The Yankees were swept by the Cardinals. The Yankees blew leads in two of the games and were shut out in the other started by former Yankee Jordan Montgomery, and everything about his team of late feels a lot like last year.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. On the morning of June 19, the Yankees were 49-16. They had just shut out the Blue Jays the night before and their division lead was at an unbelievable 12 games through 40 percent of the season. As important, their lead for the 1-seed in the American League was nine games. The Yankees had clinched the division title with three-and-a-half months left in the season and were on their way to ensuring Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 of a potential ALCS matchup against the Astros would be played at the Yankee Stadium. But that Sunday night on June 19, the Yankees blew a five-run lead, lost 10-9 and haven’t been the same team since.

Since June 19, the Yankees have gone 21-23. During this current run of .477 baseball over more than a quarter of the season, they have lost five of seven to the Astros (never leading once in the seven games), split a series with the Pirates (who are on pace for 96 losses), blew three late leads to the last-place Red Sox, lost a home series to the last-place Reds, got swept in the first half of the Subway Series, lost a home series to Mariners (allowing 17 runs to their anemic offense) and were just swept in St. Louis (blowing leads in two of the three games, while getting shut out in the other). The Yankees are 9-16 in their last 25 games and 6-11 since the All-Star break. Against teams not from Kansas City, those records fall to 6-15 and 3-10.

2. Fortunately, the rest of the AL East has failed to take advantage of the Yankees pissing away 27 percent of their season. That 12-game lead on June 19 is now in single digits, but still strong at 9 1/2 games. The race for the 1-seed? That’s now a 1/2-game lead, and I expect the Astros to overtake the Yankees for the 1-seed later this week. And if they somehow don’t this week, they eventually will given their remaining schedule against the Yankees’ remaining schedule.

3. The last nearly two months have felt just like 2021. The Yankees went into last season as the odds-on favorite to represent the AL in the World Series, and instead they didn’t clinch a postseason berth until the final pitch of their regular season. They finished as the second wild-card team, had to go on the road for a one-game playoff and that one-game playoff was over four batters into the bottom of the first inning. The season was a disgrace, an embarrassment, a disaster.

Brian Cashman vowed to make changes at his end-of-the-season press conference and then made minimal, marginal changes. The Yankees got off to a 7-6 start in 2022 and it felt like a continuation of 2021. But then the Yankees went off in a way they hadn’t in more than two decades, winning 42 of 52 and drawing daily comparisons to the 1998 team that won 114 regular-season games before going 11-2 in the postseason and sweeping the World Series. But since June 19, this team and this season has felt too much like last season’s and it’s hard to stomach.

Are these Yankees the team that went 42-10 from April 22 through June 18, or are they the team that is 29-30 in the season’s other 59 games sandwiched around that improbable run?

4.. There are five players on the current roster to feel good about: Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu, Matt Carpenter, Jose Trevino and Nestor Cortes. That’s it. As for the other 21 …

Anthony Rizzo? He has missed the last three games with back problems, the second time he has missed games for back-related issues this season. After playing in 94 percent of his team’s regular-season games over the last nine years, it’s not surprising at 33 he’s dealing with injuries.

Giancarlo Stanton? He last played on July 23.

Gleyber Torres? Back on June 19, he was on a 40-home run pace, had an .838 OPS and had people thinking the Torres of 2018 and 2019 was back. Since then he’s hitting .227/.292/.348 with three home runs in 154 plate appearances.

Josh Donaldson? If the Yankees didn’t owe Donaldson $24 million this season and next season, he would likely no longer be a Yankee. He has hit one home run in the last month, while slugging less than .300 with an OPS under .550. He’s unplayable. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one.

Aaron Hicks? Also unplayable. Hicks went two weeks without getting a hit before picking up three hits on Sunday. His first two hits had exit velocities of 59.3 mph and 27.3 mph with expected batting averages of .220 and .280 respectively. His last home run came at Fenway Park a month ago and his last double came in the game before that one. So no, he hasn’t had an extra-base hit in a month.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa? The homerless shortstop with the .641 OPS … well, that’s all that needs to be said.

Marwin Gonzalez? The backup shortstop last got a hit on July 6. He’s 0-for-20 since.

Andrew Benintendi? The Yankees traded four prospects for Joey Gallo last year. Then they traded three prospects for Benintendi to be his replacement and moved Gallo as well. All they did was get the same player so far. Benintendi is 4-for-30 as a Yankee.

Kyle Higashioka? His OPS is finally above .600 (.603). Congratulations?

Gerrit Cole? In his last three starts, he allowed six first-inning runs to the Mariners, allowed five runs to the Royals and blew a three-run lead to the Orioles.

Luis Severino? He’s on the 60-day injured list.

Jameson Taillon? He has a 6.25 ERA and 5.49 FIP over his last eight starts.

Domingo German? He has a 5.07 ERA, 5.77 FIP and has allowed 28 baserunners in 17 1/3 innings.

Clay Holmes? He has allowed 21 baserunners and nine earned runs in his last 8 2/3 innings and has been so bad the Yankees are thinking of giving Aroldis Chapman his old job back.

Aroldis Chapman? His five straight scoreless appearance streak is going to fool the Yankees into thinking he’s fixed after having allowed 18 walks in 25 1/3 innings this season.

Jonathan Loaisiga? He hasn’t looked right since August of last year.

Wandy Peralta? Fifteen baserunners allowed in his last 8 1/3 innings.

Albert Abreu? The Yankees traded him in the offseason to the Rangers. The Rangers traded him to the Royals. The Royals designated him for assignment. The Yankees gladly took him back and in his last three appearances he came into a 6-6 game and allowed two runs then faced three batters and retied one and then came into a one-run deficit and made it a two-run deficit.

Lucas Luetge? He has allowed 45 percent of inherited runners to score, including both in his last appearance against Seattle.

