1. The Yankees can never just lose. By “just lose” I mean get blown out, shut down, shut out, never have a chance in the game. They either win, blow a game late, bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, have an abundance of blown opportunities to tie or take the lead, or suffer a painful, excruciating loss. Yes, it keeps every game entertaining and means the Yankees are “in” every game, but at the same time, their losses and the way they lose always seem to be extremely detrimental to the health and wellbeing of their fans. Sure enough, they couldn’t “just lose” for their first loss of 2025.

2. It would have been easy to stomach Will Warren getting knocked around by a very good Diamondbacks lineup in his first start as officially part of the Yankees’ rotation. It would have been acceptable if the bats went quiet against Corbin Burnes and never had a chance in the game. But no, Warren was solid (5 IP, 2 ER), Burnes gave up a pair of solo home runs to Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe to allow the Yankees to tie the game, and Josh Naylor, of all players, gifted the Yankees a two-run error to give them a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning.

3. Aaron Boone had it easy in the first three games of the season. On Opening Day, he was able to go from starter to middle relief to Luke Weaver to Devin Williams for a win. Things got rocky with Williams, but if he had blown the three-run lead in the ninth, no one would have faulted Boone as the game unfolded easily for him, presenting the blueprint for a win my four-year-old son could have implemented. Then in the second game of the season, the Yankees blasted the Brewers for 20 runs, and in the third game, another 12. Boone didn’t have to manage or make any difficult decisions for the first three games of the year. Then came Tuesday.

4. Once it was announced Devin Williams would be out of the equation for the birth of his child, you knew the back end of the game would have the opportunity to be complicated for Boone, and it was. After Fernando Cruz gave the Yankees two perfect and dominant relief innings with four strikeouts to keep their 4-2 lead from the fourth, Boone went to Tim Hill with the 8-9-1 hitters due up in the eighth. Torey Lovullo had Randal Grichuk (who kills both lefties and the Yankees) on his bench, and once Hill took the mound, Grichuk went in as a pinch hitter, and immediately rocked a leadoff double to left. Geraldo Perdomo followed with a single down the first-base line, and just like that, the Yankees’ lead was down to 4-3 and the Diamondbacks had the tying run on base with no outs.

Hill retired Corbin Carroll for the first out of the game, and then Boone had a decision to make. He could gamble and try to preserve the lead by getting the next out or two with Hill or another middle relief option to save Luke Weaver for the ninth inning, or he could go to Weaver right then with the tying run on second and heart of the Diamondbacks’ order due up. If you didn’t see the game, you already know which choice Boone made.

5. Boone called on Mark Leiter Jr., who was good in the Brewers series, but has been a disaster since becoming a Yankee. In order to preserve the lead, Leiter would have to get the final two outs of the eighth against the Diamondbacks’ 2-3-4 hitters.

Leiter didn’t get the last two outs of the eighth. He got one, and then gave up a go-ahead grand slam to Eugenio Suarez on a 2-2 splitter that split in the strike zone. After taking a fastball down the middle in the second pitch of the at-bat and swinging through a fastball on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, it was obvious Suarez wasn’t sitting on a fastball from Leiter. Paul O’Neill said as much based on Suarez’s takes on YES. But that didn’t stop Leiter (and Austin Wells) from going away from the fastball on the fifth pitch, and the Yankees were on their way to their first loss of the season.

“Just not his sharpest outing,” Boone said of Leiter. “It just wasn’t a good split, obviously, that he threw there.”

6. You have to love Boone essentially saying the loss was on Leiter. Did Leiter insert himself into a high-leverage situation against the heart of an order on Tuesday? If Williams had been with the team, it would have been Weaver in the eighth and Williams in the ninth, and Boone’s job would have been as easy as it had been on Opening Day. But because Weaver became the interim closer for the night he had to pitch the ninth for Boone. I thought baseball had evolved from set innings for relievers when Terry Francona went to Andrew Miller in the middle innings of the 2016 postseason. I thought the idea of having your best reliever pitch against the heart of the order with the game on the line regardless of the inning was more important than having them pitch in a set inning regardless of which part of the order was due up. Just look in the other dugout where Lovullo did just that.

7. “The Diamondbacks’ closer is Kevin Ginkel and he is out with shoulder inflammation, so they are mixing and maxing with Martinez who we saw in the eighth and A.J. Puk,” Michael Kay said on YES. “The better hitters were coming up in the eighth inning and they had Martinez pitch the eighth and he stuck them out.”

