The Yankees lost another series to one of the worst teams in the league.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees were supposed to stack wins in August. While the Orioles were playing the Guardians, Red Sox, Mets, Astros and Dodgers, the Yankees were going playing the Angels, White Sox, Rockies and Nationals. It would be the Yankees’ chance to beat up on the worst teams in the league, take first place in the AL East and never give it back by finally creating separation in the standings going into September. While the Orioles’ tough opponents did their job, handing the Orioles an 8-9 record, the Yankees couldn’t do their job, going 6-6 against against the 25th-, 27th-, 28th- and 30th-ranked teams.

The Yankees may be in first place as of Friday morning, two games up on the Orioles in the loss column and 1 1/2 games up overall, but it could be and should be much more.

2. It has been hard to truly care about the Yankees over the last few weeks with their sloppy, frustrating, inconsistent and lackadaisical play. It’s been hard to truly care with a front office that is keeping better everyday options in the minors because of the idea of potential, non-guaranteed draft picks that may or may never help the Yankees at the major-league level, and if they do, likely wouldn’t help until 2030 or 2031 at best. It’s been hard to truly care with a manager that continues to make befuddling in-game decision seven years into his job. It’s been hard to truly care with a lineup that is reliant on two of nine hitters and a lineup that no longer features the team’s third-best hitter every day. It’s been hard to truly care with a pitching staff that is mediocre at best, and many days much less than that.

3. The Yankees could win a championship with this team, given the wide-open field this year with no clear-cut favorite in the league and no team in the majors on pace to win 100 games, but it’s unlikely. At best, the Yankees are a slightly-above-average team in a crowded field of slightly-above-average teams. And they haven’t played like the slightly-above-average version of themselves in a long, long time. Through the first 67 games of the season, they were 46-21. Through the last 67 games, they are 32-35. Their .478 winning percentage over the last 67 games makes them the Reds, who have a .478 winning percentage for the season. Since June 10, the Yankees have been the New York Reds.

4. For this team to win a championship, they will have to hit a massive parlay in October, starting with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto being at the best of their abilities for the entire month. The duo won’t be able to have a bad game, let alone a bad series. They will need Gerrit Cole to be better than he has been this season and better than he has been in his three postseasons as a Yankee. They will need Carlos Rodon to not be the high-priced bust he has been since being given $162 million. They will need a bullpen that can’t be trusted to tell you what day of the week it is to be trusted to get season-defining outs in the highest of leverage situations against hitters like Jose Altuve or Yordan Alvarez or Gunnar Henderson or Bobby Witt Jr. They will need a manager who manages like he was introduced to the game of baseball minutes before the game he’s actively managing began to make the right decision nearly every time for an entire month. They will need nearly every single thing to go to their at every moment for an entire month.

5. It could happen. Worse teams than them have reached and won the World Series. But for too long the Yankees have operated under the idea “It could happen” as if they’re a McDonald’s commercial tag line from the ’90s. Rather than operate like the Yankees and construct the best possible roster and have it run by the best possible manager to give themselves the best chance to win on the field, they are being run like a team where the manager’s son gets to play shortstop and play every inning of every game, the best player on the team decides who should be on the team and a bunch of players who should no longer be on the team or possibly in the league continue to play over more deserving players because of past accomplishments, reputations, friendships and relationships.

6. The Yankees like to sell everyone on this prestigious brand of winning and excellence, but they haven’t won a championship in going on 15 years, haven’t even won a pennant in that same amount of time and haven’t been excellent in anything other than disappointment for nearly that same amount of time as well. George Steinbrenner is known for having said, “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.” We’ll find out just how much his son prioritizes winning on Sunday when rosters expand. We know winning doesn’t come after breathing for Hal. For Hal, it’s likely breathing then creating revenue for his shareholders then paying back the banks he references publicly then whining about payroll and the luxury tax any chance he gets then trying to implement a salary cap in the sport even though it would hurt his team’s odds of winning a championship then eating and drinking water then actual hobbies he loves and then somewhere a few dozen more places down the list is caring about the baseball team he inherited winning.