As for new Yankees pitchers Frankie Montas, Scott Effross and Lou Trivino, well, Montas allowed six earned runs in three innings in his Yankees debut, Effross allowed a three-run home run to Paul DeJong and his .531 OPS on Sunday, and in the same game, Trivino walked in a run.

So like I said, it’s Judge, LeMahieu, Carpenter, Trevino, Cortes, and that’s all to currently feel good about.

5. The Yankees’ trade deadline acquisitions have collectively made the worst first impression possible. Benintendi is 4-for-30, Montas got rocked in his first Yankees start, Effross gave up that three-run home run and Trivino walked in that run. On top of the lack of contribution from those four, the Yankees are choosing to not have the best possible 26-man roster. After recently sending down Clarke Schmidt, on Saturday night, they also sent down Ron Marinaccio, who has been the Yankees’ best reliever of late and had filled in well for the injured Michael King. Schmidt and Marinaccio not being on the major-league roster is irresponsible, and a clear product of roster manipulation. Because the two have remaining options, they don’t have to pass through waivers like other lesser relieves would have to. So rather than designate Abreu or Luetge for assignment, the Yankees are inexplicably choosing to roster a less talented team.

6. This isn’t an uncommon practice under Cashman. It’s very common. As is trading for young, controllable starting pitchers that don’t work out with the Yankees. No, one start after having not pitched in 12 days isn’t enough for me to say Montas won’t work out as a Yankee, but it should surprise no one if it doesn’t. Here is the list of young, controllable starters Cashman has traded for just like Montas:

Jeff Weaver
Javier Vazquez
Michael Pineda
Nathan Eovaldi
Sonny Gray
James Paxton
Jameson Taillon

Cashman traded away the left-handed Ted Lilly in the deal for Weaver, who was a complete bust as a Yankee, while Lilly went on to pitch in the majors until the age of 37. Jordan Montgomery wasn’t traded for Montas, but the addition of Montas led to the trade of Montgomery, so he kind of was. And I can easily see the left-handed Montgomery becoming Lilly 2.0 in a lefty that goes on to have a long, successful career as a middle-of-the-rotation starter, and it’s not hard to envision Montas pitching in New York like those other seven names.

7. I have only rooted against the Yankees once in my life: Game 162 of the 2011 season. A Yankees loss and Orioles win meant the Red Sox would be eliminated from the playoffs and complete the worst September collapse in baseball history, so when the Yankees blew a seven-run lead in that game and Evan Longoria eventually hit a walk-off home run I was ecstatic. Saturday night against the Cardinals was the second time I have rooted against the Yankees.

It’s not that I’m a big Montgomery fan, it’s more about what Saturday represented. Here was an ex-Yankee making his non-Yankees debut against the Yankees, pitching against Domingo German who should have been released by the organization in 2019. The addition of Montas was supposed to be the end of German in the Yankees’ rotation, but then the trade of Montgomery kept German in the rotation. Despite being a scumbag as a person and an awful pitcher, German has maintained his roster spot and has been given endless chances to prove himself at the major-league level. I don’t root for him in any start, so of course I was going to root against him on Saturday night, and with Montgomery starting it meant rooting against the Yankees. So when Montgomery threw five shutout innings and the Yankees lost 1-0 I didn’t care. The Yankees made their bed by acting like they have an abundance of available, major-league-caliber starting pitching in trading away Montgomery and by continuing to start German, so screw them. Add in Montas’ disastrous start on Sunday and Luis Castillo outpitching Cole in the Bronx last week for his second win in the Bronx in a month, and the early returns on the trade deadline have been a disaster. You get what you trade for, and the Yankees chose not to trade for the best available starting pitcher at the deadline, the best available reliever or the best available outfielder, and they have gotten what they traded for.

8. And the returns are likely to get worse. Once Harrison Bader is healthy he’s going to play and he’s going to start in center field. That means Judge moves to right field. That makes Stanton the full-time designated hitter. That makes Carpenter a bench player. And with the Yankees undying loyalty to Donaldson at third, that means LeMahieu or Torres comes out of the lineup. And if it’s LeMahieu, I would actually root against the Yankees in the playoffs. I understand the idea of run prevention, but the Yankees are taking it too far if they plan on playing Bader, Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa in the same lineup.

The Montgomery-Bader trade was nonsensical when it was made, and has a chance to grow into something much worse if Montgomery continues to be a reliable No. 3-4 starter and Bader’s presence eventually screws up the Yankees’ best possible lineup.

9. Judge has been playing center field full time and the acquisition of Bader means the Yankees don’t feel comfortable with Hicks at the backup. A guy who’s under contract for next season, the season after that, and the season after that and then can be bought out the season after that. It’s either the Yankees don’t believe in Hicks or they are worried Stanton’s season is over. The former is fixable. The latter is an enormous problem because unless LeMahieu and Judge are going to carry the offense for an entire postseason, the Yankees desperately need a healthy Stanton back in the lineup.

10. Even after all this losing for the last seven weeks, the Yankees are still going to win the AL East. But without the 1-seed in the AL, it will be nearly impossible to win the AL unless the Astros somehow get knocked off in their ALDS matchup. It would be difficult enough to beat the Astros with home-field advantage, not having it sets the Yankees up for a similar outcome to 2017 and 2019.

Things could get worse before they get better. The Yankees now head to Seattle to play a desperate Mariners team battling for a postseason berth and will face their three best starters in Logan Gilbert, Castillo and Robbie Ray. After that it’s a series at Fenway Park against the Red Sox, who are trying to save their season. Then it’s home against the Rays and Blue Jays, who are fighting for playoff positioning and who likely still believe they can catch the Yankees, and the second half of the Subway Series.

