Yankees – Keefe To The City

Dec 5, 2025

Sonny Gray Trying to Rewrite History

The former Yankee is a Red Sox and doing everything he can to change his past.

I liked Sonny Gray. I wanted to keep liking him too, but he made it impossible. Not because he wasn’t with the Yankees what he was at his best with the A’s (and what he has been since leaving the Yankees). It wasn’t even because of his performance, which was OK in 11 starts in 2017 (3.72 ERA and 4.87 FIP) and then abysmal in 27 starts and 30 games in 2018. It was because of how he handled his time in New York and how he evaluated his performance.

Long before exaggerating and flat-out lying about performances became the nightly routine it is now in the Yankees’ manager’s office and clubhouse, Gray was at the forefront of telling you what you watched wasn’t how it should be interpreted in the Aaron Boone era. As Gray pitched to a 4.90 ERA and pitched himself out of the rotation in 2018, he frequently acted as though his efforts were better than the results showed.

In his last start of May 2018, Gray was destroyed by the Angels. He was given a 4-1 lead through the second inning and made it disappear almost as quickly as he got it. His line for the night: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.

“I thought I commanded my two-seam well,” Gray said after his ERA ballooned to 5.98. “I think it was my four-seam that every time I threw it, it kind of leaked back over the middle of the plate. Slider was good. Yeah, I think the stuff was good.”

In 3 2/3 innings, Gray put 10 runners on base, walked three, allowed seven hits, allowed three extra-base hits, walked Kole Calhoun (.160/.195/.199), walked in a run and hit a batter. But there he was telling everyone his “stuff was good.” It was scary to think what Gray would look like if he didn’t have his “good stuff” and then we found out. For the next two months, he stayed in the rotation and continued to get the shit beat out of him. Every once in a while he would throw a gem just to make you think for a moment maybe he figured it out only to follow it up with a disaster. The final straw came on August 1 when the 115-loss Orioles got to him for eight hits, seven earned runs and two walks over 2 2/3 innings in a loss. Gray was removed from the rotation after that and traded after the season.

Instead of becoming a young, controllable starting pitching success story for the Yankees, Gray was just another in the long line of young, controllable starting pitching failures Brian Cashman has acquired as Yankees general manager. After 28 seasons as general manager, Cashman has still failed to acquire a successful young, controllable starter. Gray, Jeff Weaver, Javier Vazquez, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, James Paxton, Jameson Taillon, they all failed in New York and were traded or let walk in free agency. They all blew up in the postseason or were left off postseason rosters completely.

There was a reason the Yankees gave up three of their better prospects in the summer of 2017 for Gray and there’s a reason why the team let him start Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS and Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS. There’s a reason why the Yankees let him keep starting all the way until August in 2018 even though he was nearly a guaranteed loss every time he took the ball. There’s a reason why so many teams were connected to him when the Yankees shopped him and why the Reds ultimately decided to trade for him and give him a $30.5 million extension after the trade, disregarding his awful 2018 season. And there’s a reason why David Ortiz said the following about Gray in 2015:

“The last few seasons, the toughest guy I’ve faced is Sonny Gray from Oakland. This kid’s stuff is legit … the first time I see this Gray kid on the mound, I can’t help but notice he’s 5’10” and skinny. He looks like the guy who fixes my computer at the Apple Store. I’m thinking, Here we go. This is gonna be fun. Then he took me for a ride, man. Fastball. Sinker. Slider. Curve … Whap. Whap. Whap. You have no idea what this kid is going to throw. He drives me crazy.”

The reason for all these things is that Gray had the ability, talent, stuff and repertoire to be a perennial Cy Young candidate. The pitcher Ortiz was talking about is the one who pitched to a 2.88 ERA over 491 innings in his first three seasons in the league and who shut out the Tigers over eight innings in Game 2 of the 2013 ALDS. That’s the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting. That’s the pitcher I thought the Yankees were getting.

The Yankees essentially did get that pitcher … when they were on the road. When Gray was away from Yankee Stadium, he was his usual self, but when the Yankees were home, it was like watching Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS every start.

Home (15 games, 11 starts)
59.1 IP, 78 H, 47 R, 46 ER, 35 BB, 45 K, 11 HR, 6.98 ERA, 1.904 WHIP

Away (15 games, 12 starts)
71.0 IP, 60 H, 26 R, 26 ER, 22 BB, 78 K, 3 HR, 3.17 ERA, 1.155 WHIP

At Yankee Stadium, opposing batters teed off on him like a collective MVP candidate (.318/.406/.527), while on the road opposing batters hit him like a backup catcher (.226/.295/.320). Unfortunately, the Yankees couldn’t destroy the rest of their rotation by moving everyone around to accommodate Gray’s inability to pitch in the Bronx, so they instead made Austin Romine his personal catcher as if Gary Sanchez was the problem. When the hopeful magic trick of having Romine turn around Gray’s season proved ineffective, the Yankees continued to stick with the meaningless experiment.

The 2018 Yankees went 11-12 when Gray started and 89-50 in all other games, winning 100 games despite Gray’s miserable season. He was left off the postseason roster, and the second the season ended, Cashman went to work openly showing his displeasure with Gray’s performance and ending his Yankees tenure by saying things like “It hasn’t worked out thus far” and “I think that we’ll enter the winter, unfortunately, open-minded to a relocation” and “It’s probably best to try this somewhere else” and “Our intention is to move Sonny Gray and relocate him.”

In Gray’s first day as a Yankee, he met with the media and talked about how excited he was to be a Yankee. He went out of his way to pen a piece in The Players’ Tribune titled ‘New York, I’m Ready to Go.’ In it, he said, “I couldn’t be happier” to be a Yankee, wrote about watching the 2009 Yankees and how his new teammates “have been awesome” and how he was “welcomed with open arms.” Gray would go on to be a guest on CC Sabathia’s podcast to reinforce all of these ideas.

