The Yankees continued their historic season, winning two of three against the Rays in Tampa to improve their league-best record to 51-18.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees went to Tampa needing to win one game. They won two, and nearly won all three, taking yet another series from the Rays and improving to 7-3 on the season against the Rays. In recent seasons, that’s a series the Yankees lose and possibly get swept in. But not this season. Not in 2022. Not with this pitching staff and not with the magic that seems to follow the offense as they nearly always come through with the big hit at the right moment. And even when they don’t, like in the second games of the seres in which they lost 5-4, they still had a chance to win the game, and almost tied it with two outs in the ninth when Aaron Judge just missed hitting a game-tying home run to left field.

2. It’s very good news that Gerrit Cole has learned to beat the Rays. After his 2020 and 2021 seasons against them (and against the Red Sox and Blue Jays) I was extremely fearful Cole couldn’t beat the teams the Yankees needed him to beat the most. But this season against the Rays, he has been outstanding, culminating in him nearly throwing a no-hitter in the series opener on Monday.

3. Nestor Cortes wasn’t good on Tuesday and Jordan Montgomery turned in his worst start of the season on Wednesday. Both of them got hammered by Isaac Paredes, who hit four home runs in the series and who the Rays acquired from Detroit for Austin Meadows. The Rays traded away one player who destroyed the Yankees in Meadows and received Paredes who apparently destroys them. At the time , the Rays got crushed for the deal. Now Paredes has an .817 OPS, while Meadows has no home runs in 147 plate appearances. Just like the Evan Longoria, Chris Archer and Blake Snell deals, the Rays always make the right deal and move on from their players at the right time. For once, I would like them to get fleeced in a trade.

4. It didn’t matter that the starting pitching wasn’t good outside of Cole in the series, as the offense did just enough in the other two games to win two of three. The first game was a 4-2 Yankees win. The second was a 5-4 Yankees loss. The third was a 5-4 Yankees win. One game decided by two runs (and tied entering the ninth) and the other two decided by one run (both of which came down to the ninth). Again, in recent seasons, the Yankees don’t win those games. But this iteration of the Yankees with their league-best rotation, league-best backend relievers and timely hitting (led by Judge’s MVP season) have rolled over the Rays this season in terms of wins despite playing nearly all close games.

Here are the scores of the Yankees-Rays games this season:

7-2 Yankees
2-0 Yankees
3-1 Rays
4-2 Rays
2-0 Yankees
4-3 Yankees
2-1 Yankees
4-2 Yankees
5-4 Rays
5-4 Yankees

Nine of the 10 games have been decided by two runs or less and four have been decided by one run.

Over the last few seasons, the Rays had created a team perfectly built to beat the Yankees with a pitching staff full of hard-throwing righties. Well, the Yankees have countered the Rays by building a much better version of the Rays, now capable of winning these low-scoring games the Rays live off of. That was the last time these two teams will see each before the All-Star break.

5. When the All-Star break comes, Jose Trevino better not be spending it at home with his family. He better be spending in Los Angeles with his family at Dodger Stadium.

Jose Trevino is the man and his All-Star candidacy shouldn’t be in question. The Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk is deserving of being the starting catcher for the American League, but when he gets pulled from the game, Trevino should be the next catcher in. With his clutch, two-run home run in the eighth inning on Wednesday, Trevino is now hitting .283/.339/.478 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in 45 games and 124 plate appearances. It’s not his fault he’s 17th in plate appearances among AL catchers. That’s Aaron Boone’s fault as Boone continues to give his catchers equal playing time despite the fact one of them is an All-Star and one of them is barely in the league.

Not only did Trevino hit the go-ahead home run, he also had another hit in the game, and picked off Taylor Walls at third base with the bases loaded and two outs and the Rays threatening to put the game out of reach. Two nights earlier, in the series opener, it was Trevino hustling down the line on a ball hit in the infield with two outs to give the Yankees a 2-0 and it was his sacrifice fly in the ninth of that game that gave the Yankees a much-needed insurance run in their 4-2 win.

Trevino does it all. He’s the best framer in the game. He’s allowed just two passed balls. He’s thrown out 33 percent of would-be basestealers. He hits clutch home runs. He puts the ball in play. He always hustles and he always says the right thing when speaking with the media. He’s an easy player to root for and it’s obvious why he’s become a fan favorite.

6. It’s the play of players like Trevino and Judge and the starting pitching and the back end of the bullpen that has produced a 51-18 record record for the Yankees. And it’s the play of those players and pitchers that has allowed players like Kyle Higashioka (who has been better of late, but still overall horrible), Aaron Hicks (who has also been better of late, but still has two home runs and three doubles through 43 percent of the season), Joey Gallo, Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to get somewhat of a free pass and avoid immense criticism and scrutiny. But that’s what I’m here for and I’m not giving them a free pass.