Lovullo went to his best reliever in the eighth with Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm due up. All Martinez did was strike out the side and put any hope of a comeback on life support. Puk pitched the ninth and even though Puk typically can’t be trusted, he could be with a three-run lead against the bottom of the order. Puk’s chance at success was vastly improved when the left-handed reliever was given an all-left-handed-batter lane to face in the ninth. How did Puk get that lane? From Boone, of course, who inexplicably pulled Dominguez after his at-bat in the sixth to put Trent Grisham in the game for defensive purposes.

“Taking Dominguez out and bringing in Grisham,” Kay said, “you set up a lane for Lovullo to bring in a lefty and counteract three straight lefties.”

8. Do the Yankees really need Grisham playing one-third of every game for defensive purposes? Do they really think that’s best for the development of Dominguez as an outfielder? All Dominguez did earlier in the game was improve his OPS to .974 on the year with his first home run of the season. (After getting ahead of Puk 1-0, Grisham took three straight strikes to strike out.)

9. Yes, it was just one loss, their first loss. Yes it’s going to happen many more times this season (but hopefully not more than 73 times for my over 88.5 wins wager). Did the Yankees deserve to win? No, it’s hard to win when you score three non-error-aided runs, strike out 14 times and have a manager who continues to be clueless in his eighth season in the position. But the Yankees could have won. They were gifted two runs with a Cy Young-caliber pitcher on the mound and were four outs away from a win.

10. Now it’s up to the two Carloses to prevent undoing everything from the wild opening weekend against the Brewers. If the Yankees don’t get back in the win column on Wednesday or Thursday, I’m sure it will come as the result of an agonizing loss. That’s the only way they lose.

1. I feared Nestor Cortes shutting down the Yankees on Saturday at the Stadium the way so many ex-Yankees have over the years. My fear was all for nothing as Cortes did his best to repay Yankees fans for the Freddie Freeman walk-off grand slam he allowed in Game 1 of the World Series. Cortes will never be able to completely make up that moment to Yankees fans (though the blame is really more on Aaron Boone for using Cortes in that spot after he hadn’t pitched in weeks), but his performance in the second game of the season was a good start.

2. The first three pitches Cortes threw were all hit out of the park. First, it was Paul Goldschmidt, then it was Cody Bellinger, and finally, Aaron Judge. My four-year-old son who was in attendance with me and taking in his second game in the Bronx was stunned. As “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” played again and again and again and the crowd enjoying the 80-degree March weather went wild, my son trying to process what was happening looked at me with an expression of ‘Does this happen at every game?’

Sadly, it doesn’t. But after the back-to-back-to-back home runs had Cortes sitting on an infinite ERA three batters into his season, Austin Wells hit one out three batters after Judge. The next inning, Anthony Volpe did the same. Cortes was removed from the game after facing one batter in the third, and left having allowed eight earned runs, 11 baserunners and five home runs, while recording just six outs.

3. Amazingly, the power barrage didn’t end there. After Cortes was removed for walking Jasson Dominguez, Connor Thomas entered for his major-league debut and allowed a Trent Grisham single then hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch. Bellinger singled in Dominguez and Judge followed with a grand slam. Three pitches later with the crowd still celebrating Judge’s slam, Jazz Chisholm drilled a solo homer. The Yankees led 13-3 and had hit seven home runs. It was the third inning.

The next inning, Bellinger drove in another run and Judge hit another home run, his third in as many at-bats. The Yankees led 16-4 and had hit eight home runs. It was the fourth inning.

In the seventh, Oswald Peraza hit the Yankees’ ninth home run of the day, setting a franchise record for a single game.

4. After surviving the ninth inning on Opening Day, the Yankees blasted the Brewers 20-9 on Saturday. In a game that was essentially over in the second inning and had the floodgates blown open in the third inning, it wasn’t a game that lacked criticism for the Yankees. The same type of sloppy defense that we saw throughout 2024 (and have seen throughout the Boone era) was on full display in this one. The Yankees made five errors in the game, had trouble fielding ground balls and throwing to first base. Max Fried wasn’t sharp (4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K), but he got zero help behind him.

5. During the game, the YES booth went into the Yankees’ use of the “torpedo” bat designed by an MIT physicist and former Yankees employee. They explained how the team had developed new bats based on where their players were most likely to make contact with the ball. For players like Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm who were shown using the bat, that happened to be on the label.