Because of all this and because Gray went above and beyond to express his admiration of the Yankees and his happiness being a Yankee, it makes his comments over the last week since being traded to the Red Sox more than puzzling.

“I never wanted to go there in the first place,” Gray said of the Yankees this past week, which seems odd since his 2017 piece in The Players’ Tribune is hundred of words saying the complete opposite.

“It’s easy to hate the Yankees,” Gray said, which is fine. It’s something I would expect anyone who joins the Red Sox to say, whether said in jest or not. But it comes off as fake when you factor in every anti-Yankees claim Gray made at his first Red Sox press conference contradicts everything he said in 2017 and 2018.

“I just wasn’t myself,” Gray said of his time in New York. (Whose fault is that?) “I don’t know what led to that or anything.”

I think we know what led to that: pitching in New York. Here are Gray’s 2018 splits again:

Home (15 games, 11 starts)
59.1 IP, 78 H, 47 R, 46 ER, 35 BB, 45 K, 11 HR, 6.98 ERA, 1.904 WHIP

Away (15 games, 12 starts)
71.0 IP, 60 H, 26 R, 26 ER, 22 BB, 78 K, 3 HR, 3.17 ERA, 1.155 WHIP

Gray is aware that pitching for the Red Sox is the equivalent to pitching for the Yankees and possibly worse, right? If he pitches the way he pitched with the Yankees with the Red Sox, he will deal with the same scrutiny and I’m sure he will deal with it the same way. Wherever Gray’s next stop is, he’ll tell everyone he never wanted to go to the Red Sox in the first place, even though he had to waive his no-trade clause to go there. And that’s what I’m rooting for and every Yankees fan should be.

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 10, 2025

This Yankees Era Needs to End

A World Series disaster, two ALCS embarrassments, three ALDS flops, a wild-card game defeat and a season of missing the postseason entirely have defined these last eight years.

I wasn’t upset when the Yankees lost Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS after blowing a 3-2 series lead. I had spent the previous four years watching the Yankees give full seasons of middle-of-the-order at-bats to late-career Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay. I had seen only one postseason game during that time, a one-game shutout at home to the Astros. I was disappointed the Yankees’ 2017 season ended one win shy of the World Series, but the promise of what was to come prevented any sadness.

A team that wasn’t expected to reach the postseason won 91 games in 2017, erased a three-run deficit in the winner-take-all wild-card game and then erased an 0-2 series deficit in the ALDS against the top-seeded, 102-win team. They overcame an 0-2 series deficit in the ALCS, winning three straight games at home before falling short in Games 6 and 7. They had done all of this with a core of mid-20-somethings surrounded by a reliable cast of veterans in their lineup, rotation and bullpen. I wasn’t upset the Yankees came so close to the World Series and came up short because the future hadn’t been this bright for the organization in 20 years.

Then everything changed.

The Yankees moved on from Joe Girardi, citing a too-tense attitude and a disconnection with the current roster given the coddling needs of today’s players. Brian Cashman claims the Yankees were going to move on from Girardi even if they had won the World Series in 2017. I wish a guardian angel could guide me through an alternate reality like I’m George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life in which the Yankees win the 2017 World Series and change managers and then endure the kind of failure and humiliation they have since. Instead of promoting from within by naming career Yankee Rob Thomson — who George Steinbrenner wanted to one day manage the Yankees — the Yankees went with Aaron Boone and his impressive resume of zero coaching and managerial jobs at any level of baseball. Rather than lean into a team clearly capable of being a force in the league in 2018, Hal Steinbrenner cut payroll by $50 million.

Despite spending his entire life around not just baseball, but Major League Baseball, Boone managed like someone who had won a sweepstakes to achieve the position. The issues with Boone’s lack of experience began immediately in spring training when he tried to call Dellin Betances into a game even though he hadn’t asked Betances to warm up. Boone was given a mulligan by the umpires who let Betances warm up for as long as he needed to prevent injury in a spring training game. The issues never subsided, rearing their ugly head in the postseason.

In his first postseason, Boone’s starting pitcher didn’t know the start time of a pivotal Game 3. In that same game, Boone managed the Yankees to the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history. The next night, the Yankees’ season came to an end when Boone allowed CC Sabathia to face the entire Red Sox lineup a second time because he liked the matchup of Sabathia against the Red Sox’ light-hitting 9-hitter. The Yankees lost and Boone gave his first postgame press conference following an elimination game. At the time, no one knew it would become an annual occurrence. No one could have envisioned a championship-less tenure would go on this long. Following Wednesday’s Game 4 loss in the ALDS, I found myself watching Boone give his 2025 elimination press conference.

There’s nothing quite like a Boone postgame press conference following elimination. It’s masterful. It’s perfect in every way. Like Watching Wayne Gretzky operate from his “office” behind the net, Boone is most comfortable talking to the media after a Yankees season ends in disappointment because it’s the one thing he has more experience at without a championship to fall back on than any manager in Yankees history. No manager in the history of the Yankees has been given a fifth season on the job without a championship and Boone was just given his eighth. He has crushed the previous record and his eight-year run is now as unbreakable as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak or Cal Ripken’s streak of 2,632 consecutive games played.

“When it ends this way,” Boone said. “It’s always terrible.”

It’s never ended any other way for Boone. Actually, that’s not true. There was the time two years ago when the Yankees posted their worst record in 30 years and weren’t eliminated from the postseason because they didn’t even make the postseason despite 40 percent of the league making it. Outside of that disastrous postseason-less year, it’s always ended this way for Boone.