The Yankees can’t afford to continue to put out ‘B’ and ‘C’ lineups, give starters extra rest, test out relievers in big spots and manage like they have everything clinched. They have nothing clinched. I don’t expect them to change their ways and begin to play and manage with urgency, and that’s why it’s getting harder by the day to see this season ending in anything other than disappointment.

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The Yankees lost another second-half series, dropping two of three to the Mariners. The Yankees are now 6-8 since the All-Star break, having played one-game-over.-500 baseball since June 19.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees are a better team today than they were prior to the trade deadline. (At least I think they are.) They made necessary upgrades, but also puzzling decisions, and while they did everything they needed to do (add an outfielder, acquire a starting pitcher and get bullpen help), they kind of half-assed doing what they needed to do.

The move to acquire Andrew Benintendi marked the official end for Joey Gallo as a Yankee. All Yankees fans knew for a couple of months Gallo had played his way out of New York, but trading for Benintendi solidified the decision. All the Yankees needed to do was find a home for Gallo, and they did that in Los Angeles with the Dodgers.

2. Before leaving New York, Gallo spoke with Randy Miller about his time with the Yankees, and what he had to say was rather odd. Gallo talked as if he should have immunity from booing and criticism from Yankees fans: a fan base that has booed both Number 2 and Number 42.

“I don’t go out in the streets,” Gallo told Randy Miller. “I really don’t know want to show my face too much around here.”

I would know who Gallo is if I saw him walking down the street. I think a lot of casual Yankees fans and baseball fans know his name, but I don’t think they would necessarily know him walking down the street in Manhattan, and not every person is a baseball fan. Sure, he’s 6-foot-5, which would make him stick out, and yes, he has a rare haircut (which doesn’t help him hide), but I have a hard time believing most people in New York City would know who Joey Gallo is or care to see him on the street.

“In Texas I was playing every day, so it was a little easier to get on a streak,” Gallo said. “It’s a little tougher not playing every day trying to get that streak going, as well.”

Gallo’s memory must be as poor as hit bat-to-ball skills. When he was acquired by the Yankees, he served as the 2-hitter right away. He played in his 22 straight games to begin his Yankees tenure (and hit .152/.302/.367) and in 2021 played in 58 of a possible 61 games after being traded (hitting .160/.303/.404).

To start the 2022 season, he played in the Yankees’ first 21 games despite posting a .570 OPS. After a couple days off, he then played in the next 14 straight games, while posting a .620 OPS. He played in 21 games in April, 20 games in May, 22 games in June and 19 games in July. The Yankees gave him every opportunity to turn it around, kept forcing him in the lineup to let him turn it around, and he never did. For him to say he wasn’t an everyday player with the Yankees isn’t just wrong, it’s a lie.

“I don’t know how (the fans) usually are, but I don’t know how much tougher they can get,” Gallo said. “Pretty much every team we play, players from that team reached out to me to say, ‘Hey bro, keep your head up. Don’t listen to them.'”

Gallo claims to have grown up a Yankees fan. I don’t know how anyone could grow up claiming to be a Yankees fan and not know how the fan base acts. Alex Rodriguez won two MVPs as a Yankee and single-handedly carried the offense to a championship, and it didn’t matter. He was judged by each plate appearance. If he went 3-for-3 with three home runs, but struck out in his fourth at-bat with the tying run on base, he would get booed, and all he did in 12 years as a Yankee was post a 162-game average of 38 home runs, 117 RBIs and a .283/.378/.523 slash line. I don’t see A-Rod claiming the fans made him “feel like a piece of shit.”

“It makes me feel like a piece of shit, honestly,” Gallo said. “I do appreciate people reaching out, but it makes me feel like I’m a problem.”

Clearly, Gallo is sensitive, and this interview made it obvious why he failed as a Yankee. He was always going to be a hard player to accept with his all-or-nothing approach at the plate, but to tell Miller all of this less than a week after speaking in the past tense of his time with the Yankees while still a Yankee to Lindsey Adler, Gallo was never going to be able to handle adversity.

And sorry, Joey, but you were a problem. The Yankees gave up four prospects to acquire him, and he went from the Yankees’ 2-hitter to eventually being the 9-hitter, to becoming a platoon player to being benched. That’s a problem. He was supposed to be a high on-base guy who would hit 30-plus home runs and play Gold Glove defense. Instead, he was a low on-base guy, who stopped hitting home runs and played questionable defense.

3. I’m not mad at Gallo for failing as a Yankee, and I don’t dislike him either. The Yankees knew the type of player they were getting when they acquired him, and any dip in production was going to be an issue, let alone a catastrophic dip. It’s not Gallo’s fault Brian Cashman gave up four prospects to acquire him and then had to give up three more prospects to trade for Benintendi to take the place of Gallo. It’s not Gallo’s fault he became a Yankee, got to play every day and kept on playing even when it was clear his ability to do the things he was supposed to do was gone. He didn’t have a no-trade clause to veto the trade and he didn’t force his way to the Yankees like Giancarlo Stanton (who told the Marlins he would only accept a trade to the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers or Cardinals). Gallo being a Yankee and arguably the worst everyday Yankees of all time is completely on the Yankees.

Maybe Gallo will reclaim what made the Yankees want to acquire him in Los Angeles. He gets a fresh start in a new place on a great team with a fan base that will allow him to walk the streets of the surrounding beach towns and won’t boo him endlessly in his home stadium. (I know this because I’m married to one of those fans.)

4. I tweeted a few weeks ago that Benintendi was a hard pass for me. But if it meant the end of Gallo as a Yankee, then OK. It did mean the end for Gallo as a Yankee, but it also meant a still-cluttered lineup because of the Yankees’ pledge to play Josh Donaldson no matter what, leaving Matt Carpenter, the team’s second- or third-best hitter as the odd man out.