The Yankees’ analytics team has finally used their intelligence for good. After years of creating fictional stats to try to sell on the fans on the notion Gleyber Torres is among the best defensive second basemen in the game, that Joey Gallo is worth trading for and that taking on the $53 million owed to Josh Donaldson would be worth it, the brains behind the scenes did something great with the invention of the torpedo. With it, Volpe (.952 OPS) is a major-league hitter and Chisholm (1.667 OPS) is hitting like the left-handed Judge. Bellinger (1.057 OPS) is using some form of it, as is Goldschmidt (1.250 OPS). I love the torpedo bat.

6. Maybe the Yankees were going to destroy Brewers pitching to open the series no matter what. (It’s not like the trio of Freddy Peralta, Cortes and Aaron Civale is anything special.) And maybe with the weather being what it was on Saturday, feeling like mid-June in late March, the ball was going to fly out of the park with 90-mph middle-middle meatballs being thrown. But I would like to think the torpedo bat is what led to this because I want to be proud of the Yankees’ analytics department.

7. After going 4-for-6 with a double, three home runs and eight RBIs on Saturday, Judge, who isn’t using the torpedo bat, homered in his first at-bat on Sunday, which made the wind in the Bronx less annoying as the weather had turned back into what late-March weather is expected to be.

The two-run shot gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead after Marcus Stroman unsurprisingly allowed a first-inning run. The Yankees added to their lead in the second when Ben Rice hit a solo home run, and added more in the third when Chisholm hit a two-run home run. After homering on Saturday and in the third inning on Sunday, Chisholm, the face of the torpedo bat, hit his third home run of the weekend in the seventh inning, and the Yankees went on to win 12-3. Again, I love the torpedo bat.

8. I’m sure by the end of this week (and maybe by Monday’s games) many players throughout the league will be trying out a version of the torpedo bat. When you hit 15 home runs and score 36 runs in 24 innings at a time of year when pitching is supposed to dominate, people tend to notice.

9. Going into this season-opening series I figured Boone would be able to lean on Luke Weaver and Devin Williams more than he normally would with a day off on Wednesday and Friday and Monday. Williams took himself out of the equation for the rest of the weekend with his Opening Day performance and Judge and the torpedo made it so Weaver wasn’t needed for the rest of the weekend as well.

Aside from Williams’ self-created mess on Thursday, the bullpen (including only real relievers and not Carrasco who threw two innings on Saturday) shut out the Brewers. Weaver, Tim Hill, Mark Leiter Jr., Yoendrys Gomez, Fernando Cruz, Brent Hendrick and Ryan Yarbrough combined for this line: 9.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 14 K. For a bullpen that lost Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle and is waiting on Jonathan Loaisiga and Jake Cousins, that will work.

10. I don’t think the Yankees can count on double-digit runs this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night against the Diamondbacks. In the Yankees’ favor is the Diamondbacks having to go from spring training to their indoor home in Arizona to now the freezing Bronx where temperatures are supposed to be postseason-like aside from Thursday. In the Diamondbacks’ favor is the trio of Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, who are all scheduled to start. The Yankees plan to counter with Will Warren, Carlos Rodon and Carlos Carrasco. At best, the pitching matchup in the second game of the series is even, otherwise the Diamondbacks have a massive edge on the mound with their three best. But their best has yet to face the torpedo bats.

1. The last nearly five months were long. Sure, the Yankees’ offseason was shorter than every team other than the Dodgers, but it didn’t feel that way.

First, it was the depression of reaching and losing the World Series, and losing it in such embarrassing and humiliating fashion. Then there was losing it to the Dodgers, my wife’s team, her family’s team. The team I have spent the 13 years I have known her chirping her for having never won a “real” World Series in her life and having not won a “real” one since 1988. (Of course that drought ended at the Yankees’ expense.)

The weeks following the World Series were filled with hearing her watching the Freddie Freeman Game 1 grand slam on a seemingly endless loop on the other side of the bed and listening to countless interviews of Dodgers players mocking the Yankees for their fifth-inning meltdown in Game 5.

I have spent some part of every day since thinking about what could have been in the World Series. What could have been if Aaron Boone hadn’t pulled Gerrit Cole early in Game 1 and gone to Nestor Cortes instead of Tim Hill. What could have been if Aaron Judge could catch a fly ball, if Anthony Volpe could make a basic throw to third base and if Cole could have covered first. Twenty years after the Yankees performed the only 3-0 series collapse in baseball history, I still believe they would have pulled it off if not for that fifth inning. My belief was only made stronger when Dave Roberts agreed over the winter, saying his team’s pitching would have been in a bad place if a Game 6 had been forced.