“Winning the World Series is hard,” Boone said. “Been chasing it my whole life.”

Boone wouldn’t know how hard it is to win the World Series because he has never won it. He never won as a player and has never won as a manager. All he has are two American League pennants. One came from his home run, which served as the defining negative turning point in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and changed the course of history for the worst for the Yankees considering what the Red Sox have accomplished since Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and because it led to Boone getting the job he still has. The other came against the easiest postseason field imaginable and was followed by a humiliating defeat in the World Series.

It’s unlikely Boone will ever stop chasing a championship. I can’t fathom a scenario where the Yankees win with him at the helm and no other self-respecting owner or general manager in the league with a ready-to-win roster would be foolish enough to hand the keys over to someone who has overseen such miserable disappointment. The idea Boone is good at his job because of his regular-season winning percentage at a time when half the league is tanking and pocketing profits or because he has made the postseason in seven of eight years at a time when 83-win teams are getting into the expanded format is comical.

Boone has created and fostered a culture comfortable with losing. His players recite the same tired lines they hear their manager use following losses. His players believe they can do no wrong performance-wise because they constantly hear their manager and the rest of the organization talk about how great they are. Cashman called the Yankees “pretty fucking good” after the team went 82-80 two years ago, so you can only imagine how he feels about a team that blew an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays, went 12-21 against the Blue Jays and Red Sox, bowed out in the division series, but won 94 games. Maybe Cashman will claim the 2025 Yankees as World Series champions the way he claims his 2017 team as World Series champions.

Boone frequently referred to his offense as “the best in baseball” this year as they consistently inflated their run differential against the league’s worst and then laid down to the league’s best. The best offense in baseball scored two runs or fewer in three of seven postseason games, couldn’t hit a splitter and were eliminated against an overworked, fatigued eight-reliever bullpen game. Boone constantly called the Yankees “the best team in the league” this year as well, so it’s unsurprising when Jazz Chisholm tells the media after a Game 4 loss (in which his own costly error put the game out of reach) that the Yankees were “the team to beat in the playoffs.”

The delusion and lack of accountability within the organization has spread through the clubhouse like hand, foot and mouth disease at a preschool and no player seems to be immune whether it’s a homegrown rookie, a veteran, a trade acquisition or a free-agent signing. Every Yankee except for possibly Giancarlo Stanton has been infected by the happy-go-lucky, Pollyanna way Boone has instilled in his team.

When the Yankees played the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball on June 8, Chisholm participated in an in-game interview with ESPN. When asked about Boone, Chisholm said, “We’re really good friends.” He didn’t say Boone is a “really good manager” or that “he’s great to play for.” No, the first thing that came to his mind was how good of friends they are. A manager has to have the ability to call out his players when they deserve to be called out. A friend? A “really good friend” isn’t about to call out their friend even if they deserve to be.

There is no score, game or situation that attracts urgency from the players, the manager or front office. Washed-up veterans are given exceedingly long leashes before being released, struggling closers are allowed to nearly ruin seasons and one player in particular has been treated like a Baseball God, receiving three full seasons of everyday playing time despite being the worst statistical everyday player in the majors during that time. With the outs coming off the board for the Yankees on Wednesday, Boone waited to use David Bednar, possibly saving him for Opening Day 2026, and called on Devin Williams and Camilo Doval first. Williams allowed two inherited runners to score and Doval gave up an earned run. By the time Bednar took the mound the Yankees trailed by four runs. Not even staring in the face of elimination is enough to create urgency for this manager.

I would never call for Cashman to be fired or replaced because it’s as likely to happen as the Yankees abandoning the interlocking NY — the most recognized sports brand in the world — as their logo. Cashman started with the Yankees 40 years ago as an 18-year-old, at the same time Hal Steinbrenner was 15. These two grew up together. They are essentially brothers. Cashman is a part of the Steinbrenner family in every way except for adopting the last name. The idea Cashman would ever be fired, removed or reassigned is not worth thinking about. One day Cashman will retire and leave the Yankees on his own terms and pick his successor before doing so, and that is the only way he will exit.

Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t want to be the public face owner of the Yankees. He wants to reap the benefits of owning the Yankees and increase his net worth, but he doesn’t want to be in the position he is in. It’s why his father planned to leave the team to be run by his son-in-law before a divorce ruined that and it’s why Hal’s brother was briefly the public face of the team before him. Hal is in the position he’s in out of necessity, not desire.

The last thing Hal would do is fire his “brother” and have to conduct a job search for a position that has been filled since Derek Jeter completed his second full season. The Yankees may not win championships, but they win in every aspect that matters to Hal. They led the AL in attendance, they made the playoffs, and they got five home playoff gates. The championship drought may get longer each year, but concession prices, ad revenue and ticket prices go up whether the drought exists or not. Business is good for Hal. Why would he want to disrupt what’s working for him in terms of massive, sport-leading revenues? He’s not an owner who invented some society- or industry-changing technology. He didn’t start a business in his garage and become a billionaire through decades of hard work and perseverance. Hal won the birth lottery. He doesn’t own the Yankees because he’s rich. He owns the Yankees because they are what makes him rich.

Because of this, Cashman has full control of the Yankees. Two years ago, when Cashman freaked out on the media after an 82-80 season, he said, “I’m here and Boonie’s here, and we’re not going anywhere,” and it was in that moment that every Yankees fan should have realized they’re screwed if they hadn’t already. Only after recognizing how outlandish he sounded did Cashman say that ownership has the power to change the manager and general manager if they want, but he made it clear that this is his team and his organization and the moron he has in the dugout is his moron and he’s not getting rid of him. Never for a day as Yankees manager has Boone thought it may be his last day as Yankees manager. Not when the team missed the postseason nor in any of their early postseason exits. When asked if he thought Game 4 may have been his last game as Yankees manager, Boone smiled, gave a sarcastic laugh and answered, “No, I’m under contract.”