Aaron Boone has showed us time and again that he will play Donaldson no matter what and no matter what hand the starting pitcher uses to throw with, even though Donaldson can’t hit lefties or righties. Donaldson has done everything to prove he’s washed up and undeserving of everyday playing time other than to actually say the words, and the only reason he continues to play is because the Yankees are paying him $24 million this season and next.

As a Yankee, Benintendi has been Gallo. Through seven games, he’s 1-for-20 with six strikeouts and eight walks. He’s Gallo without the occasional home run, which actually makes him worse than Gallo. Boone has hit Benintendi first, third, fifth and sixth so far. And he has had to because Stanton is injured and because the other options to hit in the Top 6 in the lineup are much, much worse like Aaron Hicks, who has a .332 OPS over the last two weeks (his last hit came in the Subway Series nine days ago), or Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whose plan at the plate is to swing at the first or second pitch of his at-bat and hope the ground ball he hits finds a hole.

5. The Yankees needed a starting pitcher and they got one in Frankie Montas. Not the one they should have gotten in Luis Castillo, but Montas is still good (but not great) and instead of getting a true No. 1-2 type, the Yankees got a No. 2-3 type. Which is fine if Luis Severino returns this season and returns as a starter. But that’s not exactly a sure-thing given that the Yankees moved Severino to the 60-day injured list, and given his injury history since spring training 2019.

The Yankees added two relievers in Scott Effross from the Cubs and Lou Trivino from the A’s. Both are better options with more career success than Lucas Luetge (who was just out of the majors for six years) and Albert Abreu (who was just cut by the Royals earlier this season), so why is it that neither was allowed to start a clean inning in the Yankees’ 8-6 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday? Why is it that Boone went to both Luetge and Abreu for multiple innings in that game with both pitchers allowing a run in their second inning of work. Luetge gave up the go-ahead (and eventual game-winning run), and Abreu gave up the insurance run.

The Yankees could have traded for Juan Soto, Castillo and Josh Hader, and Boone would find a way to screw it up. Trading for second-tier options only allows him to screw things up easier. Between his lineup choices (like continuing to play and bat Donaldson in the Top 5 and sit Carpenter) and wildly idiotic bullpen decisiosn, if the Yankees’ offense or the Astros aren’t the reason why the Yankees’ season ends without a championship, Boone will be.

6. The Yankees’ deadline moves made sense, until they traded Jordan Montgomery. Since trading Montgomery, it has come out that the Yankees have been looking to move Montgomery for a few years now. I’m not the biggest Montgomery fan, but why? Does this organization have a secret dearth of starting pitching? Because when the Yankees lost one starting pitcher to injury (Severino) it forced Domingo German who flat-out sucks into the rotation. When they traded for Montas, it meant the end of German in the rotation, but trading Montgomery means German stays in the rotation.

The Yankees traded the promising JP Sears to acquire Montas (let’s hope this isn’t a Sonny Gray or James Paxton situation), don’t seem inclined to give Clarke Schmidt an extended look as a starter, Deivi Garcia is back in Double-A, Luis Gil is out for the year, and the team’s highest-ranking pitching prospect now is a soon-to-be 23-year-old in High-A. (For context, Severino was in the majors when he was 21.) The Yankees don’t have the luxury of being able to trade away reliable, major-league starting pitching, even if that pitcher recently got rocked by the A’s and Royals.

7. The return for Montgomery is what makes the move even more puzzling. Harrison Bader, when healthy, isn’t good. Yes, he plays a Gold Glove center field, but he has no bat. If the goal is to have an all-glove, no-bat center fielder, well, Jackie Bradley, who also can hit, was just released by the Red Sox, and won’t cost a middle-of-the-rotation arm.

Bader also needs his feet to play a Gold Glove center field and he’s currently on the 60-day IL with plantar fasciitis with the possibility he could miss the rest of the season. So the Yankees gave up their current No. 3-4 starter for an injured defense-first outfielder with a career .729 OPS.

It gets worse.

8. If Bader returns, he’s going to play as the Yankees have decided having four or maybe five major-league caliber bats in the lineup will help them overcome the Astros in the postseason. Bader playing means the lineup becomes extremely top heavy. Add in the Yankees’ need to play Kiner-Falefa at short and Donaldson at third, and that leaves the DH spot for Stanton, sends Carpenter and his Barry Bonds-like season to the bench and means one of either DJ LeMahieu or Gleyber Torres won’t play. The ramifications of the Montgomery trade are as bad as the actual trade itself. It’s a deal that made no sense when it happened and makes even less sense as I dissect it. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. If Bader doesn’t return in 2022, it will be like the Yankees traded Montgomery for nothing, and that’s actually better than Bader not coming back in 2022, because his presence will make the Yankees’ lineup even more of a clusterfuck with yet another all-glove, no-bat player in it.

9. Not only do the Yankees have a lack of starting pitching, their current starting pitching isn’t very good. The Mariners are fighting for a wild-card berth with an anemic offense and that offense just put up 17 runs on the Yankees in a three-game series. Nestor Cortes is the only reliable starter right now, and Gerrit Cole is about as reliable as German after blowing a three-run lead to the Orioles, allowing five runs to the Royals and giving up six first-inning runs to the Mariners in his last three starts. The Yankees’ starting pitching is a problem and they just traded away a guy who has the same ERA and a better walks-per-nine percentage than the pitcher who they will give the ball to in Game 1 of the postseason.

10. The Yankees might be an outstanding 70-36, but they are 21-20 since June 19. (It s been a while since I heard YES compare them to the 1998 Yankees.) They are barely above .500 for the last quarter of the season, a stretch in which they played 25 games against the A’s, Guardians, Pirates, Red Sox, Reds, Orioles and Royals. They have been trending in the wrong direction since June 19, but even more so since the All-Star break as they have lost seven of 10 to teams not from Kansas City.

