1. Seven weeks from today it will all be over. The pain that is the 2023 Yankees season will have ended.
Seven weeks from today will be the the off-day between the end of the regular season the start of the postseason. For the Yankees, it will be the first day of the offseason.
2. In a format in which 40 percent of the league reaches the playoffs, the Yankees will be part of the other 60 percent. Nearly $300 million of payroll spent on the highest-paid team in the American League won’t get them even one extra inning past Game 162. The combination of a poorly constructed roster, in-over-his-head manager, arrogant front office and bewildered ownership proved to be too much for the team to reach the expanded postseason.
3. The next point of humiliation will be finishing in last place, and coinciding with that will be the end of the consecutive-season winning streak dating back to 1993. If you’re a Yankees fan, at this point, your main rooting interest should be for that last place finish and for that winning season streak to end. Only then can real, meaningful change begin to take place within the organization that is the only one of the five teams in the AL East headed in a dark direction.
4. The Yankees are now 20-25 since Hal Steinbrenner publicly said he was confused why Yankees fans are upset this season. They are 8-1 against the A’s and Royals and 52-57 against all other teams. They haven’t won a series against any team other than the A’s or Royals since June 23-25. They are 104-106 since July 2 of last year. They aren’t even an average team over a now-210-game sample size. They are a below-average team, and unless they completely bottom out (which they are on track to do), they would be not only comfortable, but confident in running it back with the same roster, dugout and front office in 2024 as they did in 2023 and 2022 and 2021 and 2020.
Sunday’s loss wasn’t just agonizing and excruciating, it was disturbing. For the Yankees to hold a five-run lead with five outs to go over an offense even weaker than their own with no threat of the long ball hurting them was completely inexcusable. Sunday was it for me. It was the official end to the Yankees’ season.
5. It would be in Yankees fans’ best interest for the team they root for to get humiliated between now and Sunday. Root for them to get their asses kicked in Atlanta over the next three nights (which shouldn’t be hard) and then have the Red Sox come into their building and embarrass them over the weekend (which happens so often it should be expected). The faster the Yankees’ 6.1 percent chance of reaching the playoffs gets to 0, the better off Yankees fans will be. Though, it might as well be 0 now. The Yankees are five games back of the third and final wild-card spot. They have to jump the Red Sox then the Mariners and then finally overtake the Blue Jays to claim that spot.
6. “We’ve gotta move on,” Aaron Boone said after the horrific loss. “We have to.”
Boone talked about how he wasn’t going to load the bases in the ninth because he didn’t want to bring the “walk into play” while disregarding the fact it would bring a forceout at any base into play. But it didn’t matter because Tommy Kahnle had another outing in which he only threw changeups, negating the entire idea of a “changeup,” and couldn’t find the strike zone let alone get a ground ball.
7. As for Clay Holmes, I will never forgive him or trust him following Sunday’s outing. Not because it ruined the Yankees’ season since it was already ruined, but because no real closer should be capable of that kind of outing. Five runs allowed while getting one out? Not even Albert Abreu nor Nick Ramirez would have allowed that kind of damage in the ninth. They might have given up a pair of runs, but they would have held the lead. Holmes has had many games like Sunday’s. He can’t be trusted. Ever. Someone who just grips the baseball with a sinker grip and then throws the ball as hard as they can without knowing where it’s going shouldn’t be “closing” games for a major-league team.
8. The idea there are 44 games left in this miserable season is almost unbelievable. Many of them will be played without any meaning, and you could argue those games have already started taking place. But once the math says they truly have no meaning, maybe then Yankees fans will be able to watch players who may have a future with the team play, like we saw seven years ago.
9. Seven years ago, the Yankees had a plan: trade all possible assets at the deadline for future pieces and give playing time to top prospects. This year, they have no plan. They stood pat at the trade deadline. They have have let top prospects rake in the minors rather than get their feet wet in the majors. They continue to let owed money dictate their decision making instead of actual production. They continue to operate like the joke they have become in recent years, rather than the winningest franchise in major sports history, which they still like to sell their product as.
10. “We don’t have a lot of time,” Boone admitted after the season-ending defeat. It was the first time he ever hinted at the idea he does understand how the calendar and Major League Baseball schedule work and that there is a finite end date to the season, and the Yankees don’t just get to keep playing baseball until they hold a playoff berth.
“It’s early” turned into “We’ll get it rolling” and that turned into “It’s all in front of us” and now we’re at “We don’t have a lot of time.” You know what’s next. It’s the letter next to the Yankees’ name in the standings denoting they have been eliminated from the postseason. The sooner it gets here the better.
The Yankees went to Chicago to play the White Sox, who traded away everyday players and parts of their rotation at the deadline, are dealing with reports and confirmations of those reports of clubhouse turmoil
The Yankees went to Chicago to play the White Sox, who traded away everyday players and parts of their rotation at the deadline, are dealing with reports and confirmations of those reports of clubhouse turmoil and have the fourth-worst record in the majors, and the Yankees lost two of three.