Cashman and his smarter-than-everyone team annually construct a team built for a 162-game regular season in which they will face a lot of bad teams and bad pitchers. But when the schedule is shortened to just the league’s best teams and elite starters and high-end relievers, their 162-game roster is worthless. Their home run-or-nothing approach can’t win in October and their lack of contact bats who can work counts, foul off tough pitches and simply put the ball in play leaves them vulnerable to all-world breaking balls, high velocity and allows opposing starters to work deep into games. The offensive style the Blue Jays just used to destroy the Yankees is the style the Yankees used to play.

That was a long time ago. During Game 4, John Smoltz compared this Yankees era to his Braves career in which his Braves team only won once. At least they won once! This Yankees team has turned into a punchline, whether it’s the Red Sox using “New York, New York” as their victory song during their 2018 championship run, the Astros beating the shit out of the Yankees every time they have met in the postseason, the Dodgers embarrassing the Yankees on the field and then through the media for an entire offseason or David Ortiz and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doing their own revised version of John Sterling’s “Theeeeeee Yankees win!” during a Yankees’ elimination celebration. The Yankees are only the Yankees in name at this point. A Yankees hat or a pinstriped home jersey used to signify winning and excellence. Now it’s signifies disappointment and failure. The brand of winning associated with the Yankees is fading because they don’t win anymore. 2009 was 16 years ago and 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 were forever ago. Once the Yankees retire Sabathia’s number, they will have exhausted every possible avenue to draw a sellout crowd for a mid-August game against the Royals unless they turn to Monument Park plaques for Brett Gardner, Joba Chamberlain and Nick Swisher for a revenue boost.

Four years ago, after the Yankees were embarrassed in the wild-card game at Fenway Park in a season in which they were the favorite to win the AL and instead finished third in their division and fifth in the AL, I wrote Yankees Need Organizational Change This Offseason. The big change was trading for Josh Donaldson for which the Yankees paid $51.5 million for a .678 OPS in 165 regular-season games and a .540 OPS in nine postseason games, and the ill-fated decision to acquire Isiah Kiner-Falefa to play shortstop. Following that wild-card game loss, Boone oddly talked about how “the league has closed the gap” on the Yankees. It was a confusing comment normally reserved to compare emerging teams to a recent champion, not a team at the time hadn’t won a championship in 13 years and now hasn’t won one in 16 years. It’s that kind of entitled lack of awareness by a manager who has never won anything and an organization that hasn’t won anything since the first year of the new Stadium that is disturbing.

When Cashman gave up on Sonny Gray after 2018 and traded him, he said, “I don’t feel like we can go through the same exercise and expect different results,” and yet, the Yankees continue to go through the same exercise every season during this era. Same manager, same type of players, and sure enough, same season-end result. The Yankees believe next year luck will be on their side in the postseason and they will finally overcome the odds of the crapshoot they have considered the postseason to be ever since they stopped winning it.

I fully expect the Yankees to “run it back” (as Aaron Judge mentioned he would like to do after Game 4) in 2026 with close to the same roster, the same failed organizational philosophies and certainly the same manager. And I fully expect another early postseason exit a year from now.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Oct 9, 2025

Yankees ALDS Game 4 Thoughts: Eliminated

The Yankees’ season ended with a 5-2 loss in Game 4 of the ALDS. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Playing their fourth elimination game in eight days, the Yankees produced two hits through the first six innings of their 5-2 loss in Game 4 of the ALDS. It was the kind of weak offensive performance the Yankees have provided so many times over the year in the postseason and the kind of offensive performance Yankees fans have come to expect from the Yankees in the postseason.

2. The Yankees scored one run in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and one run in Game 1 of the ALDS. They were being no-hit and shut out into the sixth inning of Game 2 of the ALDS until the Blue Jays removed their starter after just 78 pitches because they were sitting on a 12-0 lead. The Yankees’ bats came to life late in Game 2 of the ALDS, but once the Blue Jays decided enough was enough and brought in their high-quality relievers, the Yankees’ stat-padding fun ended.

3. Thanks to two defensive miscues and Aaron Judge hitting a three-run home run against a pitch that physics says shouldn’t be able to be hit for a home run, the Yankees were able to win Game 3 and save their season. But the offense that eked out a three-game series win against the vastly inferior Red Sox and got stifled in Toronto showed up for Game 4 and the season ended.

4. Cam Schlittler was much better against the Blue Jays his third time facing them this season and deserved a much better line than two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings, but his defense failed him, specifically Jazz Chisholm who committed a game-changing error at second base that led to the Blue Jays’ third and fourth runs and put the game out of reach.

5. John Schneider went to eight relievers across the nine innings in Game 4 in a full-blown bullpen game, and aside from a short porch home run by Ryan McMahon off Mason Fluharty and an RBI single from Judge off of Jeff Hoffman, an overworked and fatigued bullpen shut down the Yankees with ease.

6. In what should be his final game as a Yankee, Trent Grisham made everyone realize it wouldn’t have mattered if he played over Alex Verdugo last postseason. Grisham went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in Game 4. He finished the postseason 4-for-29 with 10 strikeouts. He didn’t drive in a single run in the seven games.

After saving the season with his three-run home run in Game 3, Judge went 2-for-4 with a walk in Game 4. Judge finally showed up for a postseason and no one else did. I don’t feel sorry for Judge’s postseason going to waste given his postseasons performances before this year. This was an enormous missed opportunity for him to finally win it all and he will be 34 a month into next season. He will have to do the same thing next October and maybe a single everyday-playing teammate will join him.