8. If winning were the priority for the Yankees, I wouldn’t be watching Gleyber Torres batting leadoff every day. (I love the faction of fans thinking Torres is now playing well because he hit a couple home runs against the Rockies and Nationals.) I wouldn’t be forced to watch Alex Verdugo put every ball in play on the ground to the right side of the infield. There would be some consequence and accountability to Anthony Volpe being a .231/.293/.385 hitter in 1,192 career plate appearances, other than the manager of the team yelling at fans about how good Volpe while ironically citing him as a “below league-average hitter” and saying others can bench Volpe when they manage the team. I wouldn’t have to watch Jose Trevino steal playing time from Austin Wells, the best-hitting catcher in the majors, and the team’s only consistent offensive threat after Judge and Soto. I wouldn’t have to hear about how unlucky Clay Holmes is each time he blows a save and continues to stay in the closer role. I wouldn’t have to be told how gutsy Rodon is every five days after he gives up five runs in two innings, but stays in to pitch five innings in an eventual loss. I wouldn’t have to watch DJ LeMahieu continue to play every day when he’s clearly either injured or washed up. I wouldn’t have to watch daily highlights on social media of Dominguez extra-base hits while Verdugo continues to be the worst everyday hitter in the majors.

9. Life as a Yankees fan shouldn’t be so stressful, so aggravating, so disappointing. It’s unbelievably easy to create the best 26-man roster possible and then play the nine best available position players from that roster nearly every day, bat them in an order that makes sense using simple logic, pull starting pitchers when they are fatigued, give relievers clean innings to come into, occasionally call for a bunt, steal or hit-and-run, never use the contact play with a runner on third and less than two outs, be honest about player performances and injuries and hold players accountable for their performances. And yet, the Yankees make it so unbelievably difficult.

10. The stress, the aggravation and the disappointment is about to be taken to another level with rosters expanding and Dominguez potentially not being called up, 28 games left and a division title on the line with a bye to the ALDS to play for, and then the actual postseason. Summer is over. Vacation is over. The stretch run is here, and so is the best, but most trying part of the year.

The Yankees were walked off against by the Tigers on Sunday in a 3-2, 10-inning loss. With the loss, the Yankees ended their six-game road trip against the White Sox and Tigers at 3-3.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I didn’t feel good seeing Clay Holmes warming up on the Williamsport mound on Sunday night with the Yankees only holding a one-run lead. I don’t think any Yankees fan did. Because for all the times John Sterling told us “You can’t predict baseball” over 30-plus years, sometimes you can.

Holmes let a sub-.700 OPS hitter (Colt Keith) smoke a one-out double to left field, and when one out away from maintaining a one-game division lead on the Orioles, he let Jace Jung and his 11 career plate appearance single in Keith for his first career RBI.

2. The blown save was Holmes’ league-leading 10th of the year. Emmanuel Clase (3), Ryan Hensley (3), Kenley Jansen (3) and Josh Hader (1) have 10 combined. If Holmes just sucked as a closer and had say seven blown saves, the Yankees would have a three-game division lead. Instead, he has been impossibly bad with 10.

Since June 13, Holmes has as many saves as blown saves with seven. The Yankees are 11-10 in the 21 games he has appeared in in that time. The Yankees are now 4-7 in extra innings this season because they have a great manager and a great bullpen.

3. “I thought the sinker was good tonight,” Aaron Boone said of Holmes. “The slider was good.”

You know who else thought the sinker and slider were good? Colt Keith and Jace Jung.

“I felt pretty good,” Holmes said, “just two pitches there got me.”

It can’t be “just two pitches” getting you when you’re the closer. The margin for error is zero or close to it when you’re getting the final three outs of a one-run game.

Boone was asked if he is committed to Holmes as his closer for the rest of the season despite him having 10 blown saves.

“Yeah, yeah,” Boone said. “He’s had some tough breaks back there that have led to that.”

Poor Holmes. He’s just had some tough breaks and is really unlucky. I can think of a lot of miraculous breaks he has been on the right end of this season that has prevented his blown save total from being 12 or 13. Holmes is the first Yankees pitcher with 10 blown saves in a season in 37 years.