Even though the Yankees’ loss-column lead over the Blue Jays is now just 10 games, it’s still insurmountable. If the Yankees continue to play the .500 baseball they have played for the last seven weeks for their remaining 56 games, the Blue Jays will need to 39-18 just to tie them. The division is still as over as it was back in mid-June. It would be nice if the Yankee started playing like they did in mid-June.

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The Yankees won three of four against the worst team in the worst division in the majors, but it was a rather uninspiring, sloppy weekend from the Yankees, who didn’t look like the best team in the American League.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees went into their four-game weekend series against the Royals having lost five of seven since the All-Star break. They might have won three of four against the Royals, but it didn’t alleviate any of the fears I have about this team two months from now in the postseason where a shitty team like the Royals won’t be.

2. On Thursday, the Yankees won 1-0 on an Aaron Judge walk-off home run. The win, the walk-off home run and Judge’s chase of Roger Maris and history masked the fact that the Yankees got two hits in the games. Yes, they had one hit through the first 8 1/3 innings until Judge won the game. The Yankees 2-for-27 with one walk and 12 strikeouts in the game. Brady Singer is a good pitcher, but he has no business allowing one hit and one walk over seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts against a team with championship aspirations. After scoring just five runs in the first 18 innings of the Subway Series, the Yankees scored just one at home.

Singer was able to do what he did because of the lineup Aaron Boone constructed for the series opener:

Andrew Benintendi, LF
Aaron Judge, DH
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Aaron Hicks, CF
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Joey Gallo, RF
Marwin Gonzalez, SS
Jose Trevino, C

It’s bad enough Boone has been using Gleyber Torres as his cleanup hitter of late, but that 5 through 8 is as bad as it gets in the majors. I don’t give a fuck about alternating righty-lefty throughout the lineup, and under no circumstance should Jose Trevino ever bat below the two names above him there.

3. On Friday, with Gerrit Cole going against the anemic Royals offense, the Yankees were -400 favorites, a type of money line reserved for NFL games. Cole laid a second straight second-half egg, blowing a 3-0 lead after allowing five runs in six innings and letting the team’s only two feared hitters beat him as Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez drove in all five of the Royals’ runs. A 23-minute rain delay helped reset the game and the Yankees exploded for eight runs in the eighth inning, as Judge’s two homers and six RBIs led the Yankees to a comeback win.

4. On Saturday, Judge led the way again, reaching base four times and hitting his 42nd home run. Nestor Cortes worked through jam after jam and the Yankees won convincingly 8-2.

On Sunday, after falling behind Jordan Montgomery’s latest clunker against a bad team, the Yankees took a 6-4 lead into the eighth. But then Ron Marinaccio had an extremely rare bad day and Clay Holmes continued his recent stretch of not knowing where his sinker is going, and the Royals rallied in the ninth for three runs in a 8-6 Yankees loss.

In Andrew Benintendi’s first games as a Yankee, he got a taste of what life is like as a Yankee in 2022. His manager gave a regular the day off in each games of the series, didn’t play the left-handed Matt Carpenter (who has hit like Barry Bonds as a Yankee) against right-handed pitching, had Aaron Hicks batting fifth, Josh Donaldson fifth and sixth and had the balls to play Joey Gallo, whose future with the Yankees was decided long ago.

5. The trade for Benintendi solidified Gallo’s future with the Yankees which is that he doesn’t have one. In a recent interview with Lindsey Adler, Gallo spoke about his time with the Yankees in the past tense, knowing his time with the team is over sometime between now and 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Every time I see a Yankees hat, every time I see a Yankees jersey, it’s something I’m going to have to understand,” Gallo told Lindsey Adler. “I didn’t play well as a Yankee. I wish I had.”

I wish he had too. I actually feel bad for Gallo. It’s hard to feel bad for someone who makes $10.275 million to play baseball, but he grew up a Yankees fan, dreamed of playing for the team and played as badly as one can play and still be allowed to play. I feel bad for him because he didn’t trade for himself. He didn’t give up four prospects to make him a Yankee. He didn’t continue to play himself when he became the worst everyday hitter in the majors.

But maybe he’s not the worst everyday hitter in the majors. The Yankees actually have three candidates for that title between Gallo, Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

6. I don’t know what it’s going to take for Donaldson to stop being an everyday player for the Yankees, but it needs to happen. Donaldson is unplayable, and no I don’t care about his defense. No defense is enough to justify his bat, let alone a bat that continues to hit fifth and sixth with no consequences for performance. (He hit leadoff on Opening Day over LeMahieu!)

Donaldson is hitting .217/.296/.373 on the season. Remember when he homered in three straight games from July 6 to July 8 against three fringe major leaguers and people thought he was finally turning it around. Well, he hasn’t homered since, has driven in three runs in 17 games since and is hitting .158/.200/.211. To go along with that .411 OPS, he has 21 strikeouts to two walks.

If you have been wondering if Donaldson is washed up and finished, you can stop wondering and wonder about something else. The answer is unequivocally yes. He’s done. This isn’t a slump. This is 334 plate appearances for a 36-year-old who has trouble making contract, and even when he does surprisingly make contact, he hits a weak ground ball to short or third. 

7. Donaldson continues to get treated as if it were 2015 when he was the AL MVP. Gallo makes less than half of what Donaldson makes, plays the same type of stellar defense (though Gallo is better at his position than Donaldson is at his), and Gallo went from 2-hitter upon becoming a Yankee all the way to 9-hitter to platoon player to benched, and by Tuesday evening, he will no longer be a Yankee.

Here is what Donaldson has done as a Yankee:
.217/.297/.373, .669 OPS, 9 HR, 35 RBIs, 9.3 BB%, 27.2 K%

Here is what Gallo has done as a Yankee:
.159/.291/.368, .660 OPS, 25 HR, 46 RBIs, 15.4 BB%, 38.7 K%

Pretty equal if you ask me. Yet Gallo won’t be a Yankee by first pitch on Tuesday and Donaldson will be batting fifth or sixth on Tuesday.