Cody Bellinger entered this postseason with a .661 OPS for his postseason career after six trips to the playoffs with the Dodgers. Bellinger stayed true to who he has been in October as he posted a .651 OPS this October, failed in every big moment and the only ball he hit out was in the meaningless late innings of Game 2. No one should be surprised Bellinger was awesome in the regular season and bad in the postseason, considering he put up nearly an identical OPS this October as he had in 69 previous postseason games. He has been a bad performer in now 76 playoff games.

I can’t say anything critical of Giancarlo Stanton for hitting .192/.267/.269 without a home run this postseason. In all of his postseasons with the Yankees, Stanton has always been the one bat you can count on with a career postseason OPS of .926, 52 points higher than his career regular-season OPS. He gets a pass for this October for what he did last year and previous years.

Chisholm’s glove cost the Yankees a realistic chance of coming back to win Game 4, but it was his bat that cost them the entire postseason. It will be hard to find a player who talks more and backs it up less than Chisholm who went out of his way to tell every microphone put in front of his face this season that the Yankees would win the division and go to the World Series. They failed to win the division and they were eliminated two rounds before the World Series. Chisholm pouted about being benched in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and then was in the starting lineup the rest of October and hit .182/.280/.318, after he hit .182/.250/.309 last October. The lone run Chisholm drove in this October came on his solo home run in Game 3. In Game 4, Chisholm hit into a double play after Stanton led off the fourth with a walk and grounded out with two on to end the sixth.

Paul Goldschmidt gets a pass as he went 4-for-9 with a walk in limited playing time.

Ben Rice doesn’t get a pass. If opposing pitchers don’t throw Rice a fastball, all of his astonishing Statcast metrics become worthless. Rice didn’t stand a chance against the splitters of Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage in Games 1 and 2 and went hitless in Game 3 before being benched in Game 4. The only hits Rice provided in the series came in the meaningless innings of Game 3 when every Yankee improved their series slash lines from atrocious to abysmal.

Austin Wells continues to not be any good. After striking out in 22 of 55 plate appearances and hitting .120/.200/.460 in the postseason last year, Wells hit .227/.261/.227 in the postseason this year. Five hits, none for extra bases.

Remember with a few weeks left in the season when Aaron Boone told everyone the starting shortstop competition would be a daily thing? I do. Remember when Jose Caballero hit .306/.405/.500 during the competition, as he started at shortstop during the Yankees’ 12-game gauntlet against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox? I do. Remember when Boone strategically let Volpe only play against the Twins, Orioles and White Sox over the last couple weeks of the season to boost his performance, and he posted an OPS of .601 more than 300 points lower than Caballero’s .905? I do. And remember despite all of that, Boone still made Volpe the starting shortstop for every game of the postseason? I do.

Volpe represents everything wrong with the Yankees from what he stands for organizationally to his actual play. They passed on the deepest shortstop free-agent class in the history of the game during the primes of most of their roster because of him. He has been immune to a demotion or even a benching (it’s only ever a day or two off). He is shielded from the media and protected to no end by the manager and front office in a way no other Yankees prospect or Yankee period has ever been. Volpe didn’t get removed for a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of Game 4 because Boone thought it would give the Yankees a better chance to stage a four-run comeback. Boone hit for Volpe because he didn’t want him to be exposed to a ruthless, angry crowd if he were to strike out for a fourth time after the crowd booed him in a way typically reserved for opposing players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jose Altuve after Volpe’s third strikeout of the game.

Volpe may be a major-league baseball player, but he doesn’t possess the ability or talent needed to be one. Any bit of success he achieves is a product of him playing every day no matter what. If you were to take a Double-A player and give them the endless leash and everyday playing time Volpe receives, they too would have flashes of success. But like Volpe, they too would look overmatched the majority of the time. Volpe went 1-for-15 in the series with 11 strikeouts. The Blue Jays as a team struck out 13 times in Games 1, 2 and Game 4 combined. Before Volpe’s third strikeout in Game 4, John Smoltz mentioned how Volpe was swinging three weighted bats in the on-deck circle and he had never seen something like that. FOX then showed Volpe’s bizarre preparation and he went on to strike out on four pitches.

Volpe has been the worst everyday offensive player in the majors since his debut, and yet, there’s a better chance the Yankees stop wearing pinstripes at home in 2026 than there is that Volpe isn’t the starting shortstop on Opening Day 2026.

McMahon gets a pass. The Yankees knew they were trading for a below-league-average hitter in McMahon, but arguably the best defensive third baseman and he fit that billing during the regular season. In the postseason he had impressive at-bats, only struck out twice in 15 plate appearances and provided an .833 OPS.

Schlittler’s Game 3 performance against the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series and Judge’s home run in Game 3 of the ALDS were the two highlights of the very short postseason, but right up there with them was Jasson Dominguez’s pinch-hit, leadoff double in the ninth inning of Game 4, which served as a nice ‘Fuck You’ to Boone and the front office for not using him until there were three outs left in the season. The Yankees did everything they could to screw up Dominguez’s development and future this season by moving him to a position he never played, then pulling him early for defensive purposes for the first part of the season, then not allowing him to play against left-handed pitches and finally benching him outright as he started just four games in September. I hope the Yankees trade him in the offseason and he goes somewhere else and becomes the star we were told he would be with the Yankees. If he’s not, the Yankees will screw with his development again next season.

7. The bullpen did its job in the postseason, and again in Game 4, but the starting pitching outside of Schlittler was a disaster in the ALDS. After Max Fried shut down an anemic Red Sox lineup in the Wild Card Series, he was blasted by the Blue Jays in Toronto. He came to the Yankees with a 5.10 career postseason ERA and pitched to a 6.75 ERA this postseason.