Then came the departure of Juan Soto. Then there was the Yankees’ disregard for signing a healthy, proven starting third baseman. While the offseason was technically the shortest the Yankees have experienced in 15 years, it felt a lot longer. I needed the 2025 season to start. I needed the Yankees to have a new last game that wasn’t the Game 5 of the World Series. I needed Opening Day.

2. I was in complete agreement with the Yankees when they announced Austin Wells would be their leadoff hitter this season (at least against righties). Unlike Yankees’ lineup decisions in the past like making Aaron Hicks the No. 3 hitter in 2021 (and then laughing at the media for questioning it when he started that season 1-for-15 with seven strikeouts, only for him to be removed from the spot two weeks into the season) or making Volpe the leadoff hitter despite being one of the worst everyday hitters in the league or rolling with Alex Verdugo as the cleanup hitter for an extended period despite being the actual worst everyday hitter in the league, putting Wells at leadoff made sense.

“It’s kind of exciting just getting to hit in front of Aaron Judge and trying to get on base for him,” Wells said of hitting leadoff. “I think that’s helped me a little bit mindset-wise, just getting on base any way I can.”

Wells at leadoff makes sense, simply because of his on-base percentage. The Yankees are starved for bats that get on base consistently, and outside of Judge, Wells is the next best on the team at it. Add in his power and the threat of giving the Yankees an early lead and Wells at leadoff works.

It certainly worked on Opening Day when he gave the Yankees that early lead, sending the third pitch of the year from Freddy Peralta into the short porch.

“To go out there and give us an early lead with that swing, we’ve seen it all spring,” Judge said. “He set the tone for the whole day for us.”

It wasn’t just a day of offense for Wells. Behind the plate he called a game that produced 13 strikeouts.

“I thought Wells was great with the pitch calling,” Carlos Rodon said. “He calls the pitches and I just roll. There’s not much decision-making on my part.”

3. If Rodon being able to have facial hair is all he needed to unlock the pitcher he was before he became a Yankee then they should have changed the policy two years ago. Rodon was getting swings and misses from all over the Brewers’ lineup, finishing with seven strikeouts and only one earned run on six baserunners across 5 1/3 innings.

“Really sharp command-wise,” Boone said of Rodon. “Good presence with everything. I thought he was really in command of his motions.”

Not only his motions, but Rodon kept his emotions in check and prevented the patented unraveling that seems to come in all of his starts when things don’t completely go his way from start to finish. Instead of letting a couple of baserunners turn into a crooked number, he kept getting outs.

4. If you thought Boone’s latest contract extension would change him as a manager, there he was sending Rodon back out for the sixth inning to face the 2-3-4 hitters for a third time. With a day off on Friday and one coming on Monday, the Yankees would be able to use their bullpen more than they would at most parts of the season. When Rodon went back out for the sixth, the Yankees held a one-run lead. I thought after he walked Christian Yelich he would be pulled, but he wasn’t. I thought after he retired William Contreras he would pulled, but he wasn’t. Boone then let him face the right-handed Rhys Hoskins, who has the most career plate appearances of any Brewer against Rodon and has had concerning success against him in those plate appearances. Rodon walked Hoskins and then Boone pulled him.

5. The middle relief of the Yankees was outstanding. Tim Hill got the last two outs of the sixth and keep Rodon’s ERA in tact. Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a perfect seventh, striking out two. Luke Weaver pitched around a walk in the eighth and struck out two. And then there was Devin Williams.

I called Williams the best reliever in baseball when the Yankees traded for him this winter. He came to the Yankees with 375 strikeouts and a 1.83 ERA and 1.023 WHIP in 235 2/3 career innings. In his Yankees debut, it felt like I was watching Clay Holmes still. (It was refreshing to see Holmes struggle in his Mets debut as their Opening Day starter in Houston.)

A three-run lead in the cold with the Brewers’ 6-7-8 hitters due up is as optimal as it gets for making your debut with a new team on a new mound in a new uniform in a new stadium. It couldn’t have been a better situation for Williams to ask for to get his feet wet as a Yankee, and he nearly ruined it.