Barring an amazing turnaround, it looks like the end is near for Gallo as a Yankee. When he was acquired by the Yankees, he batted second in his first few games. For the last month, except for a handful of times, he has batted ninth. He bats behind bats like Hicks, Higashioka and Kiner-Falefa. He rarely plays against left-handed pitching, and within the last few series, he has been pinch hit for on multiple occasions, including by Trevino. And as you read just a few moments ago, I love Trevino. But a guy you expected to hit in the Top 4 spots in the order and a guy you gave away four prospects for shouldn’t be getting pinch hit for by a catcher you acquired for depth right before Opening Day.

Gallo has gone from 2-hitter to 9-hitter to platoon hitter to being pinch hit for by a catcher. The next place for him to go is somewhere other than the Yankees. The trade deadline is in 41 days. Unless he becomes the exact player the Yankees thought hey were trading for, I don’t see how he’s a Yankees at the end of the day on August 2.

7. Fortunately, for Hicks, he’s under contract for next season … and the season after that … and the season after that … and then will get bought out and paid to not play for the Yankees in 2026. If not for the money owed to him, he might be on his way out as well. He likely would have been out a while ago given his combination of injuries and lack of production since 2019. Hicks is here to stay. Unless there’s some team out there dumb enough and foolish enough to take him and his owed money. (Please be some team dumb enough and foolish enough to take Hicks and his contract.) And owed money is why he’s still a Yankee and why he still plays. Owed money and name are more important than actual production for the Yankees.

8. Donaldson has both. He has the owed money in that he Yankees are paying him $24 million this season and $24 million next season, and he has the name in that he’s a former AL MVP (even if that was seven years ago, which is a long fucking time ago in baseball). But Donaldson has been absolutely atrocious as a Yankee. He’s hitting .233/.327/.386. His batting average is 35 percentage points below his career average. His on-base percentage is 28 points below his career average. His slugging percentage is 114 points below his career average. His .714 OPS is both embarrassing and 141 points below his career average. He has six home runs and is on pace to hit 14 if he plays every game for the rest of the season. That would be the lowest single-season home run total of his career.

Donaldson is 36 years old. He will be 37 and four months for Opening Day 2023. Prior to becoming a a Yankee, he was one of the hitters I feared most in the majors against the Yankees because you knew every at-bat would be six or seven pitches and would likely result in him hitting the ball hard somewhere and you just hoped it was hit right at a fielder. Now he’s a free-swinging, undisciplined shell of himself. He’s behind 0-2 in every count and nearly all of his at-bats result in a strikeout, ground ball to third or popup in the infield.

Matt Carpenter is a better play than Donaldson is right now. The difference is Carpenter had to revitalize his career over the offseason and accept playing in Triple-A to prove he could still play, whereas Donaldson had two years left on major-league deal. Donaldson is in no way deserving of playing over Carpenter right now, but he will continue to do so. And for anyone who thinks Carpenter should continue to just be a once-a-week player because he’s good at it, that’s like saying Luis Severino should have remained a reliever after 2016 because he was good at it or should have been in the bullpen this season because he was good at it last season.

There’s a good chance Donaldson is finished. Given his advanced baseball age and his recent injury history and his lack of power, it wouldn’t be surprising if he is. Given his owed money and name, he’s going to get endless chances to prove he isn’t.

9. The Twins were able to get the Yankees to take Donaldson and the $48 million owed to him and Kiner-Falefa (who they didn’t want and who the Rangers so badly didn’t want they g ave a half-billion dollars to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien) and then used the freed up shortstop position and money saved on Donaldson to sign Carlos Correa. All Correa has done on his short-term deal (which is exactly what the Yankees were looking for) is hit .293 with an .820 OPS this season, while Kiner-Falefa tries to make an out as quickly as possible in each of his plate appearances. He does put the ball in play though! He may be in the first percentile of barreling balls in the majors and the seventh percentile of hard-hit percentage, but he puts the ball in play! Who cares if “in play” means a weak grounder to short!

Kiner-Falefa was sold to Yankees fans as a Gold Glove defender. Yes, he won a Gold Glove … at third base. The problem is he plays shortstop for the Yankees and the bigger problem is that he botches routine plays frequently. I trust him no more than I trusted Gleyber Torres at the position, and I would be willing to put Torres back there to free up the lineup spot it would free up by not playing Kiner-Falefa. With Kiner-Falefa’s bat, he needs to be Omar Vizquel at shortstop.

10. I can’t imagine the Yankees are going to try to win the World Series with all of these players getting regular and everyday playing time in October. I can’t imagine they won’t move on from some of them this summer and I can’t imagine they won’t upgrade the roster and put the team in the best possible position to succeed in October. Something they didn’t do in either 2019 or 2020 when they made zero trades at the deadline in both of those seasons.

The Yankees are good enough to win the World Series as currently constructed. Obviously, since they are a league-best 51-18. But they could win 120-plus games in the regular season and if they were to lose a short series to the Blue Jays, Rays or Astros I don’t think anyone would be surprised. Winning the division (which they have already done) and getting the 1-seed in the playoffs and avoiding the best-of-3 wild-card series (which they have already done) were needed goals to help put them in the best possible to succeed in October. The next step is upgrading the roster and making sure come October there aren’t as many as four below-league-average bats in the lineup.