If you think Holmes is going to lose his job due to poor performance, look no further than Boone himself who is in his seventh year as Yankees manager despite owning zero pennants, but rather a CVS receipt-length list of embarrassing franchise records and moments. Look no further than how Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo or Anthony Volpe have been treated this year. Being bad at your job as a Yankee doesn’t lead to losing your job. It doesn’t even lead to diminished playing time or a lesser role.

4. The Yankees’ season is likely to end in disappointment with Holmes on the mound. He has spent nearly five months foreshadowing the ending that is coming for the 2024 Yankees and no one has done or is doing anything about it.

Brian Cashman didn’t do anything about it. He knew he gave up four arms in the deal for Juan Soto and knew Wendy Peralta was leaving in free agency and didn’t replace them in the offseason. Instead he counted on the always-injured Jonathan Loaisiga to stay healthy. He watched his bullpen blow countless games in the first half of the season and added two mediocre arms at the deadline. One of those arms has put 22 baserunners on in 8 1/3 innings with a 6.48 ERA and the other was already designated for assignment and is now on the White Sox.

Boone isn’t doing anything about it, still supporting Holmes, making excuses for him and talking about bad breaks, rather than a solution or a change in the role.

For any of the other 29 teams in the league, the general manager and manager would have urgency to stop using a closer who can’t close for fear of their job. But there’s no fear for either. Cashman told the world the team “is pretty fucking good” after they went 82-80 and missed the playoffs in a format in which 40 percent of the league makes it despite having the highest payroll in the American League. He’s an adopted member of the Steinbrenner family and not even a last-place finish would end his run with the organization. Boone managed the team to its worst season in 30 years a year after he oversaw a second-half collapse and sweep in the ALCS in which he tried to motivate his team by using the darkest four-game period in the franchise’s history with 2004 ALCS “highlights.”

5. Boone would rather have Holmes standing on the mound as Jose Altuve races home as the pennant-winning or have Yordan Alvarez trotting around the bases with Holmes hanging his head than ruin his friendship or relationship with Holmes by removing him from the closer role.

Maybe Luke Weaver or Jake Cousins or anyone else would be as big of a disaster as Holmes has been as the closer. It’s unlikely, but I guess it’s possible that they also would be the worst closer in the league. But we’ll never know because the next time the Yankees need to close out a game leading by three runs or less in the ninth inning, Boone will go to his guy. If he does his job, great for Boone. If he doesn’t do his job, still great for Boone. There are no consequences for not performing.

6. If there were consequences for not performing, Torres and his .660 OPS wouldn’t be leading off against lefties and Verdugo and his .657 OPS wouldn’t be leading off against righties. Volpe and his .673 OPS over 1,156 plate appearances would have spent at least some time in the minors since Opening Day 2023. Instead, Volpe leads the majors in games played (124) and is one off the major-league lead in at-bats with 514.

7. Volpe went 2-for-12 against the Tigers. One of the two was an infield hit that needed replay review to confirm if he was safe. In the last two weeks, he’s 4-for-42 with three walks, and he’s only that because he went 2-for-10 with three walks against the White Sox. Aside from his three walks against the worst team in the history of baseball, Volpe has one walk in the month. A month! Since August 4, he’s 6-for-51 with 18 strikeouts and a .339 OPS, hitting .118/.182/.157. But every day, there he is, starting at shortstop and batting sixth or seventh. And there he is striking out or hitting the weakest ground ball you have ever seen to the shortstop.

“You can’t tell when things are going good or when he’s going through a rough stretch,” Boone said of Volpe’s demeanor.

You can’t tell because he has only been going through a rough stretch since his first major-league plate appearance.

Oswald Peraza got called up last week. The first day of his call up he didn’t play. The second day, he played and hit a home run, so naturally, the next day he didn’t play again. The next day he got face to the favorite for AL Cy Young this season. If Volpe hit a home run like Peraza did on Friday, they would already be promoting another bobblehead night for him. Unfortunately, for Peraza, he wasn’t born in New York City and didn’t grow up in New Jersey as a Yankees fan.