A single, double and walk loaded the bases with no outs for the Brewers. The game had gone from nice, smooth Opening Day win to the tying run being on base and the winning run being at the plate. It’s not an exaggeration to think if the Brewers took the lead against Williams and went on to win that it would end up being the worst loss of the season.

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. Williams got a sacrifice fly for the first out and then went on to strike out Jackson Chourio and Yelich to end the game, almost as if he was fucking with everyone to that point. After throwing 36 pitches in winter-like weather in the first game of the season, it wouldn’t surprise me if Williams is now down for the rest of this series.

“Love that he didn’t break,” Boone said (as we all know Holmes would have broke last year). “I was getting very uncomfortable to where he was from a pitch count standpoint.”

6. The Volpe we watched in the first two series of 2024 (against Houston and Arizona), and the Volpe we watched in the postseason in October is unlike the Volpe we have seen in roughly 94 percent of his 333 career games. The six-percent Volpe is the Volpe that played on Thursday. He may have only gone 1-for-4, but the one was a home run, and he saw 20 pitches in his four at-bats.

Volpe had an 83 OPS+ in his first two seasons. At 17 percent worse than league average, he is much closer to being a bust at this point than the franchise shortstop the Yankees have made him out to be over the last two years. For Volpe to take that next step, he’s going to need to have a lot more games like he had in Houston and Arizona to open last season and in the postseason and on Thursday.

7. Paul Goldschmidt, wearing No. 48, may as well be the right-handed Anthony Rizzo: a once-great player who became a Yankee in the middle of an obvious decline in abilities. Goldschmidt did his best to honor Rizzo’s 48 in the field by not taking the ball to first himself with Rodon on the mound and at the plate by going for 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in four non-competitive at-bats. Sure, it’s one game, but when you have been in decline for two full seasons as a player and when you have been scarred as a fan by recent organizational belief in Hicks, Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu, it’s hard not to think about Goldschmidt not working out.

8. Goldschmidt wasn’t the only hitless Yankee in the opener. Jazz Chisholm was swinging for the fences like he did in October and Jasson Dominguez went 0-for-3 before being removed for defense late in the game. I understand wanting to get Grisham into games as often as possible to keep him fresh (he picked up a single in his only at at-bat), but is Dominguez going to be removed early in every game the Yankees lead? Based on Cody Bellinger’s comments after the game saying he knew he would be shifting from center to left late, it seems like that is Boone’s plan.

9. Judge and Bellinger both had hits in the game and the duo extended the Yankees’ lead from one to three in the seventh. Ben Rice looked good at the plate (double and walk), Oswaldo Cabrera hit a few balls on the screws and picked up a single. Overall, it was a pleasant first game of the season aside from the first three batters Williams faced in the ninth.

10. It’s annoying there’s no game on Friday for the scheduled day off in the event of an Opening Day rainout. But there’s a game on Saturday and another on Sunday. And another on Tuesday and Wednesday and so on. Yankees baseball is back, and after the way last season ended, the first game of this season and the way it went was needed.

1. Spring training is two weeks away. When the Yankees report to Tampa in a couple of weeks, there will be no Juan Soto. There will be no Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo or Jose Trevino. There will be no Nestor Cortes or Clay Holmes. (If we’re lucky, there will be no Marcus Stroman.) The Yankees will look much different in mid-February than they did at the end of October. That’s a good thing.

The Yankees as currently constructed will be a better team when they show up to Steinbrenner Field than they were when they lost the final game of the 2024 MLB season at Yankee Stadium. Their lineup is longer, their rotation is better and their bullpen is deeper. They still have the same manager who decided to pull Luke Weaver in Game 1 of the World Series only to eventually bring in Cortes to face Freddie Freeman, but unfortunately, he will be here forever.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

2. What’s the likelihood that the roster construction is essentially complete because Hal won’t approve any additional spending? – Mark

It’s not a likelihood, it’s a certainty. Whenever Hal Steinbrenner approves a massive signing, he skimps on some other area of the roster to make up for it. When the Yankees traded for Soto, they went into the season without a third baseman. When they signed Carlos Rodon, they decided not to have a left fielder. The Yankees signed Max Fried, and that means they are going to start the season without a trustworthy option at either second base or third base depending on which position Jazz Chisholm plays.

3. What internal options should be given the longest look at the infield spot Jazz doesn’t play? – Chris

It seemed like Caleb Durbin was in line to be that internal candidate, but he was traded for Devin Williams, so that leaves DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza.