Come October, whatever the team accomplished in the regular season will be meaningless if they don’t finish the job with a championship. And the team they will see over the next four days at the Stadium will likely be the team they have to finally overcome to get to where they want to be.

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The Yankees went to Toronto and won two of three, leaving with another game added to their double-digit AL East lead. Now with an 11-game lead, the Yankees have essentially clinched the division title in mid-June.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I eliminated the Rays from the AL East race after Thursday night’s game. After this weekend, I’m eliminating the Blue Jays from the division race as well.

The Yankees’ goal for the weekend in Toronto was to win one game of the three. They won two of three. They should have won all three (oh, I’ll be getting to that). With three more games off the schedule and three more head-to-head games off the schedule, the Yankees’ lead over the second-place Blue Jays is 11 games with 96 games remaining.

To put into perspective how big a lead that is, if the Yankees play .500 baseball for their remaining 96 games, they will finish at 97-65. For the Blue Jays to finish with 97 wins, they need to go 59-37 (.615). The Rays need to go 61-35 (.635) to finish with 97 wins and the Red Sox 61-34 (.642). Again, this is all dependent on the Yankees, a team that has played .742 baseball to date, playing .500 baseball for the next three-and-a-half months. It’s not going to happen. Tarp the clubhouse. Get out the goggles and champagne. The Yankees are the 2022 AL East champions.

2. In the series opener on Friday, Jordan Montgomery was very solid once again (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR), but he didn’t need to be since the offense scored 12 runs, including four home runs from Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Joey Gallo with a grand slam from Anthony Rizzo. The Yankees trailed 1-0 before scoring twice in the fourth and breaking it open with eight in the fifth.

On Friday, I wrote that I want Judge to lead off permanently, and he did that night, going 2-for-5 with a walk in the rout. (On Saturday and Sunday, he was back in the 2-hole.) Every Yankees starter had at least one hit except for Kyle Higashioka (no surprise there).

3. On Saturday, the Yankees went up against my No. 1 feared starting pitcher in the league in Alek Manoah. Through the first three innings, all the Yankees mustered was a Rizzo single with four strikeouts. It was looking like yet another lackluster offensive performance against Manoah until the fourth.

Judge grounded out and then Rizzo walked and Torres singled. Gallo struck out and with two on and two outs, Isiah Kiner-Falefa reached on an infield single bringing up Aaron Hicks with the bases loaded.

4. Hicks’ season has been a disaster. He has pretty much been a disaster either through injury or performance since receiving a contact extension in 2019. But this season has been exceptionally bad. He has been healthy, yet having the least productive season of his career. Hicks entered Saturday, the team’s 65th game of the season, with two home runs and one double. One double through 40 percent of the season. On top of that he has failed in every big spot, every bases-loaded situation this season.

But not on Saturday. On Saturday, Hicks got a 3-1 fastball and crushed it down the right-field line, clearing the bases and giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

There have been a lot of moments this season that have made me think just maybe this is a magical season in which the Yankees are destined to win the World Series for the first time in 13 years. The outstanding record. The multiple lengthy winning steaks. The performance at home. The walk-off wins. The historical run from the starting pitching. The MVP season Judge is having. The back end of the bullpen. The way each non-Judge member of the offense has seemed to have “their” game whether it’s Rizzo or Torres or Kiner-Falefa or even Jose Trevino and Higashioka, who finally had his on Wednesday night against the Rays. But when Hicks cleared the bases on Saturday, it became official that this season is truly special. If Hicks (of all batters) is going to get a big hit off Manoah (of all pitchers), this season has to be special. It has to end with a championship. If not this season, then when for this group?

5. This group includes the manager, whose illogical, nonsensical in-game management has been masked by the team’s overall success, for which he has contributed very little, if anything at all. On Sunday, the Yankees had a chance to sweep the Blue Jays, leading by five runs entering the bottom of the sixth. But then Boone got his hands on the game, and the Yankees went on to lose by a run.

Luis Severino had been scratched from his Thursday start against the Rays due to illness. He instead started three days later on Sunday in Toronto. He was OK, allowing three earned runs in five innings, but the offense had put up eight, so while Severino wasn’t his dominant self, it was good enough with the Yankees’ offense knocking around Yusei Kikuchi.

The Yankees led 8-3 entering the bottom of the sixth and Boone sent Severino back to the mound, despite coming off an illness, and despite having already thrown 89 pitches. He would be facing the 3-4-5 hitters for the Blue Jays for a third time, so it was extremely unlikely he would be able to get through the inning with 11 or less pitches to keep him under the 100 threshold the Yankees like to keep him at to protect him after his injury-plagued seasons of 2019, 2020 and 2021. I really don’t know if Boone considered any of this when deciding to send him back out for the sixth.

Both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk reached to begin the sixth, and Severino had thrown 13 pitches without recording an out. So then Boone went to the bullpen, bringing in Miguel Castro.

6. When Castro is on, he’s virtually unhittable with a fastball that can reach triple digits and a sweeping slider that breaks like a scuffed-up Wiffle Ball. The problem is he’s rarely “on” and each one of his outings involves him putting at least one baserunner on (usually via walk), lengthy counts and a lot of praying from the fan base.