8. I’m not defending Gallo and I don’t think the Yankees should keep him. He’s been awful and the experiment was a colossal failure. But the experiment of Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa has been equally as bad, and arguably worse. The Yankees don’t owe Gallo anything after this season, and he was just one player playing a position of depth for the Yankees. Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa take up two roster spots, two starting lineup spots and Donaldson is under contract for next season, while Kiner-Falefa will be out of the Yankees’ plans.

If the Yankees end up having to pay all of Gallo’s remaining 2022 salary, he will have cost the Yankees $14.535 million. Donaldson is owed $48 million between this season and next and Kiner-Falefa is making $4.7 million this season. That’s a total $52.7 million for a couple of good-but-not-great gloves with no offense. The Yankees could have gotten the same defense with the same abysmal offense for the league minimum.

9. Hopefully, once the trade deadline passes, someone else gets a chance to be the Yankees’ everyday shortstop. But if not and the Yankees are really going to try to win a championship with Kiner-Falefa playing every game in the postseason then these are the only nine current names that should be starting playoff games:

C: Jose Trevino
1B: Anthony Rizzo
2B: Gleyber Torres
3B: DJ LeMahieu
SS: Isiah Kiner-Falefa (unfortunately)
LF: Andrew Benintendi
CF: Aaron Judge
RF: Giancarlo Stanton
DH: Matt Carpenter

10. The weekend was a microcosm of the season. The Yankees record for the weekend was 3-1, but they didn’t play like a team deserving of winning three of four. They played like a team that was fortunate to be playing against a team that’s 22 games under .500 and who just traded their best hitter to the Yankees the day before the series began.

The Yankees are going to have to be better than they have been since the All-Star break in August. Not because the division or a postseason spot is in jeopardy, but because the 1-seed is with a two-game lead over the Astros.

The Yankees’ August schedule is difficult. In the first 23 days of the month, they will play 20 games against the Mariners, Cardinals, Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays and Mets. The Cardinals are one game out of a playoff spot and the Red Sox are 3.5, otherwise all of those teams are playoff teams. It’s not until the end of the month when the Yankees get a break with a West Coast trip to Oakland and Anaheim.

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The Yankees got swept in the first half of the 2022 Subway Series, have lost five of seven since the All-Star break and are 17-16 since June 19. The comparisons to the 1998 team have finally stopped as the Yankees try to get back to winning consistently for the last two months of the season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Back on April 21, the Yankees lost to the Tigers 3-0 in Detroit, falling to 7-6 on the season. It was the third time the Yankees had been shut out in 10 games. Coming off a three-game series loss in Baltimore the previous weekend in which the Yankees scored only three runs in 29 innings at Camden Yards, the 2022 season was a continuation of the 2021 season. Inconsistent, lackluster and disappointing play had become these Yankees.

Following that shutout loss to the lowly Tigers, the Yankees went off, winning 11 in a row and 22 of 26. They went from the most underachieving season in arguably the team’s history in 2021 to being compared to arguably the best team in the team’s history of 1998 in 2022. From the day after that loss in Detroit through June 18, the Yankees went 42-10, running away with the division and guaranteeing themselves a bye into the ALDS.

2. But since their 4-0 win over the Rays on June 18, the early-season Yankees have returned. The 2021 Yankees have returned. Injuries and underperformance have led to just a 17-16 record since June 19, and in that time, the Yankees lost five of seven to the Astros, blew three games to the now last-place Red Sox, split a two-game series with a Pirates team on pace to lose 96 games, lost a home series to a last-place Reds team on pace for 99 losses and got swept in the first half of the Subway Series.

The starting pitching has begun to show cracks and lost Luis Severino for an undetermined amount of time. The bullpen lost Michael King for the rest of this season and possibly next season, lost Miguel Castro indefinitely and is hoping Aroldis Chapman (who was on his way to being released before injuries) and Jonathan Loaisiga (who looks completely lost) can figure it out and fast. The lineup continues to go as Aaron Judge goes and when the big man slumps, the Yankees often lose.

3. After the Mets completed a first-half sweep in the Subway Series of the Yankees, Aaron Boone said, “We’re good. We know it. But we also know obviously we’re very beatable.”

Boone says a lot of dumb things. Most words that come out of his mouth in pre- and postgame press conferences are exactly that … or lies. But for one of a few times as Yankees manager, Boone said something accurate and truthful.

The Yankees are good, but yes, unfortunately, they are very beatable. I have written and said many times this year that the Yankees are where they are for three reasons: the starting pitching, Judge and the combination of King and Clay Holmes. Well, the starting pitching is no longer what it was in late April, May and the first half of June, and King is done. The Yankees need help and they need it between now and Tuesday afternoon.

4. The Yankees went out and got some help late on Wednesday night, trading for Andrew Benintendi. He’s not Juan Soto, who I still pray the Yankees land and will be distraught if they don’t, but he’s a solid player, and his presence means the end of Joey Gallo on the team and less Aaron Hicks, and no more Gallo and less Hicks is enough to make Benintendi already likable.

I could see Benintendi hitting just about anywhere in the Yankees’ order. First, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, who knows. I don’t think anyone knows because the logic and reasoning Aaron Boone uses to construct his lineups is unpredictable because there is no logic or reasoning. (He gave a breakdown of how he makes decisions on an offseason episode of CC Sabathia’s podcast and it was flat-out scary. I don’t know how the front office didn’t listen to how his brain works and not immediately let him go.) No matter where he hits, the Yankees improved their team and their offense with the trade.