LeMahieu is going to get the first look and the longest look. We know this because owed money is the first place the Yankees go in building their roster. LeMahieu is owed $30 million over 2025 and 2026, so even if Cabrera or Peraza make more sense, it’s going to take a while, and I mean months for LeMahieu to not play the majority of the games. Just look at how much the Yankees used LeMahieu last season when he couldn’t hit the ball in the air for weeks at a time and was 49 percent worse than league average as a hitter.

4. Cabrera deserved to play more than he did in 2024, but that’s the way it has gone for him in his three years in the majors. The Yankees did everything they could to not play Peraza in 2022 and 2023 when they had every opportunity to give him everyday playing time, so I find it hard to believe he will be given the chance to be an everyday player in 2025.

5. How short is DJ LeMahieu’s leash if he is the Opening Day third baseman? – Paul

The Yankees didn’t release LeMahieu last season because of the two years and $30 million owed to him. The same way the Yankees told everyone Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson would be fine in 2023 before releasing them both is likely what happens to LeMahieu in 2025. Hicks and Donaldson were easy to root against and extremely hard to root for. LeMahieu is the complete opposite. I desperately want LeMahieu to turn back the clock and be his old self because when he was at his best he was awesome.

6. Sadly, over the last four seasons he has missed 26 percent of the Yankees’ regular-season games and all of their postseason games, posting a .698 OPS in 2,010 plate appearances. LeMahieu is 36 now and will be 37 in July, and I don’t see how he suddenly becomes a player he hasn’t been in five years. I want him to, but I don’t know that it’s possible. The leash is going to be at least three months I would think.

Even without a complete infield for the second straight year (after deciding to not have a complete outfield for multiple consecutive seasons), the Yankees are the best team in the American League. But the goal isn’t to win the American League, it’s to win the World Series.

7. Who do you see as possibilities for left-handed bullpen signings besides Tim Hill? – Gregg

Tanner Scott? Oh wait, he signed with the Dodgers, just like seemingly everyone else.

I’m jealous of the Dodgers, and therefore, I’m jealous of my wife’s fandom as a Dodgers fan. For the entire holiday season, every time I entered the living room, there was a Dodgers World Champions ornament glistening on our Christmas Tree, serving as a daily reminder of the Yankees’ humiliating performance in the World Series.

8. The Yankees used to be the destination for every big-name international star, Japanese or Cuban, but now the Dodgers have cornered the Japanese market. The Yankees spent two decades living in the past, referencing the late-’90s and early-2000s rather than doing everything they could to keep the winning ways going. They have been to two World Series in 21 years and won one. Their payroll in 2017 was less than it was in 2005. After coming within one win of the World Series in 2017, they cut payroll by $50 million for 2018. TV revenue, ticket prices, merchandise and concession costs have grown exponentially, while the Yankees’ payroll has grown depressingly slowly … when it infrequently has increased. The Yankees went to the World Series last year and despite playing 14 postseason and seven home postseason games, they are going to have a lower payroll in 2025 than they had in 2024. I wonder if tickets to the Stadium and beer at the Stadium will cost less in 2025 than it did in 2024.

9. The Dodgers won 98 games last season despite losing Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone to season-ending injuries. Yoshinobu Yamamoto missed half of the season. Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin missed the entire season. They went into October with a bullpen/punt game built into a makeshift rotation and still won it all.

The Dodgers could have done nothing this offseason and still would have gone into 2025 as the odds-on favorite to win the World Series. They could have sat back on their first real championship since 1988 and tried to run it back without adding payroll. Rather than do nothing, they did everything. They gave Blake Snell a five-year deal. They won the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes. They brought back Teoscar Hernandez and replaced Gavin Lux with Hyeseong Kim. They re-signed Blake Treinen, added Scott and signed Michael Conforto for shits and giggles.

10. The Yankees are better to begin 2025 than they were to end 2024, but they’re still playing the parlay game with their roster construction. The same game that caused them to go 15 years between World Series appearances. The same game that led to the light-hitting Trevino being used as a pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees have been trying to cut corners for a long time now and why it’s been more than a decade-and-a-half since a new World Series game could be used as a Yankees Classics game on YES. Needing a handful (or more) things to go right to the best version of the roster possible isn’t ideal, but that’s where the Yankees are again without a complete infield and without a lefty in the bullpen. Maybe the Dodgers will sign Tim Hill as well because why not?