Castro is best suited to enter games at the beginning of an inning. He then has a batter or two to settle in if his control is immediately an issue and needs tweaking. Calling on him with runners already on decreases his odds for success and makes a small margin of error even smaller.

Castro did get two outs in the sixth before meeting his at-least-one-walk quota per appearance. After that, it was a grand slam to bring the Blue Jays within one run at 8-7.

Following the slam, the left-handed Raimel Tapia came up. Castro didn’t need to face him as he had already faced four batters, meeting the three-batter minimum. The left-handed Wandy Peralta had warmed up and was ready to enter the game, but Boone stuck with the right-handed Castro. Tapia doubled.

7. With the right-handed George Springer due up, it made sense for Boone to then let Castro face Springer or go to another righty in the bullpen. He instead brought in Peralta to face Springer. Boone kept doubling down on his initial bad decision to bring Severino back out for the sixth. It was as if he were dealt a pair of 6s against a 10 and split them and kept getting pairs of 6s and kept splitting them only to get more and more pairs of 6s. Eventually, he would lose all the hands.

With the Yankees’ 8-3 lead now an 8-7 lead and the Blue Jays’ 2-3-4 due up in the bottom of the seventh, Boone sent Peralta back out despite the next seven Blue Jays hitters being right-handed. Four batters into the inning, Peralta had retired one and had allowed a go-ahead, three-run home run. Somehow, after the home run, he was allowed to stay in for another batter. Finally, with two outs in the inning, Boone went to the right-handed Ron Marinaccio, who inexplicably wasn’t used in the sixth inning after Castro or to start the seventh inning instead of Peralta.

I wish I could say I couldn’t believe what I was watching, but I watch it all too often. A situation just like the one on Sunday occurs at least once a week for the Yankees and Boone handles it exactly as he handled it on Sunday.

8. I’m not mad the Yankees lost on Sunday. I’m not mad they lost a game. Even at 49-17, they are going to lose games. I’m mad at the way they lost the game because it could happen in October. It has happened in October under Boone. Go back to Games 3 and 4 of the 2018 ALDS, or Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS, or Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS or the 2021 wild-card game.

It’s easy to manage the Yankees in games like Friday’s where the Yankees won a laugher 12-3. It’s easy to manage them in games like Saturday’s where they got the ideal formula of starting pitcher to Michael King to Clay Holmes. But when decisions need to be made in the middle innings like on Sunday, it becomes a series of implausible choices that usually leaves the Yankees trailing and needing the offense to bail out their manager. Many times, the offense does bail out the manager, especially this season, but that doesn’t make irrational decisions rational. If you drive drunk and make it home safely, it doesn’t mean you made the right decision.

9. I’m petrified of a situation like Sunday arising in the postseason and Boone ruining what should be a championship season (as long as the team stays healthy and the offense doesn’t perform it’s annual October disappearing act). The biggest threat to the Yankees reaching the World Series isn’t the Blue Jays, Rays or Astros, it’s Boone.

The offense isn’t likely to create even a single laugher in October given the expected opponents/starting pitchers (I doubt they will see Ross Stripling or Kikuchi), and it’s rare the ideal formula of starter to King to Holmes will happen frequently. Boone needs to be better. He has to be better. Unfortunately, we are now in Year 5 of him proving he may never get better.

10. The Yankees began this difficult 13-game stretch against the Rays, Blue Jays, Rays again and Astros last Tuesday. So far they are 5-1 with three at the Trop and four at home against the Astros left. They are on a 120-win pace through 41 percent of the season and are winning games in every way imaginable.

The Yankees are going to the playoffs. They are going as AL East champions. Everything between now and Game 162 is to prepare for the playoffs, and that includes staying healthy, adding to and upgrading the roster by August 2 and managing in a way that isn’t a precursor to the type of in-game moves that could ruin a season in October, and have in the past.

October is a long way away. Three-and-a-half months away. Everything between now and then should be done with ALDS Game 1 in mind. This isn’t just the best team and the best season this group of Yankees has had. This is one of the best teams and seasons the Yankees have ever had as an organization. It can’t be wasted.

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The Yankees swept the Rays and their current winning streak is now at seven. They have won 14 of their last 15 games and have a 14-game home winning streak as well. It’s going to be a fun, relaxing, enjoyable summer as the Yankees are running away with the AL East.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. There might as well be some sort of symbol in the standings denoting the Rays have been eliminated from the division race. At 12 games out, like the Red Sox (who were never actually a threat) and Orioles (who never had a chance), the Rays are done in terms of winning the AL East.

The Yankees swept the Rays despite only scoring eight runs on 12 hits in the three games. They beat the Rays at their own brand of baseball, which uses elite pitching and timely hitting to scratch out wins. The Rays no longer own the Yankees. They can’t. Not since the Yankees went and created an enhanced version of the Rays.

2. On Tuesday, the Yankees won 2-0, scoring one run on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa single and the second run on a throwing error on that single. The inning in which those two runs happened was extended and made possible by an error.