5. The best possible lineup doesn’t include Josh Donaldson, who is officially washed up. I have questioned it all season, but it’s now official. He sucks. If he were on a one-year, prove-it deal for $5 million, he would likely no longer be a Yankee. But because the Yankees foolishly traded for him at the age of 36 and happily took on the entire $48 million owed to him, Donaldson isn’t going anywhere in terms of no longer being a Yankee. He should go somewhere though and that somewhere is the bench.

Donaldson can’t hit right-handed pitching (.239/.315/.396) because he can’t even hit left-handed pitching (.175/.284/.368). His numbers against power pitching are atrocious (.254/.303/.339) because his numbers against any kind of pitching are atrocious. And guess what type of pitching there is in October? Power pitching. How can the Yankees pencil his name into the lineup and expect anything other than strikeouts and ground outs to the left side against Justin Verlander, Christian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr., Alek Manoah, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, and any other hard-throwing, right-handed starter the Yankees may see.

6. I keep having people tell me “Yeah, but he plays great defense!” Who gives a fuck? Seriously, who gives a fuck? Defense grows on trees. You can find defense anywhere. Infield defense, outfield defense, you name it. It’s not hard to find. Defense-only players don’t get paid $24 million a season, and they don’t hit fifth and sixth for teams with championship aspirations.

Donaldson can’t be an everyday player for a team trying to win the 1-seed in the AL, and he can’t be an option as a starting player in the postseason, whether the Yankees are facing a lefty or not. This year is a lost year for him. If they’re unable to move him and dump even some of his salary in the offseason then try again next year (not that he will suddenly be better a year older). But for 2022, I have seen enough.

7. I have seen enough of Chapman as well, but because of the injuries to King and Castro, he’s not going anywhere. The Yankees are going to try to fix him between now and the ALDS, but if he’s needed in the ALDS, I think we all know how any outing of his will fare.

“It’s obviously tough right now for him,” Boone said of Chapman recently. “He’s going through a tough time and grinding.”

The “tough time” is now more than a year. Since June 10, 2021, Chapman has an ERA of nearly 6 and has allowed double-digit home runs. It’s rare when he pitches a scoreless inning and a near miracle when he pitches a 1-2-3 inning. Most of the time, he has no idea where the ball is going, walks at least one batter in an appearance and gives up the long ball when he has to come in the zone. He could not give up an earned run for the rest of the regular season and I would have zero confidence in him in a postseason appearance.

Loaisiga has been every bit as bad as Chapman, and possibly worse. Loaisiga has allowed 35 baserunners and 17 earned runs in 21 2/3 innings this season. He went from being in the conversation for best reliever in the majors in 2021 to on his way to pitching himself out of the majors in 2022.

8. The Yankees have a lot of bad options right now across all facets of the team. They are willing to give endless starting opportunities to Domingo German who should have been released from the team at the announcement of his suspension in 2019, and who continues to be really, really bad. They continue to roster Gallo, bat Donaldson in the middle of the order, act like it’s not a big deal that their starting shortstop can’t hit the ball in the air and is extremely shaky in the field, and their backup catcher doesn’t do anything well and rarely ever isn’t pinch hit for in a game he starts. In the bullpen, Albert Abreu seems like a ticking time bomb Boone will deploy at the most inopportune time in October and Wandy Peralta is the manager’s second-favorite reliever after all-world Holmes. As long as bad options exit on the roster Boone will find a way to use them, just like he did in inexplicably pinch hitting Gallo on Tuesday night.

9. Gallo hadn’t even walked out of the dugout before Buck Showalter immediately brought in Edwin Diaz. All Yankees fans know how inept Boone is at in-game management. But it’s pronounced when he goes head-to-head against managers like Showalter or Alex Cora or Kevin Cash. After the game, Boone said he wanted to “force” Showalter to use Diaz for a four-out save. The only chance the Yankees had in coming back on Tuesday was to come back before Diaz entered the game, yet there was Boone saying his goal was to get Diaz into the game as early as possible and for as many outs as possible. A true moron.

10. Boone isn’t about to get smarter between now and the first week of October. If it hasn’t happened for him at this point of his life, it’s not happening. And it’s not happening.

The only way to decrease the odds Boone ruins the postseason is by eliminating bad rooster options. Trading for Benintendi was the first step in doing so. It can’t be the only move. If it is, I can tell you right now how this Yankees season will end.

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The Yankees opened their second “half” with the worst possible day imaginable: swept in a doubleheader in Houston. The Yankees’ lead over the Astros for the best record in the American League is now down to two games in the loss column.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The only people left who don’t seem to think the 1-seed in the American League is important are the Yankees. Aaron Boone came back from the three-day All-Star break and couldn’t bring himself to play the best possible lineup in both games of the doubleheader in Houston. Giancarlo Stanton didn’t start the first game and DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo were left out of the starting lineup in the second game. The Yankees sat their 1- 2- and 4-hitters in the two most important remaining games of the regular season.

They also decided to give Domingo German his first start since July 31, 2021 in one of the two most important remaining games of the season, on the road, in Houston, against the Astros. I love John Sterling, but he’s wrong: you can predict baseball. German got lit up, allowing back-to-back home runs in the first inning, lasted only three innings and gave up on five runs on seven baserunners. It was the least surprising performance of all time, as the starting pitcher who isn’t any good, wasn’t good again, and the starting pitcher who averages nearly two home runs per nine innings allowed two in just three innings.

2. German should have been released by the Yankees in 2019 as soon as he was suspended. Instead, the Yankees have continued to roster him, even as the clubhouse wanted no part of him in spring training last year, and even as his performance has been abysmal. The Yankees couldn’t wait to get him back into the majors. They couldn’t wait to give him a start against a team they never beat in a stadium they never win at. They couldn’t wait for him to pitch them to another loss, and he did exactly that.

And yes, those two games were the two most important remaining games of the Yankees’ 70 remaining games (now 68). The Yankees entered the second “half” with a four-game lead in the loss column over the Astros, and that’s now down to two after losing 3-2 and 7-5 on Thursday.

