack of power to the wrist surgery which ended his 2021 season in May, but it’s not like he’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa and hitting a bunch of singles with no power. He’s just not hitting at all. He’s hitting .196/.331/.237 in 2022 with his one quality being his ability to not chase pitches and draw walks, however, he has now walked once in the last 10 days.

Last year, Hicks was given a pass as he worked on being further removed from Tommy John. This season, his power outage is being given a pass as he works on being further removed from the wrist surgery. By next year, there will likely be some other pass being given for some other injury. Hicks gets hurt. That’s what he does.

8. Luckily for Hicks, like Higashioka, Jose Trevino, Kiner-Falefa, Joey Gallo and Torres a lot of the time, the Yankees are winning. The Yankees aren’t winning because of Hicks. He has done essentially nothing to help the team win and has actively hurt them both at the plate with runners on base and in the field with questionable (and at times appalling) defense. But if the Yankees hit a skid at some point, which they likely will unless they truly are going to challenge the 1998 Yankees in terms of success, the criticism will come for Hicks and the others. It comes with the territory of losses. I’m the most critical person of the Yankees I know on a daily basis, and even I was accepting of a loss like Thursday’s given the team’s 28-10 record. If the Yankees don’t keep winning the anti-Hicks sentiment will increase dramatically. He’s being given a free pass right now to work through his offensive issues, and it would be nice if he takes advantage of this sort of grace period before any regression for the team comes.

9. Like every other Yankee that causes me to lose sleep, Hicks didn’t force the Yankees to trade for them. Didn’t force them to play him every day. Didn’t force them to give him a seven-year extension. Didn’t force them to continue to go into each season believing they will get a full healthy and productive season from him. If Hicks were always batting sixth or lower in the lineup, getting the occasional runner in from third with less than two outs and playing a sound center field, no fan would have a problem with him. But because the Yankees feel the need to bat him first and third and try to make him into something he’s not, he’s prone to the criticism that comes with batting in the top half of the order for the New York Yankees. Couple that with his questionable defense this season and the lack of trust Yankees fans have for him after the oft-injured previous six seasons and you get an unruly fan base spending most of their day dreaming of his release.

I want to like Hicks. I want him to be able to make contact with a changeup when hitting from the left side. I want him to get good jumps on balls hit to him. I want him to throw the ball to the right base with runners on. I want Hicks to stay healthy and succeed because I want the Yankees to succeed.

10. After a successful series in Baltimore, the Yankees still have the best record in baseball (2 1/2 games better than the Dodgers) and have five-game lead in the AL East. To win at the rate the Yankees have and only have a five-game lead is depressing. (The Yankees would have a 10-game lead in NL East.)

The White Sox-Orioles stretch continues. After four games against the White Sox in Chicago and three games against the Orioles in Baltimore, the Yankees will now host the White Sox for three and then the Orioles for three. After that, it’s the much anticipated four-game series in Tampa against the Yankees’ closest division competition. Two more series wins at home before heading to the Trop isn’t an unreasonable expectation. Given the way the Yankees have played and the two opponents they will play, just winning both series seems like too low of a bar to reach.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!