On Wednesday, the Yankees had just three hits. One of them was an Aaron Judge solo home run and the other was a three-run home run from Kyle Higashioka.

On Thursday, the Yankees had only four hits. One was Anthony Rizzo’s single to tie the game and another was Rizzo’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

In recent years (the Aaron Boone era), the Yankees would have maybe won one of those games, and quite possibly would have been on the other end of the sweep. But now they have the starting pitching and bullpen to match the Rays that they don’t need to rely on their offense.

3. The Yankees are 47-16 and 31 games over .500 because of their starting pitching, the back end of their bullpen and Aaron Judge. What has made this team and this season special to date has been the ability of the other lineup members to have a big moment or a big game when Judge doesn’t.

“I think this team can do a lot of great things,” Nestor Cortes said after his latest great start on Wednesdat (5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K). “The way we carry ourselves in here translates out there. Night in and night out, there’s always a different guy stepping up to the occasion.”

On Tuesday, it was Kiner-Falefa. On Wednesday, it was Higashioka. On Thursday, it was Rizzo. Jose Trevino has had his games. DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton have had theirs. Josh Donaldson and Gleyber Torres have been wildly inconsistent and they have still had their moments. The only two Yankees fans are really waiting on are Aaron Hicks and Joey Gallo, and even they both his hit important game-tying home run with in the last two weeks. (That’s not to say the Yankees don’t need to upgrade their roster. They do.)

Even when things don’t go their way, like Luis Severino being scratched from his Thursday start due to illness, Clarke Schmidt steps in and gives the Yankees three scoreless innings. And they call up journeyman Ryan Weber, whose major-league career has been atrocious, and he gives them 3 2/3 innings of one-run ball. If this isn’t a special, magical season that ends with a championship, something will have gone terribly wrong along the way.

4. “It feels like Judge and [Giancarlo] Stanton are always just hitting them over the fence,” Higashioka said after his big home run on Wednesday (that I was in attendance for and told my wife he wouldn’t even put the ball in play prior to the home run). “But there’s some days where other people are going to have to step up. We have the kind of team where guys can do that.”

The pitching has remained the one constant through the first 39 percent of the season, but the timely hitting of the offense has played an important role. The Yankees don’t need to score five or six or seven runs to win games. It would make things easier if they did, but the Yankees’ magic number is 3. Score three runs and they will win, as they are 39-4 (.907 winning percentage) when they score at least three runs. Score three runs and it’s goodnight, game over.

5. I get on Boone for just about everything. Everything he does is bothersome because he’s not good at his job and undeserving of it. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with him as this is Year 1 of his new three-year deal, which also carries an option for a fourth year. Barring some disastrous collapse this season or next season, Boone is here to stay for a while. And I’m fine with him staying as long as it means a disastrous collapse doesn’t happen.

I want to like Boone. I want to not have to worry that come October, he’s not going to go to Ron Marinaccio in the seventh inning of a one-run game only to have him put two runners on and then go to Michael King, who could have just started the inning. I don’t want to have to worry about that. But I do. I also have to worry that he’ll bat Aaron Hicks leadoff in the postseason or start Higashioka over Trevino. I have to worry about these things because we have four seasons of decisions of his prior to 2022 that suggest come October he’s not suddenly going to understand basic logic. In an ideal world, every Yankees game would consist of the starting pitching going seven innings and then turning the ball over to King and then Clay Holmes, completely taking Boone out of the equation. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.

6. Despite my dislike for Boone (the manager), I do like his postgame comments of late. He’s not celebrating minor victories or wins like he has in seasons past. He’s not getting ahead of himself by thinking that just because he wears the interlocking NY on his hat and jersey that he’s magically going to experience success.

“It’s an awesome number; an awesome record at this point,” Boone said this week. “But I also think we’re all very aware that we’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got 100 of these left. This is just a drop in the bucket — it’s a good deposit.”

Every win is just a “drop in the bucket” until the Yankees have won their 11th game in the postseason. And they better only need 11 wins. They better win the division and receive a bye to the ALDS. Losing the division at this point would be horrific. Not finishing with the best record in the American League (of which they have an eight-game lead) would also be unacceptable. Not finishing with the best record in the majors (of which they have a six-game lead) would also be really, really bad.

7. The Yankees still need roster upgrades for the postseason. Their current record doesn’t change that. Because the Royals, Orioles, Cubs, Tigers and Angels won’t be an opponent in October. Every game the Yankees play in the AL postseason will likely come against either the Rays or Blue Jays or Astros, and at-bats and outs can’t be given away like they are now with the bottom of the Yankees order (mainly from two of their outfielders).

You can live with Kiner-Falefa in the 8- or 9-hole in October. He can’t be batting seventh (like he has been of late) come the playoffs. Not when he will either bat just ahead or behind whichever starting catcher Boone lets start that day. (If the Yankees are facing a lefty, you can bet the farm it will be Higashioka.) Either Hicks and/or Gallo will come around or they can’t be a part of the August, September and October plans.