8. Playing infrequently when you have only ever played every day is hard. Just ask Austin Wells. You know what else is hard? Getting called up for a spot start in the outfield when the favorite for AL Cy Young is starting like Jasson Dominguez did. Boone said Dominguez would be sent down again after Sunday’s game, so even if Dominguez had hit a pair of home runs off Tarik Skubal it wouldn’t have mattered. “There’s no lane” for Dominguez and playing time on the Yankees Cashman said last week. His lane is blocked by Verdugo. Verdugo is hitting .233/.294/.363. He last hit a home run on July 6, which is his only home run since June 14. He hasn’t homered against a team not named the Red Sox since May 29. So he last homered against not the Red Sox on Memorial Day Weekend and last homered period on Fourth of July Weekend. Labor Day Weekend is only two weeks away, so I guess we know when his next home run will be.

Dominguez was good enough to bat fifth against the best pitcher in the AL, but not good enough to be on the team after the game. Boone decided he would use all right-handed hitters except Juan Soto against Skubal, no matter how weak (Torres, Volpe, Jose Trevino) most of his hitters are. The thing about great pitchers like Skubal is that they don’t care what hand the opposition swings with or what nonsensical platoon you think you are going to employ. Skubal pitched six innings and only allowed one run on a wild pitch.

“9. I thought we made him work hard,” Boone said of his offense. “We didn’t do a lot against him, obviously, but I thought we made it challenging for him.”

I don’t know how you can say you “made him work hard” and then in your very next thought say “We didn’t do a lot against him, obviously,” and then in the thought after that say “We made it challenging for him.”

“We had a little bit of a down weekend offensively, which is going to happen,” Boone said. “But credit to them.”

Yes, credit to the fourth-place, under-.500 Tigers. The Yankees’ offense remains two hitters Soto and Aaron Judge and Wells when he’s allowed to play, which has been just one of three games since Trevino and his noodle arm and noodle bat have returned. The Yankees’ run total for the season is built on infrequent blowouts like the one against the White Sox or the random one against the Phillies or the 30 runs over two days against the Brewers back in April. Getting blanked by a starter with a 5.28 ERA like they did on Saturday or getting shut down by an elite pitcher like Skubal like they did on Sunday is more of who they are. Over the last 19 innings against the Tigers, the Yankees scored two runs: one on a wild pitch and one from the automatic runner.

10. The Yankees are now 8-7 in August against the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers, White Sox and Tigers. None of those five teams are even .500, let alone playing with postseason aspirations. Next up is a three-game series at home against the Guardians, a first-place team that’s 20 games over .500.

I don’t know how the Yankees will play against a team with a winning record given how they played over the last two weeks against some of the league’s worst. I do know Dominguez will remain in Triple-A, Peraza will remain on the bench, Volpe will play every day, Trevino will take at-bats from Wells, Torres and Verdugo will alternate hitting leadoff and in the middle of the order and Holmes will be closing.

The Yankees had a day off after taking two out of three from the historically-bad White Sox. Next up, a series against a fifth straight opponent headed home in October.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees’ 10-2 drubbing of the White Sox on Wednesday was a welcome sight and result, even if those who watched the game didn’t find it completely enjoyable as the White Sox led 2-1 in the seventh inning.

After going home run, home run, home run, walk on Tuesday, Juan Soto homered in his first at-bat of the game on Wednesday, and later on, Aaron Judge became the fastest player to 300 home runs in terms of at-bats in history (it was really his 301st home run as he had a home run incorrectly ruled a triple back in 2017). Everyone in the heart of the order homered as Austin Wells went back-to-back with Judge in the eighth inning.

2. Wells has been so good this season. His OPS is up to .773 and it’s .845 since April 23. He has a .938 OPS since July 13, which is the first day he became the everyday catcher with Jose Trevino going on the injured list. It turns out giving a player who has had regular, everyday at-bats his entire life those regular, everyday at-bats leads to improved performance. Who could have known?