1. I have completed the five stages of grief when it comes to Juan Soto no longer being a Yankee. It took me a couple of weeks to move through the first (denial) and second (anger) steps, but I was only briefly in the third (bargaining) and fourth (depression) steps. Acceptance (the fifth step) is where I am now and where I plan on remaining.

I didn’t know how the Yankees’ roster or I would rebound from the loss of Soto, but the dark place the roster and I were in when the news broke to where the roster and I are now has been quite the turnaround. It has been turned around enough that I’m breaking my promise to walk away from the Yankees and baseball and learn an instrument or language rather than suffer through a Soto-less season. At least for now.

2. I have liked what the Yankees have done this offseason since Soto chose the disgusting orange and blue. If the Yankees had been successful in signing Soto, I believe it’s obvious he would have been their entire offseason. I realize I would have willingly been accepting a less-rounded team to guarantee Soto in the lineup for the next decade and a half.

Two years ago, after the Yankees signed Carlos Rodon, no impact moves were made. Last year, after trading for Soto, no impact moves were made. History would have repeated itself with Hal Steinbrenner looking ways to cut costs after giving Soto $765 million of his inheritance. At best, by re-signing Soto and doing nothing else, the Yankees’ ceiling would have been getting humiliated in the World Series again.

Since Soto left for Queens, the Yankees have made themselves into a better team. That’s not to say losing Soto doesn’t suck or that he would have prevented them from being a better team (the Steinbrenners would have prevented the Yankees from being a better team with Soto because they would have been reluctant to add more to their payroll). But the Yankees now have a deeper rotation with the signing of Max Fried. They have a stronger bullpen with the trade for Devin Williams and re-signing of Jonathan Loaisiga, and they are much better defensively with Aaron Judge back in right field, Cody Bellinger now in either center or left, Paul Goldschmidt at first base and Jazz Chisholm back to second base. The offense has taken a hit because of the loss of Soto, but that was always going to be the case if he left. The only bat that would have come close to replacing his would have been to trade for Kyle Tucker, but after seeing what Soto received in free agency, there was no chance the Yankees would have been able to extend Tucker past 2025.

3. The additions of Fried, Williams, Bellinger and Goldschdmit make the loss of Soto hurt less. It doesn’t make the hurt completely disappear. It makes me sick to see highlights or images of Soto playing for the Yankees knowing that he won’t again. That pain will likely never go away. The only way it goes away is if Soto gains 50 pounds and hits the way he did in 2022 when he posted a .242/.401/.452 slash line with 27 home runs and was only 47 percent better than league average. If Soto puts up a sub-.900 OPS in 2025 or 2026 or any of his “prime” seasons, it’s a disaster. As the highest-paid player in the sport, he now has to be as good as he was in 2024 in each season of his prime.

4. I loved the Fried signing. The rotation before him couldn’t be trusted after Gerrit Cole, and given Cole’s arm and fatigue issues last year, it feels like he’s on borrowed time with each pitch he throws. I don’t care about the money or years given to Fried. If you haven’t come to the realization the Yankees can afford any player at any cost, you never will. If you have been tricked into thinking a $300 million payroll is a lot by the league’s owners, I feel sorry for you. Fried is great. He makes the Yankees better. That’s all that matters. As long he stays healthy and covers first base on ground balls hit to the first baseman, he will do just fine with the Yankees.

5. When you can trade an injured starting pitcher a year away from free agency and a prospect who wasn’t in the Top 30 and no one gave two shits about before the Arizona Fall League for the best reliever in baseball, you’re doing something right. Like Fried, Williams is great. He’s the best reliever in baseball. I enjoyed people bringing up the home run to Pete Alonso in the playoffs as a reason why Williams isn’t great. Emmanuel Clase was a disaster in the ALCS against the Yankees and any fan of any team would take him in a second. Should the Yankees have gotten rid of Mariano Rivera after 1997 for giving up the ALDS-winning home run to Sandy Alomar Jr.? Moronic. Like Fried, as long as Williams stays healthy, he will be great for the Yankees. 

6. Why didn’t the Yankees just sign Bellinger last offseason when all he would have cost was money, and when they could have had another strong left-handed bat in a World Series-bound lineup? I guess it’s because they didn’t want to tie up money they planned on needing to make a run at Soto with. Whoops. But now that the money for Soto is still in Hal’s bank account they’re able to finally make Bellinger a Yankee.