Hicks and Gallo were both going to be given seemingly endless opportunities to figure it out not matter how the Yankees had performed until now, but given the Yankees’ success, record and lead, they are going to continue to play to see if they can turn it around. Each time it seems like it might be the game where they get going, it isn’t.

8. The same can be said for Donaldson. Because of his career success, and because the Yankees took on the entire $48 million owed to him between 2022 and 2023, he’s not going anywhere. But he desperately needs to get going. Donaldson has less (5) home runs than Matt Carpenter (6), who plays about once a week. He’s hitting an abysmal .232/.330/.387 given his name, reputation, past performance and salary. I don’t think anyone would have signed up for a .717 OPS from Donaldson through mid-June.

Like Hicks and Gallo, the Yankees’ historic start has allowed his underachieving to be passed over and rarely discussed. That’s what I’m here for.

Donaldson was one of the most feared hitters in the league against the Yankees for me before joining the Yankees. Now he’s a free-swinging, antsy hitter who seems to either strike out on three pitches or ground out to third. He’s become Kiner-Falefa when prior to the Yankees I knew his plate appearance would result in him hitting the ball hard, and I just hoped he hit it at a fielder.

9. I would move Judge to the leadoff spot for good. I want him getting the most at-bats possible, even if the difference between batting first or second over the course of a season is a minimal difference, it’s still a difference.

Give me this lineup 1 through 5:

Aaron Judge
Anthony Rizzo
Giancarlo Stanton
Josh Donaldson
DJ LeMahieu

10. The Yankees’ goal this weekend is to win one game in Toronto. Win one game, and you leave Toronto still up nine games on the Blue Jays with three head-to-head games taken off the schedule, leaving just seven between the two teams for the rest of the season.

The Blue Jays are barely hanging on to their division-winning dreams and a bad weekend against the best team in baseball will eliminate them as well. If the Yankees go to Toronto and take two of three or sweep the Blue Jays, well, you can put that same symbol used to denote the Rays’ elimination next to the Blue Jays in the standings.

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What an adventurous week. The Yankees overcame poor starts from Jameson Taillon and Nestor Cortes and the worst start of Gerrit Cole’s career to take two out of three from the Twins. Then they got a taste of what life would be like if they played in the NL Central and got to face the Cubs 19 times a year, sweeping them in the Bronx and outscoring them 28-5 in three games.

I’m combining the Thoughts from both the Twins and Cubs series into one Super Thoughts with a different format in which I will respond to mentions and comments to me from social media over the last week.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

Kyle Higashioka literally makes John Flaherty look like Johnny Bench. He is a dreadful baseball player.

1. Sometimes I think John Flaherty thinks he was Johnny Bench with the way he talks about his approach to hitting on YES. Now Flaherty wasn’t a complete zero at the plate (he did have respectable years in 1996, 1997 and 1999) like Higashioka is, but he wasn’t who he portrays either.

Higashioka doesn’t belong on the Yankees. He’s not a major-league player. But for some reason the Yankees have stood behind his poor career production and let their manager choose him as the team’s regular catcher at various times over the last few seasons (and in the postseason) and even planned on him being their regular catcher in 2023.

The Yankees acquired Jose Trevino less than a week before Opening Day and had Ben Rortvedt not gotten hurt in spring training, Trevino might have started the season in Triple-A and still be there. The Yankees were smart to sign Trevino. They lucked into his breakout season saving them from a disaster in which Higashioka is playing even more than he already is. And Higashioka is playing a lot.

Despite Trevino’s All-Star-worthy season, Boone has continued to divide the starting catching role 50/50.

June 12: Higashioka
June 11: Trevino
June 10: Higashioka
June 9: Trevino
June 8: Higashioka
June 7: Trevino
June 6: Trevino
June 4: Higashioka
June 3: Trevino
June 2 (Game 2:): Higashioka
June 2 (Game 1): Trevino
May 31: Trevino
May 29: Higashioka
May 28: Trevino
May 27: Higashioka
May 26: Trevino
May 25: Higashioka

And so on.

2. During Friday’s game, Higashioka came to the plate the first time against the left-handed Wade Miley, and the YES broadcast booth talked about how Higashioka was in the lineup because of his ability to hit left-handed pitching. David Cone brought up Higashioka’s horrific numbers before saying there could be a “positive regression to the mean” for Higashioka, as if his season has been a product of bad luck. Higashioka struck out on three pitches.

In his second plate appearance, he flew out to center field. In his third, he struck out on three pitches again. In his fourth, he lined out to center. In his fifth, he flew out to left. When his sixth plate appearance came up in the bottom of the 13th, Aaron Boone pinch hit Trevino for him. Higashioka has been pinch hit for a lot this season, but it has always been for the regular, everyday player on the bench getting unnecessary rest. For the first time, Boone pinch hit for Higashioka with Trevino. A catcher for a catcher. It was the first time Boone has ever done anything that would present Higashioka in a negative light. Trevino came through with the game-winning single, but Boone doesn’t deserve credit for the move since Higashioka should have never been starting in the first place.