3. Wells has solidified the cleanup spot (at least against right-handed starters, as Aaron Boone continues to use Giancarlo Stanton as the cleanup hitter against left-handed starters), but the Yankees still have a leadoff problem. It would be wise to give Wells a run as the leadoff hitter, but wise and Boone don’t exactly go together, so I’m sure we will see more of the Alex Verdugo/Gleyber Torres leadoff platoon, because why wouldn’t you want to give the most possible plate appearances to your two worst hitters?

4. The series win over the White Sox was the minimum acceptable result against a team that is on pace to be the worst in history, but I don’t think any Yankees fan feels any better about the team than they did before they went to Chicago and beat a team everyone beats (the White Sox are 2-26 in their last 28 games). The free fall was put on hold after the five straight wins over the Red Sox and Phillies and the all-out collapse seems to be over for good, but the Yankees have a lot of work to do between now and the 163rd game they will play this season, which brings us to some reader questions …

5. When does “It’s right in front of us!” change to “Where did it go?” – Floyd

I always view “It’s right in front of us” as the Yankees making the postseason since it seems that is what Boone is referring to when he says it. We know the Yankees’ organization goal has fallen from winning a championship to simply reaching the postseason, so it makes sense to think that’s what “It’s right in front of us” is tied to. Boone first used the phrase in 2022 when the team’s 14 1/2-game division lead dwindled down to a single game in the loss column. The Yankees rebounded to hold on to the division, but were thoroughly embarrassed in the ALCS that season. Last season, the phrase made a return, but it quickly went from “It’s right in front of us” to “Where did it go?” The Yankees’ season was over in mid-July after Clay Holmes had the biggest ninth-inning meltdown of his career in Miami and the team never recovered.

When the league went to the six-team format two years I figured the Yankees would never miss the postseason again. I didn’t think they would miss it in the second season of the format. The Yankees aren’t going to miss the postseason this season like they did last season. Their five-game winning streak against the Red Sox and Phillies at the end of July made sure of it. Barring a monumental collapse, we won’t have to hear “It’s right in front of us” again this season, so it will never turn into “Where did it go?” this year, in terms of making the playoffs.

6. Why does Aaron Boone try so hard to be positive about everything, when we, the fans that watch the games see otherwise? – Jim

Boone’s positivity stems from him thinking he is protecting his players, even if his ridiculous quotes and inaccurate evaluations of their performances does more harm overall than good. For instance, Boone thinks if he tells the media Nestor Cortes had “good stuff” after he got pulled in the fourth inning of a start that it’s better for the media, Yankees fans and public to think he’s a delusional clown than it is for everyone to think he’s being hard on his starting pitcher. I don’t know why Boone can’t simply tell everyone that what he saw is what they saw. It’s not like his be-positive-no-matter what persona has worked. The team hasn’t reached the World Series during his tenure, has failed to meet every expectation during that time and is coming off the franchise’s worst season in three decades. Boone hasn’t changed, evolved or improved as a manager in now his seventh season. It’s both worrisome and scary that he thinks what he’s doing is working. He has two division titles in six years, had to play in two wild-card games, lost in the ALDS twice and the ALCS twice and missed the postseason once. He is solely judged by the fanbase on how the team performs in October, which brings us to …

7. Brian Cashman will always be in the Yankees organization, what will it take for Boone to be terminated? – Dave

I had this exact conversation over text message with friend John Jastremski (formerly of WFAN and now of The Ringer) two days ago. To me, I think all Boone has to do is win the division and his option for 2025 will be picked up. You would like to think he would have to at least reach the World Series in his seventh try at it to be the Yankees manager in 2025, but obviously the bar for success is much lower than that for his boss (Brian Cashman) and his boss’ boss (Hal Steinbrenner). Boone’s contract was up after the 2021 season, a season in which the Yankees were favored to win the World Series and instead finished third in the AL East and fifth in the AL and their postseason was one game, and he was given a new contract. Since getting that new contract, Boone endured a second-half free fall in 2022 and was swept in the ALCS after using “highlights” from the 2004 ALCS as motivation from his team. The next year the team had their worst season in 30 years and missed the postseason. This season, the team has played poorly since mid-June and may not win the division and would end up in the best-of-3 wild-card series. If the Yankees don’t win the division and lose in that best-of-3 series, I don’t think his option gets picked up. But if the Yankees win the division or just reach the ALDS (even if they lose in the ALDS), I think it’s a guarantee his option gets picked up for as sad as that is.