3. As Boone was giving his postgame press conference following the second loss (a press conference in which he said he saw “some good” from German in what was his latest embarrassing evaluation), YES showed a graphic that read “Yankees never led in doubleheader.” Forget the doubleheader. The Yankees never led in any of the seven games between the two teams this season. In the two Yankees’ wins, the Yankees didn’t lead until Aaron Judge walked off the Astros twice. They never led in the entire seven games.

4. Here is a summary of the now-over season series:

Game 1: Yankees are no-hit from innings 2 through 8, and overcome three-run deficit in ninth inning to walk off.

Game 2: Yankees score one run in loss.

Game 3: Yankees are no-hit for first time in 19 years.

Game 4: Yankees are no-hit for first 6 1/3 innings, over come three-run deficit in seventh and eighth innings because Dusty Baker refuses to use his best relievers again, and Yankees walk off in 10th.

Game 5: Yankees score one run in loss.

Game 6: Yankees score two runs in loss.

Game 7: Yankees start pitcher who has thrown 1 1/3 innings since July 31, 2021, and lose.

That’s a lot of being no-hit, a lot of not scoring and a lot of losing. The Astros thoroughly own the Yankees. They own them in the regular season and they have owned them in the postseason. The only two Astros position players still on the team from their 2015 wild-card win over the Yankees are Jose Altuve and Jason Castro, and Castro is currently on the injured list and rarely ever plays. The only Astros position players still on the team from their 2017 ALCS win over the Yankees are Altuve, Castro, Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel. The Astros have changed their entire roster, they have let George Springer, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Correa walk, and they still own the Yankees. That’s because they have signed the right free agents (like Michael Brantley, who I begged the Yankees to sign after 2018), and continue to fill their roster voids with capable major leaguers who become All-Stars like Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Jeremy Pena. At full strength, the Astros don’t have Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Joey Gallo in their lineup, and they aren’t wasting at-bats and money on Josh Donaldson. (Sure, Gurriel is having a down year, but he also won the batting title just last year and is making one-third of what Donaldson makes.)

5. Since the Yankees’ 2017 ALCS loss to the Astros, the Astros have moved on or traded pitchers like Charlie Morton, Dallas Keuchel, Mike Fiers, Collin McHugh, Joe Musgrove, Wade Miley and Zack Greinke. The only two constants have been Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers Jr., and when Verlander missed 2020 and 2021, and when McCullers Jr. missed 2021 the Astros still managed to get to the ALCS in both seasons and the World Series in 2021.

6. The only Astros starter the Yankees haven’t seen in 2022 is Jake Odorizzi, and it would take an inordinate amount of injuries for him to get a postseason start (like it did in 2021).

Here is how the Astros’ starters have fared against the Yankees in 2022:

Justin Verlander: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

Christian Javier: 12 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 16 K, 1 HR

Luis Garcia: 10.1, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 12 K, 2 HR

Justin Verlander: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

Jose Urquidy: 7 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

Framber Valdez: 6 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 1 HR

Total: 42.1 IP, 15 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 16 BB, 41 H, 6 HR, 1.91 ERA, 0.732 WHIP

McCullers Jr, who has always pitched well against the Yankees, is nearing a return, which means at least one of these starters is going to the bullpen. Or maybe McCullers Jr. will go to the bullpen, like he did when he threw four scoreless innings to close out Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS against the Yankees, throwing only breaking balls.

7. What happens if the Astros go out and upgrade their roster like they did at the 2017 deadline when they added Verlander (because the Yankees wouldn’t take on his salary and watched him single-handedly swing the ALCS), or prior to 2018 when they added Cole (because the Yankees wouldn’t trade Clint Frazier or Miguel Andujar, eventually releasing Frazier for nothing and still won’t give Andujar everyday playing time over Aaron Hicks or Joey Gallo), or like they did in 2019 when they added Zack Greinke (and the eventual 103-win Yankees didn’t make a single move and overused their bullpen in that ALCS with Zack Britton admitting the relievers were fatigued). What happens if the Astros trade for Luis Castillo?

8. The Yankees need to do something. The right play is to give up the farm for Juan Soto, because he not only helps the Yankees now, but would help them for the next 10-plus years if extended. The other option is to be the team that trades for Castillo, not the Astros (or Dodgers).

9. As currently constructed, the Yankees won’t get past the Astros in a possible ALCS matchup. Home-field advantage wouldn’t even matter. That has been made clear through the seven games the teams played against each other. The Astros are better than the Yankees in every facet of the game, aside from the back end of the bullpen, and one half of the Yankees’ back end of the bullpen lost the first game on Thursday, and the other half didn’t even pitch. The bullpen has been the Astros’ biggest flaw since 2017, but it hasn’t stopped them from going to five straight ALCS and three of the last five World Series. Because come October, they will just move starters to the bullpen once again to supplement Ryan Pressly, Rafael Montero and Ryne Stanek.

10. The 1-seed is in serious jeopardy. The Yankees had a double-digit lead over the Astros at one point, and now it’s down to two games in the loss column. While the Yankees will spend the next two-plus months battling their division opponents, all of which are at least .500 and all of which have a chance at the postseason, the Astros will play nearly one quarter of their schedule against the A’s and Angels, who are counting down the days until their miserable seasons are over.

The Yankees had an unbelievable opportunity  to increase their odds at having home-field advantage on Thursday, and they blew it, with the days going as badly as possible. If they continue to not play the best possible lineup even once a week and continue to give extended rest to their starters and relievers and act like they have already clinched everything there is to clinch, they will continue to make it easy for the Astros to pass them.

With home-field advantage the Yankees will have a chance at representing the American League in the World Series. Without it, a Yankees-Astros ALCS is likely to play out the same way it did in 2017 and 2019.

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