On Sunday, Trevino was a late scratch from the lineup due to a minor injury. Higashioka got the start and went 3-for-5 with two home runs. One of the two home runs came against a 35.1-mph pitch from a position player. It was Higashioka’s best game of the season, even if it deserves an asterisk the size of the Armitron clock atop the scoreboard next to it. With the “big” day, Higashioka is still only hitting .172/.225/.280 on the season. (He was hitting .148/.206/.193 before Sunday). Trevino is hitting .309/.356/.505 and has been the superior defensive catcher as well, and it’s not even close.

The 50/50 divide can’t continue. Higashioka is as close to an automatic out at the plate as there is in baseball since no one with his numbers would continue to get regular at-bats.

Boston’s offense is red-hot now. I’m very intrigued the next time Gerrit Cole faces them.

3. The Yankees’ starting pitching has been the collective MVP of the team this season and the reason why they are 41-16 with the best record in baseball. Aaron Judge’s actual MVP season and the combined performance of Clay Holmes, Michael King and Clarke Schmidt have also played a major role in the Yankees’ success over the first one-third of the season, but it’s the starting pitching that has been the most important aspect of the team.

Gerrit Cole is supposed to be the sure-thing in the rotation. Through two months, he has been the Yankees’ worst starter. That’s not to say he’s actually the Yankees’ worst starter, but in a little more than one-third of the season he has been. The Yankees’ two worst starts this season have come from him with the first being his April 19 debacle in Detroit and the second being Thursday night in Minnesota.

Cole’s performance on Thursday was the worst of his career, and one of the worst I have seen in my life, and I was in Fenway Park the night Chase Wright gave up back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs on Sunday Night Baseball to the Red Sox nearly 15 years ago. Cole began his night by allowing back-to-back-back home runs, and in 2 1/3 innings, he allowed five home runs and seven earned runs. Anyone pitching that badly would be startling, but for someone like Cole it was hard to believe. For who he’s supposed to be and his status, pedigree and reputation, it was one of the worst starts of all time for a pitcher of that caliber.

Cole is supposed to be an ace. In theory, he is, but in theory, he isn’t letting the entire Twins lineup go into the second deck off him. Cole is an ace … when he’s facing the league’s worst teams. If he’s on the mound against a weak team like Kansas City or Baltimore, he’s who you would expect him to be. If he’s on the mound against Boston or Tampa Bay or Toronto or Minnesota, well, he’s anything but an ace.

Here is Cole’s line this season against the Red Sox, Blue Jays, White Sox, Rays and Twins (four teams expected to reach the postseason):

24.1 IP, 24 H, 17 R, 17 ER, 8 BB, 31 K, 9 JR, 6.29 ERA, 1.315 WHIP

And here is Cole’s line this season against the Tigers, Guardians, Royals, Rangers and Orioles:

42.2 IP, 31 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 9 BB, 53 K, 2 HR, 2.11 ERA, 0.984 WHIP

4. The difference between the two is appalling. Cole won’t see a team from that second group in October (unless the Guardians have a miracle summer). And everything is about October, especially since the Yankees are 44-16 and are headed to October.

Cole will undoubtedly get the ball in Game 1 of any series. Cortes could finish with a sub-1.00 ERA and be on his way to a unanimous Cy Young vote, and he still won’t get the ball in Game 1 of the playoffs. (If that did happen, the Yankees would cite Andy Pettitte always being a Game 2 starter as the reason why Cortes isn’t starting before Cole in a playoff series.)

It will be hard to trust Cole in October. I didn’t trust him last October, and four batters into his wild-card game performance, the Yankees were down 2-0 and never recovered. (Hamstring issue or not, he took the ball and there are no excuses if you take the ball.) His inability to pitch well against the teams the Yankees are likely to see in October is upsetting, and he needs to be better. A lot better. His next start will come against the Rays next week at the Stadium, and while he pitched well against them a couple of weeks ago at the Trop, he still let a missed third strike call ruin his day as he unraveled and gave away the game after that.

Cole dominating teams from that second group is supposed to be a given. Pitching well against teams from that first group is also supposed to be a given.

I’m surprised Hicks knew it was gone. How does he remember what a home run looks like?

5. Aaron Hicks hit a two-run, game-tying home run on Thursday night against the Twins in what was his biggest moment of the season. The home run was his second of the season, so he now has the same amount as Higashioka (in 83 more plate appearances), one more than Tim Locastro (in 172 more plate appearances), three less than Trevino (in 83 more plate appearances) and four less than Matt Carpenter (157 more plate appearances).

Hicks has one double to go along with his two home runs for a grand total of three extra-base hits in 2022. The season is 60 games and 37 percent complete. The man who went out of his way to say he wanted to be a 30/30 player in 2022 is on pace for 5.4 home runs and 13.5 steals. So I guess he could be looking at joining the 5/14 club, an exclusive club of which they are only a few thousand members.

How has Isiah-Kiner Falefa been really bad? What metric?

6. Umm, every metric? Let’s take a look at Kiner-Falefa’s offensive breakdown:

OK, not every metric. He’s really fast (86th percentile) and doesn’t strike out (97th percentile). But he can’t square up pitches (1st percentile), doesn’t hit the ball hard (9th and 12th percentiles), swings at pitches outside the strike zone (14th percentile) and rarely walks (33rd percentile).