When Carlos Rodon went down in spring training in 2023 and said if it were the playoffs he would pitch and not go on the injured list, I laughed. If you need seven shutout innings against the Angels in July, Rodon is your guy. If you need to win a start against a team with a winning record or a postseason game, he’s the last guy you want. Rodon pitched to a 5.60 ERA in the postseason last year, pitching well in just one game (Game 1 of the ALCS) and pitched to a 9.72 ERA this postseason. He now has a 7.53 ERA in his postseason career.

Luis Gil was only able to last 2 2/3 innings in his only postseason start after lasting only four innings in both of his postseason starts a year ago. Last offseason, Gil was coming off the only healthy season of his career and had won Rookie of the Year. His value was never higher and the Yankees decided to not move him. He made only seven starts this season due to injury, walked batters at a higher rate than last season when he led the league in walks and stopped striking anyone out. His value has crumbled and he will turn 28 during next season.

8. So who was good in the Yankees’ brief postseason appearance? Aaron Judge, Cam Schlittler, Jasson Dominguez, Ryan McMahon, Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario and the relievers not named Luke Weaver or Paul Blackburn. When the good from your offense is one everyday player, three platoon players and one player who was buried on the bench, it’s a problem. When the good from your rotation is a single starter, it’s a problem. When a bullpen that’s performing well only pitched with the lead in one of four games in the ALDS, it’s a problem. When you put it all together, you get a team whose postseason lasted seven games with four of them being elimination games.

9. The Boone Yankees were unable to do what his two predecessors were able to in erasing an 0-2 ALDS deficit and Boone’s unbreakable Yankees record of most seasons allowed to manage the team without a championship has added another year to it. Instead of the Yankees playing on Friday in Toronto, they now won’t play until March 25 in San Francisco.

10. The Yankees spent the majority of the season showing they weren’t good enough to compete with the league’s best, but they did just enough to fool everyone for as long as they could. It’s no longer “right in of front of them” because there’s nothing left in front of them. The “tomorrow” the manager and his players always refer to after each loss isn’t coming. The 2025 Yankees’ season ended the same way every Yankees season has for the last 16 years, including every season under Boone: eliminated.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Oct 8, 2025

Yankees ALDS Game 3 Thoughts: The Aaron Judge Game

The Yankees erased a five-run deficit to win Game 3 of the ALDS 9-6 and save their season. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. I thought it was gone, but I wasn’t sure. It was high enough and far enough, but would it stay fair? From my vantage point, I had a clear view down the third-base line and the ball was starting hook. If it stayed fair it would be the biggest postseason moment of Aaron Judge’s postseason career. If it went foul, it would be just another what-could-have-been moment in Judge’s postseason career.

“When the ball is in the air, it’s kind of silent,” Judge said. “You’ve got a lot of unknown.”

The ball clanged off the left-field foul pole, as high up the pole as any ball has ever been hit to left field at this version of Yankee Stadium. Three-run home run. Tie game.

“But then right when it hits the pole, I’m looking straight at my teammates,” Judge said, “all the guys that have been battling with me all year long, battling for this moment.”

2. The moment was Judge’s. It was the kind of moment Yankees fans have waited for him to have, praying he would have it each time he has stepped to the plate in this postseason and past postseasons in big spots. The kind of moment I thought he would have this postseason when I wrote this last week:

I truly think Judge will have his signature postseason if the Yankees’ season continues past Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. In past postseasons, Judge has looked lost from his first at-bat. He has only hit singles in this series, but he got one each off of Crochet, Chapman and Bello — three household names. He’s been on base four times in eight plate appearances and has only struck out twice against top-tier arms. If the monster hit doesn’t come for Judge in Game 3 and the Yankees are able to advance, the Blue Jays are in for a world of shit in the ALDS. For someone who has been as critical of Judge in the playoffs as anyone in the world, I really believe this postseason could be his 2009 Alex Rodriguez postseason.

3. The absurdity of the pitch — a 99.7-mph fastball more than a foot inside — being hit for a long home run is still hard to process. Louis Varland had just thrown a 100-mph fastball past Judge with ease on the pitch prior and was also ahead 0-2 in the count. But like Derek Jeter said after the game, Judge is the only person in the world capable of hitting that pitch for a home run.

“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.

4. Judge had the opportunity to change Game 1 and he struck out. In Game 2, the Yankees never had a chance because of how bad Max Fried was. In Game 3, Judge saved the Yankees’ season and possibly changed the series, considering it’s hard to believe the Blue Jays can be feeling too good about themselves right now without a traditional starter for Game 4 and having blown a five-run lead in an elimination game.

The home run capped a five-run come back for the Yankees, who trailed 6-1 in the third after Carlos Rodon provided his latest big-game, letdown effort. Rodon recorded one more out in the game (7) than earned runs allowed (6) as the Blue Jays put eight baserunners on against him in 2 1/3 innings. Rodon has now made six postseason starts for the Yankees and one has been good (Game 1 of the 2024 ALCS). Tuesday night was more of the same from Rodon in October against a good team: awful.

5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened the game with a two-run home run in the first for his third of the series. The Yankees answered in the bottom of the first with a run on an RBI single from Giancarlo Stanton after a Blue Jays error extended the inning. The Blue Jays put up a four-run third, and trailing 6-1, I started to think about how many innings I would give the Yankees offense to put a dent into the deficit before leaving Yankee Stadium for the last time in 2025.

The Yankees scored twice in the bottom of the third to make it 6-3 and Judge’s heroics came in the fourth to tie the game. The Yankees added two more in the fifth and one in the sixth to go to an eventual 9-6 win.