8. Why do the Yankees play down to their competition? – Michael

Over the last two weeks, the Yankees went 7-5 against the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers and White Sox. All four of those teams are counting down the days until Game 162, so their miserable seasons can end. The Yankees should have done much better than they did against those four opponents. August was supposed to be their chance to create separation from the Orioles and give themselves better than a 50/50 chance to win the division. August is now half over and the Yankees have the same record as the Orioles. They have failed to take advantage of their weak schedule.

The Yankees are poor at situational hitting, have an inconsistent and top-heavy lineup, a bad bullpen and a mediocre rotation. They make sloppy mistakes in the field and on the bases and have a manager who puts the team at a disadvantage in late-and-close games. Add all of that together and talent and payroll don’t matter when you’re playing inferior teams.

There is still time for the Yankees to pad the win column this month with the Tigers, Rockies and Nationals on the schedule, it just won’t be what it could have been. “It just won’t be what it could have been” is a good way to summarize the Boone Yankees era.

9. How do we reconcile all the flaws we KNOW this Yankee team has with the reality that it’s also in first place with one of the best records in MLB?  – Chris

There is no great team in the majors this season with no clear favorite to win it all. There’s usually one or two teams that are inarguably better than every other team, but not this season. Since June 14, the Yankees are 23-29. For one-third of the season they have played .442 baseball and are still tied for the most wins in the majors with 72. That shouldn’t be possible given how bad they have been for so long.

It’s both good and bad the Yankees are in their position. It’s good because despite their poor play for two months they have the same record as the Orioles and can win the division. It’s bad because while they have played poorly, so have the Orioles, and the entire team, coaching staff, front office and ownership have shown a lack of urgency in their play and management because their standing hasn’t changed. After every loss, Boone and at least one player of his will mention how the team is still in a great position, and it’s because the Orioles have been as a big of a mess as the Yankees. That doesn’t make it OK. The Yankees shouldn’t feel good about themselves and their record because the Orioles failed to run away with the division over the last two months. The Yankees should feel that they failed to run away with the division over the last two months.

10. The Orioles played on Thursday and beat the Red Sox 5-1. The win puts the Orioles at 72-50 on the season, just like the Yankees. But because the Orioles hold the head-to-head tiebreaker (6-4), if the season ended today, they would have a bye to the ALDS and the Yankees would play in the best-of-3 wild-card series. (It turns out the ninth-inning meltdown loss in Baltimore in the last game before the All-Star break was a big deal.)

The Yankees have a much easier schedule from here on out than the Orioles, but with the Yankees going 7-5 against the Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers and White Sox over the last two weeks, it doesn’t matter who the Yankees play, no win is easy to come by for this team, and that holds true for this weekend against the Tigers.

The Yankees bounced back from their disgraceful loss to the White Sox by beating the worst team in baseball history 4-1 on Tuesday.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. For every game that comes off the schedule, Yankees fans are one day closer to not having to watch Gleyber Torres or Alex Verdugo play for the team. But for every game that comes off the schedule, it also means Yankees fans are one day closer to Juan Soto possibly no longer being a Yankee.

It’s a thought I don’t even like to think. It’s a world I don’t want to envision: one without Soto on the Yankees. But it’s a very real possibility and given Hal Steinbrenner’s knack for crying poor in every opportunity he gets despite the Yankees generating more revenue than any other team in the game, it’s a world Yankees fans must be prepared to live in.

2. On Tuesday in Chicago, Soto single-handedly beat the White Sox, hitting three home runs and driving in all four of the Yankees runs in their 4-1 win. Without him, the Yankees would have suffered a second straight defeat to the worst team in the history of baseball, a team that has won two games in a month. It was the first three home run game of Soto’s career, but it was already his sixth multi-home run game as a Yankee, having had one two days earlier as well.

3. “I feel like in watching Juan, I’m watching one of the best seasons I’ve ever seen,” Aaron Boone said. “I try not to take it for granted. I just know that is one tough at-bat, every single day.”