Add in his fielding in which he struggles to make routine plays and has me trusting him as much as I did Gleyber Torres at short, and I’m beginning to wonder if the Yankees would be better off putting Torres back there and making Kiner-Falefa a bench player. Because that’s what Kiner-Falefa should be: a bench player. Maybe the Angels will completely fall out the face and the Yankees can re-acquire Bronx native Andrew Velazquez. He’s not going to give you anything at the plate, but he will make every play in the field, so at least he will do one thing really well, which is more than Kiner-Falefa gives the Yankees.

7. The Yankees need a better shortstop, but unfortunately, they aren’t likely to get one. They will likely play the entire season out with Kiner-Falefa at short and watch him weakly put balls in play and botch simple, routine plays in the field. At times it seems like Kiner-Falefa’s goal at the plate is to make an out as quickly as possible, and he’s really, really good at it. Normally, his at-bats are over after one or two pitches and after he grounded out to the left side or popped up in the infield or to the shallow outfield. In the field, I trust him at short as much as I trusted Torres and the Yankees were willing to screw up their entire roster construction and future plans to move Torres off short.

There’s a reason why the Rangers didn’t want to Kiner-Falefa at short or second, committing nearly a half-billion dollars to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien in the offseason. And there’s a reason why the Twins were so quick to trade him as long as Josh Donaldson’s money was attached to him … so they could use the freed up salary from Donaldson to sign Carlos Correa, a real shortstop.

The Yankees chose Kiner-Falefa as a 2022 stopgap to get them to Oswald Peraza or Anthony Volpe in 2023. (Peraza is hitting .204/.280/.343 in Triple-A, and Volpe is hitting .224/.320/.401 in Double-A, so that plan isn’t exactly going as hoped.) The Yankees need to upgrade short, but it’s unlikely they will.

Are you ever happy?

8. Yes, I’m always happy. I don’t know why people think I’m negative or pessimistic. Again, I’m a realist. If I tweet Aaron Hicks’ slash line (which is an embarrassment), I will get a reply that I’m being negative and should be happy the Yankees are 44-16 when all I tweeted was a simple slash line.

I’m sorry numbers hurt people’s feelings in the same way David Ortiz said he was he hurt people’s feelings for buying supplements during his 2009 performance-enhancing drugs press conference. If you’re upset about stats because the player in conversation is producing poor stats, maybe take off the Yankees pajamas you’re wearing and look at the team with less of a homer-ish view.

Relax, Neil. The team will be fine.

9. Unless Hicks or Joey Gallo completely turn around their seasons, the Yankees would need to upgrade an outfield spot. They can’t honestly think they are going to go into October with the possibility of Higashioka, Kiner-Falefa, Hicks and Gallo all in the same lineup. Then again, this is a team managed and run by the same people who thought the 2019 Yankees needed no upgrades or additions at the trade deadline.

Fans who believe the Yankees don’t need to do anything because they are 44-16 are foolish. The Yankees are 25-5 against the Orioles, Cubs, Guardians, Tigers, Royals and Angels. None of those teams will be playing in October. (I guess there’s a crazy outside chance the Guardians could make the playoffs, but does anyone truly think they are going to hold off the Twins or White Sox in their division, or the Blue Jays, Rays or Red Sox for a wild-card berth?)

The Yankees have been really good. They have the best record in baseball. They have the best run differential in baseball. They have the best pitching staff in baseball. They have also played one of the easiest schedules to date in baseball. That matters. They have also played an incredibly weak schedule to date. To their credit, they have taken care of business against the weak portion of their schedule, but in a short series, would any Yankees fan feel confident or comfortable against Toronto, Tampa Bay or Houston? I think the Yankees are much closer to being on equal footing with those teams than the standings would have you believe.

Yes, they will be “fine” in terms of playing baseball in October. The Yankees are going to October. At this point, if they played .500 baseball for their remaining 102 games, they would win 95 games. They could play 10 games under .500 (46-56) and win 90 games. The position they have put themselves in is remarkable. They are 28 games over. 500 with an eight-game loss column lead on the Blue Jays.

10. My biggest fear for the Yankees remains the offense disappearing in October, like it did in 2021 wild-card game, Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS, Games 2 through 6 of the 2019 ALDS, Games 3 and 4 of the 2018 ALDS, and all the road games in the 2017 ALCS. The Yankees have the best starting pitching they have had in years, and even without Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga and Chad Green, they still have the best bullpen in the league. It’s the offense that worries me.

Sure, the Yankees could upgrade Hicks, Gallo, Kiner-Falefa and Higashioka and still go to October and have their offense perform its annual disappearing act. That can’t be planned for. But what can be planned for is that the Yankees use the trade deadline to put themselves in the best possible position to be successful in October. They had the chance in the offseason and they failed to, so they have another opportunity between now and August 2 to enhance the roster and for the postseason. Being in first place in mid-June is great. Being in first place at the end of October is the goal.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast.

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