6. Judge deserves all of the credit and recognition for Game 3 for saving the Yankees’ season, but the bullpen deserves the same. Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, Tim Hill, Devin Williams and David Bednar combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings of relief after Rodon pooped his pants in another postseason game. Outside of Luke Weaver and Will Warren (who isn’t a reliever), the bullpen has been exceptional in the postseason. Now that the Yankees have figured out Weaver is unusable, the level of trust in what was supposed to be the Yankees’ downfall has completely changed.

7. Aaron Boone had to press a lot of right buttons to navigate the game following Rodon’s failed start, and the only wrong button he pressed all night was letting Rodon stay in with runners on second and third and Anthony Santander up in the third. Rodon had nothing, and sure enough, Santander plated both runs with a line-drive single. Once Boone got Rodon out of the game, he made a career-high five correct bullpen decisions. His move to pinch hit Amed Rosario for Ryan McMahon as early as he did in the third inning was also the right call even though it didn’t work out. The Yankees had the tying run at the plate at the time and trailing by three in an elimination game, it wasn’t certain they would get the tying run to the plate again. Outside of letting Rodon pitch as long as he did, Boone managed with the urgency one needs to manage with the season (and possibly his job) on the line and he was successful. The Boone Yankees are now 9-6 in elimination games and the Yankees as a whole kept their never-been-swept-in-the-ALDS streak alive.

8. The Yankees will face elimination against on Wednesday for the fourth time in eight days. It will be Cam Schlittler against a Blue Jays bullpen game, a day after the Blue Jays used all but two relievers to get through Game 4. The Yankees have a massive advantage on the mound, though it does come with its worries.

I don’t expect Schlittler to have anywhere need the kind of outing he had in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series because outings like that happen close to never in the postseason and also because the Red Sox suck and the Blue Jays don’t. Schlittler faced the Blue Jays in his second career start back on July 22 in Toronto and allowed two earned runs over five innings with a whole lot of traffic (10 baserunners). The next time he faced the Blue Jays on September 5 at Yankee Stadium, he got lit up. He didn’t make it through the second inning and allowed four earned runs and eight baserunners in 1 2/3 innings. In Schlittler’s 15-start career, the Blue Jays have given him the most trouble.

The Blue Jays handle high velocity and they don’t strike out and Schlittler throws high velocity and tries to get strikeouts. It’s not a good matchup for him, but a bullpen game against the Yankees isn’t a good matchup for the Blue Jays. The Yankees need Schlittler to go out there and have a normal start in terms of innings, as in five-plus innings. They can’t have what Max Fried gave them in Game 1 or what Rodon gave them in Game 2, which was 5 1/3 innings and 13 earned runs from their two highly-paid lefties. Schlittler needs to go out and return the rotation and starting pitching in the postseason to normalcy have three straight bad starts from Luis Gil, Fried and Rodon.

9. I have to think John Schneider will use a lefty to serve as either the opener or bulk reliever in Game 4. He wants to make Boone have to make decisions on playing his lefty bats and when to go to his bench. The Blue Jays bullpen had to get 16 outs in Game 3 and the Yankees have now seen and gotten to their two biggest non-closer arms in Mason Fluharty and Louis Varland. The Blue Jays went into this season with their bullpen as their weakest facet and now its fatigued and has been exposed. The only Blue Jays relievers to not pitch in Game 3 were Seranthony Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman and I wouldn’t be worried about the Yankees facing either.

If the offense shows up on Wednesday like it did on Tuesday then Schlittler won’t need to come close to the version of himself he was against the Red Sox. Judge finally broke through. Maybe Chisholm finally broke through with his go-ahead home run. Now it’s time for Stanton, Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham to do the same.

10. “Tonight was special, but there’s still more work to be done,” Judge said. “Hopefully we have some more cool moments like this the rest of the postseason.”

How long the rest of the postseason lasts for the Yankees will be determined on Wednesday. I expected the Yankees to win Game 3, and I expect them to win Game 4. I expect the Yankees’ season to survive a fourth elimination game and I expect there to be a Game 5 on Friday.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Oct 6, 2025

Yankees ALDS Game 2 Thoughts: Back to the Brink of Elimination

The Yankees lost 13-7 in Game 2 of the ALDS and are a loss away from their season ending. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. After a 68-hour break from being on the brink of elimination, on Sunday afternoon, the Yankees returned to where they spent last Wednesday and Thursday: a loss away from their season ending.

So much for winning this series in four games with a starting pitching edge in Games 2 through 5. The only way for the Yankees to survive the ALDS and the Blue Jays and advance to the ALCS for the third time in four years is to win three straight games against a team they are 5-10 against this season.

2. Game 2 was over quickly. The Blue Jays led 2-0 in the second, 5-0 in the third and 11-0 in the fourth. The final six innings of the game were a formality and the seven runs the Yankees scored in the sixth and seventh innings were as meaningful as Luke Weaver finishing the season with six straight scoreless appearances against the Twins, Orioles and White Sox. The Yankees scored seven runs against the back end of the Blue Jays bullpen. It doesn’t mean the Yankees finally woke up in the series. It doesn’t set them up to explode in Game 3. It means nothing and won’t serve as some kind of momentous connection to Game 3 on Tuesday. Momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher and the Yankees don’t hit postseason starting pitching unless the opposition’s defense helps them out.

3. Trey Yesavage did to the Yankees what Cam Schlittler did to the Red Sox. In fact, Yesavage’s start was more impressive than Schlittler’s. Schlittler faced an anemic, banged-up, two-hitter lineup, while Yesavage faced the Yankees at full strength. Schlittler had 12 strikeouts over eight innings. Yesavage had 11 strikeouts in 5 1/3 no-hit innings. The Blue Jays pulled him in the sixth because the game was out of hand and there was nothing to gain by having him continue to waste pitches in a blowout or he likely would have struck out 15-plus.