The trade for Bellinger was a good move. A good move that was inevitable. Possibly a year too late, but nevertheless, a move the Yankees had to make to try to balance the lineup. And they still need lineup balance. They are still too right-handed heavy. They removed Anthony Rizzo and added Bellinger. But they removed Soto and added Goldschmidt. That’s two lefties out (even if one sucked) and one in. The Yankees need another left-handed infield bat. I don’t think there is one out there worth signing. Anything of quality will have to come from a trade.

7. Last year, Soto was a 7.9 WAR player. Two years ago, Goldschmidt won the NL MVP with a .317/.404/.578 slash line and 7.7 WAR. Just two years ago, 2022 Goldschmidt was essentially 2024 Soto. Unfortunately, there has been two seasons of baseball since then, and after being 77 percent better than league average in 2022, Goldschmidt was just 20 percent better in 2023 and shockingly 2 percent worse in 2024. 

You can look at the signing of the now-37-year-old Goldschmidt in one of two ways: The Yankees just signed a 37-year-old first baseman coming off the worst season of his 14-year career OR by having the worst season of his 14-year career, the Yankees were able to sign Goldschmidt for only one year and $12.5 million!

Typically, when a player at the advanced baseball age of 36 has the worst season of their career, they settle for a minor-league deal or an invite to spring training. Because typically, the downward slope of their offense doesn’t reverse course. Sadly, the ways to reverse course are no longer a part of the game the way they were in the 80s, 90s or 2000s.

There’s the chance the pinstripes rejuvenate Goldschmidt the way they have for so many others over the years. But for every player like Matt Carpenter, there’s three of players like Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson or Matt Holliday. Hopefully, Goldschmidt has one more full season of offense left in the tank. And if not, hopefully, he will at least take ground balls hit to him to the bag himself.

8. After seven mostly disappointing seasons, Gleyber Torres is no longer a Yankee. Back in 2018 and 2019 when Torres was a force in the lineup (thanks to the juiced baseball) there weren’t many, if any, players in the league the Yankees would have traded him for. Now they let him walk for nothing.

Torres said the Yankees didn’t even reach out to him during the offseason. He was a player they kept through every trade deadline and offseason of his Yankee tenure, a player they made endless excuses and changed the makeup of their infield for multiple times to cater to and a player who was batting leadoff for them in the World Series and the Yankees didn’t even call to check in with his agent on his market over the last two months? What a fall from grace for a player I thought seven years ago was going to be an up-the-middle glove and middle-of-the order bat for the Yankees for the next decade and a half.

9. The Yankees have removed the player with the lowest Baseball IQ in the league from their lineup, but they still desperately need an infielder. Aaron Boone recently said given the current roster, Chisholm will move back to second and DJ LeMahieu and/or Oswaldo Cabrera will play third.

C: Austin Wells
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
2B: Jazz Chisholm
3B: DJ LeMahieu/Oswaldo Cabrera
SS: Anthony Volpe
LF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
CF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
RF: Aaron Judge
DH: Giancarlo Stanton

It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s good and good enough. In today’s AL, good enough works. The Yankees won the AL with Soto, lost Soto and are still favored to win the AL. That’s how weak the entire league is. The Mets added Soto, are going to run a payroll north of $300 million again, and may be the third-best team in their division let alone the entire NL. The NL has become what the AL once was.

That’s fine with me! I love seeing every big-name player traded to or signing with an NL team. It makes it easier for the Yankees, at least until they reach the World Series, which is exactly what happened in 2024: They finished with the best record in the AL despite being .500 since mid-June, steamrolled two AL Central teams in the ALDS and ALCS and then got embarrassed in the World Series by a better all-around team.

10. The Yankees were able to outlast the Orioles for the division because the Orioles couldn’t get out of their own way in the second half. They were able to outlast any threat from the Astros for a first-round bye because the Astros got off to such a bad start. They were able to get past the Royals and Guardians in the ALDS and ALCS because of Soto and Stanton. But once they got to the Dodgers, a complete team was too much for two players to overcome. The Dodgers were the better team. Since losing Soto, the Yankees have taken necessary steps to become a better all-around team than they were last year, when they relied on two players in the regular season (Soto and Judge) and two players in the postseason (Soto and Stanton).

It’s been nine weeks since the World Series ended and the Yankees are a better team today than they were for the last out of last season. There’s six weeks until spring training and plenty of time for them to get even better.