Boone is watching one of the best seasons he has seen, or anyone has seen. And he’s smart to not take it for granted since as of now there are only 41 guaranteed games remaining with Soto in a Yankees uniform.

4. Aaron Judge called Soto “the greatest hitter in the game” despite Judge having a season rivaling his historic 2022 campaign. Soto, in turn, called Judge “the greatest one” on Tuesday.

Judge may be the AL MVP frontrunner, but he’s right that Soto is “the greatest hitter in the game.” Soto, at age 25, already has 193 home runs and 739 walks. When Judge was Soto’s age, he had played in 45 major-league games.

5. Soto is just four months older than “kids” Oswaldo Cabrera and Ben Rice and only nine months older than Austin Wells. He will be 26 years old on Opening Day 2025, coming off the best season of his career and having not yet entered his prime. He’s the guy you open the checkbook for and give him whatever he wants.

6. “Look, we went and got him and paid a big price to bring him here, because we know what a special player he is,” Boone said. “We’ve seen every bit of that and probably more.”

The first part of what Boone said is why I feel the Yankees will re-sign Soto in that the Yankees “paid a big price to bring him here.” I don’t think they went into this thinking it would only be a one-year thing. But once he hits free agency, it’s out of their control, unless they are the highest bidder.

7. The Yankees are set up to be able to pay Soto with Torres’ $14.2 million and Verdugo’s $8.7 million coming off the books. That’s $22.9 million right there. Add it to Soto’s current $31 million, and there’s the roughly $50 million per year it’s going to take to keep him. Factor in Wells, Cabrera, Rice, Anthony Volpe, Luis Gil and Jasson Dominguez all making nothing in terms of major-league salaries and the Yankees are set up to meet Scott Boras’ demands for Soto.

8. Re-signing Soto isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Without him and with him signing elsewhere, the countdown for the end of Torres and Verdugo may have been for nothing with the Yankees potentially re-signing one or both with the funds put aside for Soto. Losing Soto would be disastrous because the Yankees wouldn’t have him making them worse, another team would making that team better and the available free agents not named Juan Soto aren’t once-in-a-lifetime talents.

9. We know what the Yankees are without Soto, even with Judge at his best. I don’t want to relive that over and over until Judge exits his prime. At 32, who knows how long Judge has left of his prime. I don’t buy the idea Judge would be upset by being the second-highest paid player on the team behind Soto, who will undoubtedly sign for more than the $40 million salary Judge receives. With salaries rising each year, are the Yankees supposed to not sign anyone until Judge retires and is no longer the highest paid player on the team? I think Judge wants to win to erase being the face of these Yankees, a group that hasn’t won in his first seven seasons, and Soto helps his chances at winning.

10. With Soto (25), Wells (25), Volpe (23), Rice (25), Dominguez (21) and Jazz Chisholm (26), the Yankees would set up for the foreseeable future with a strong, young core to potentially have the kind of future the last core could have had, but didn’t. It all hinges on re-signing Soto. If the Yankees don’t re-sign Soto then none of it matters. If they don’t re-sign him, being a Yankees fan won’t matter.

The Yankees were blown out by the White Sox 12-2 on Monday. The team on pace for the most losses in a season in the modern era of baseball routed a team that believes it can win a championship.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Embarrassing. Disturbing. Upsetting. Humiliating. The Yankees’ 12-2 loss to the White Sox on Monday was all that and more.

Here is what I wrote in the Yankees Thoughts on Monday:

The next three games are the easiest the Yankees will play as an organization for a long time. It may be the easiest three games they ever play for the rest of time. Three games against the 28-91 White Sox, a team that is on pace to win 38 games and finishes with the most losses (124) since the modern era dating back to the start of the 1900s. The White Sox have won one of their last 25 games and anything less than a sweep over the next three days won’t just be a disappointment, it will be a disgraceful failure.

Nine innings into the series and the series is already a disgraceful failure for the Yankees. Sadly, the series was a disgraceful failure long before nine innings were completed.