It was Yesavage’s fourth major-league start and in his other three starts (two against the Rays and one against the Royals) he had traffic against him throughout each of them. But not against the Yankees on a postseason stage. Not against a group of left-handers who swung at his splitter like they were blindfolded, the same way they swung and missed at Kevin Gausman’s splitter the day before. It was a putrid performance from the offense.

4. Max Fried matched the offense’s putridness. The starting pitcher with the 5.10 career postseason ERA the Yankees gave $218 million to pooped his pants on the Rogers Centre mound, allowing seven earned runs and 10 baserunners in three innings. He couldn’t retire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Ernie Clement or even the only left-handed bat in the lineup in Daulton Varsho. When Fried was mercifully pulled from the game after the third inning, Will Warren did his best Fried impression by allowing six earned runs of his own over 4 2/3 innings, including four home runs.

5. The Blue Jays went into this series without Bo Bichette, Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios and hold a 2-0 lead and have outscored the Yankees 23-8 and 11-1 while both teams were still managing, playing and operating as they would in a normal game setting. All of the Yankees’ offensive stats over the final 3 2/3 innings of Game 2 can be disregarded.

The trio of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton failed to do anything meaningful again. Well, unless, you consider Judge misplaying a double into a triple in the second inning or the three of them padding their stats in the late innings when the game was already over to be meaningful. While Guerrero Jr. and company were teeing off on Fried and Warren, the Yankees’ Big 3 continued to swing and miss and hit singles.

The Red Sox’ few great players lived up to expectations in the three-game series (Garrett Crochet, Trevor Story, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman) and through two games the Blue Jays’ best players have done the same. Through five postseason games, the only Yankees to live up to expectation were Fried in his start against the Red Sox (which has since been negated by his start in the ALDS) and Cam Schlittler. No Yankees bat has been consistent and I don’t want to hear that Judge is hitting .444 with a 1.024. Could there be a more empty .444 batting average and 1.024 OPS in the postseason?

6. The narrative the Yankees are running out of time to win with Judge is now circulating as the Yankees are a loss away from watching their season end and it’s sickening. The Yankees haven’t won in the postseason in Judge’s career because of Judge! He has driven in two runs in the playoffs: the first was an incorrectly-scored base hit and RBI that Jarren Duran dropped and the second was a single on Sunday with the Yankees trailing by 11 runs in the seventh inning. How about Judge does what Story did in the Wild Card Series, or what Guerrero Jr. has done in the ALDS? How about he does something, anything at the plate to drive in a run that doesn’t fall out of a fielder’s glove or isn’t when the score is a double-digit difference.

7. The Aaron Boone era has been a collection of postseason disasters.

2018: Lose both home games in the ALDS, including the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history in Game 4.

2019: Lose four of the last five games in the ALCS and get walked off on by Jose Altuve.

2020: The Deivi Garcia/J.A. Happ debacle.

2021: Embarrassed at Fenway Park in the wild-card game.

2022: Swept by the Astros after Boone uses video of the 2024 ALCS as a motivation tactic.

2023: Missed postseason.

2024: Nestor Cortes vs. Freddie Freeman and the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series.

2025: 23 runs allowed in first two games of the ALDS.

Every postseason elimination has come with humiliation for the Boone Yankees and while the results of the first two games of this series aren’t on him at all, they still happened during his tenure. His Yankees lost 10-1 after he called out Buck Martinez for calling out his Yankees when he didn’t need to. His Yankees allowed 13 runs and were no-hit until the Blue Jays had enough bullying the Yankees after he said he expects his team to show up and play well in Game 2. How about he keeps his mouth shut before Game 3, but that wouldn’t be very Boone Yankees-like if he did.

8. The Boone Yankees have set preposterous franchise records, ranging from the most lopsided home postseason loss in franchise history (Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS) to allowing double-digit runs in back-to-back postseason games for the first time in franchise history. After seven failed attempts to win a championship as Yankees manager, Boone is now a loss away from an eighth. With each passing year, Boone’s record for most seasons managing the Yankees before winning a championship grows closer to Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak in terms of how likely it is to ever be broken.

9. The Yankees will return home for Tuesday’s Game 3 and will play for their season for the third time in their last five games. The Yankees at home against the Blue Jays are a much different team than the Yankees in Toronto against the Blue Jays. The Yankees won four of six at home against the Blue Jays this season, while they have lost eight of nine in Toronto. I expect the Yankees to send this series back to Toronto solely because they are home and have the starting pitching advantage in Games 3 and 4.

10. If the Yankees’ season ends in this series, you will hear about how great a year they had winning 94 games and tied for the best record in baseball. You won’t hear about how they went 9-17 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays and blew an eight-game lead over the Blue Jays and how if they had won the division, then Games 1 and 2 of this series would have been at Yankee Stadium. You will hear from Boone about how sweet it will be once they finally win it all and you will hear Brian Cashman refer to the postseason as a crapshoot, a phrase the organization didn’t use when they used to win. It wasn’t until the Yankees stopped winning that the playoffs became the result of randomness with no skill or ability needed to succeed. It’s hard to believe anyone could believe postseason success is tied to chance or luck when the reason the Yankees are eliminated every year is the same. I guess the organization has just been unlucky for the last 15 years (going on 16) and in 23 of the last 24 years (going on 25) and the Boone Yankees have just been unlucky the entire time.

Maybe the Boone Yankees will get lucky and erase an 0-2 ALDS deficit like the Joe Torre and Joe Girardi Yankees did. Maybe their highest-paid players will act and play like it for the remainder of this series. If not, the Yankees can run it back next year with the same manager and roster and issues and see if the same manager and roster and issues can finally get lucky and win it all.