2. The first three batters of the game for the Yankees reached, and only one of them scored. In the second inning the bases were left loaded. In the third inning they stranded two. In the fourth inning the bases were left loaded for a third time. They left one on in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and in the eighth, for a fourth time, the bases were left loaded. In the ninth, they stranded two more.

3. The Yankees had nine hits and 11 walks, totaling 20 baserunners and two of them scored. It was just the second time in franchise history the team had 20-plus baserunners and scored two or fewer runs with the last time being 112 years ago before the team’s name became the Yankees.

4. “That wasn’t the issue,” Aaron Boone said in defense of his offense. “We couldn’t keep them off the board.”

Well, the offense was an issue, and keeping them off the board was also an issue. It’s hard to win a game when you score two runs, even against the White Sox.

5. “Offensively, we had the right at-bats,” Boone said. “Offensively, the at-bats were fine.”

Boone’s level of delusion is unlike any other in the game, but these two statements from him are flat-out crazy.

When the Yankees’ first three batters of the game reached, the next three popped up. Right at-bats?

When they had runners on the corners with one out in the second, Juan Soto popped one up in the infield. Right at-bat?

When they had first and second with one out in the third, Jazz Chisholm hit into an inning-ending double play (his first double play of the season). Right at-bat?

When the first two hitters walked in the fourth with the Yankees trailing by one run in a game against the worst pitching staff in the league, Alex Verdugo inexplicably tried to lay down a bunt and popped out to the pitcher. Right at-bat?

The Yankees left a runner in scoring position in the fifth and again in the sixth. They left a runner on in the seventh and couldn’t score with the bases loaded in the eighth. In the ninth, the first two hitters walked and neither of them reached third, let alone score. Right at-bats in all of those innings?

The Yankees went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position and stranded 18 baserunners on the night. Right at-bats!

6. “We pressed,” Boone said. “Could have been one of those nights we threw a lot of crooked numbers up there.”

Could have, should have, would have. Spoken like a true loser, which Boone is. And being the loser he is, he added another line to his resume of memorable moments as Yankees manager:

• Only Yankees manager to get a fifth season on the job without a championship (and now a sixth and seventh season)
• Manager for the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history (Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS)
• Manager for the worst single-month record in 33 years
• Manager for the worst season record in 31 years
• Manager for the most steals allowed in a single game by franchise in 109 years
• Manager for the first three-plus-game-series sweep by NL team at Yankee Stadium in franchise history
• Manager for the first Yankees team to lose five straight home series in 34 years
• Manager for the first time in Yankees history the team allowed 35-plus home runs and had a losing record over any 16-game span
• Manager for the first Yankees team to not steal a base over 20 consecutive games in 61 years
• Manager of the first team in the organization to have 20-plus baserunners in a game and score two or fewer runs since the franchise name became Yankees 113 years ago

7. For as bad as the offense was, Luis Gil was just as bad and the bullpen was worse.

Gil got rocked over four innings, allowing seven hits, two walks and four earned runs to a team that came into the game barely averaging three runs per game for the season.

After Gil needed 98 pitches to get 12 outs, former White Sox Tim Hill showed why arguably the worst team in baseball history released him, allowing a run of his own. Enyel De Los Santos pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits.

8. The White Sox’ 12 runs were the most they have scored all season and just the second time they reached double digits. Their 18 hits were also a season high with nine of the 18 hits going for extra bases. Not a single White Sox hitter entered the game with an OPS of .700, and yet, they lit up the Yankees’ best starter, got to one of the Yankees’ reclamation projects and then ruined one of the two relief arms they acquired at the deadline (likely ending De Los Santos’ Yankees tenure).

9. The Orioles didn’t play on Monday, so the Yankees lost a half-game in the standings, putting them a half-game behind for the AL East. Really, the Yankees are now 1 1/2 games back since the Orioles hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

10. Losing one of these three games has already made this series a disgraceful failure. Losing one of the next two, or possibly both? I don’t know how one could even describe such a result. But with Nestor Cortes and his 6.08 road ERA on Tuesday and then a bullpen game on Wednesday with this miserable bullpen, I may have to start thinking about how to describe it.