1. If you hadn’t given up on the Yankees’ season prior to the three-game series in Chicago and you stuck around to watch the three games in Chicago, I feel sorry for you. I watched the three games in Chicago and I feel sorry for myself. The Yankees lost yet another series, lost both series this season to the White Sox (who have the fourth-worst record in baseball) and continue to run in place in the standings as games come off the schedule.
The Yankees are four games out of the loss column to the third wild-card Blue Jays with 47 games left to play. If they had done what they were supposed to do in Chicago and swept the nothing-to-play-for White Sox then they would only be two out in the loss column on the Blue Jays. It was the latest missed opportunity in what has been a season full of missed opportunities.
2. The Yankees decided not starting Luis Severino would give them the best chance to win on Wednesday night against the White Sox, so they chose to use Ian Hamilton to “open” the game before turning the ball over to Severino. Hamilton pitched a scoreless first inning on just 10 pitches. After being so effective against the top of the White Sox’ order and throwing so few pitches, why didn’t he go back out for the second inning?
“I wanted to keep Hamilton potentially in play for the first game in Miami,” Aaron Boone said. “So the plan was we were going to go one inning no matter what with him.”
It’s mid-August, the Yankees are holding on to single-digit odds of reaching the playoffs and Boone is still managing for tomorrow. How that is possible I don’t know, but it seems as though Boone will manage for the next game up until there are no games left. As of today, there is a 90.8 percent chance there won’t be any more games after Game 162 of the regular season.
3. Boone had a plan before the game and he wasn’t going to go stray from it no matter what. Even if Hamilton had thrown three pitches in the first inning, he was going to come out, so throwing only 10 had no bearing on the decision. When Boone concocts a pregame plan in his head, he’s going to follow through on it no matter what takes place in the actual game. That’s how you get CC Sabathia facing the entire Red Sox’ lineup a second time in Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS because Boone liked the matchup of Sabathia against the Red Sox’ 9-hitter Jackie Bradley. It’s how you get JA Happ coming out of the bullpen in relief of Deivi Garcia in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS.
Let’s say Boone did deviate from his plan and Hamilton went out and threw a second scoreless inning needing not many pitches to do so. What would have happened then? Boone would have gone to Severino. He was going to Severino no matter what transpired in the opening inning or innings in the game.
“No,” Boone said when asked if there was consideration to give Hamilton a second inning. “Because we were going with Sevy today. I’m still going to Sevy whether it’s (the second )or third inning.”
If (though more like when at this point) the Yankees don’t make the playoffs in a season in which they have the highest payroll in the American League in a format in which 40 percent of the league makes the playoffs, Boone has to be let go. He should have been let go after 2021, but instead he was extended. He should have been let go after last season as a result of the last three months and October play from his team and his use of 2004 ALCS highlights as a motivational tactic, but he wasn’t. Maybe on Friday before the weekend series opener against the Marlins, he can set up a team viewing party of Games 4, 5 and 6 of the 2003 World Series.
4. This season and the mess the Yankees find themselves in roster-wise for not just 2023 but beyond isn’t on Boone. It’s on Brian Cashman. But Cashman has a lifetime contract, and isn’t going anywhere. Someone has to pay for this season and it will be Boone, as Bob Klapisch reported earlier this week and went on The Michael Kay Show to discuss what his Yankees source told him. Klapisch has been around a long time, so that source is likely part of ownership (if not Cashman himself).
“It’s not survivable for any Yankees manager to finish last,” Klapisch told Kay. “I think that he will be gone if the Yankees finish last or next to last.”
Boone isn’t the problem, but he’s part of it. He’s certainly not part of the solution.
“You have to be able to exert pressure on your players and say this is not good enough and in that respect Boone is lacking,” Klapisch said. “He has not been the right kind of manager for this particular team in this particular season. The Yankees need more from him and he hasn’t provided it.”
Boone has never been the right manager for any Yankees team. In past seasons, his regular-season “success” and seemingly great regular-season record is a product of the time he managed in.
In 2018, there were five 90-loss teams and three 100-loss teams in the American League, including the 115-loss Orioles, who the Yankees played 19 times.
In 2019, there were five 90-loss teams and three 100-loss teams in the AL, including the 108-loss Orioles the Yankees played 19 times.
In 2021, there were two 100-loss teams in AL, including the 110-loss Orioles the Yankees played 19 times.
In 2022, there were four 90-loss teams and one 100-loss team in the AL.
This season, with balanced scheduling, less divisional games, the Orioles and Blue Jays going from 100-plus-loss teams in Boone’s first season to now being better than the Yankees, and just three teams on pace for 90 losses, the Yankees are no longer able to pad their win total and Boone’s resume with a top-heavy league.
5. “You go into that clubhouse and you just don’t get the sense that winning or losing on a day-by-day basis has the same emotional impact (as it used to) on the players,” Klapisch said. “I don’t sense the great urgency that ‘Man we have to do something now.’ I haven’t gotten that sense from the Yankees this year.”
There hasn’t been a loss all season in which the Yankees sounded upset with their play or worried by their place in the standings. Anthony Rizzo recently talked about how the Yankees would be OK. Carlos Rodon used Boone’s line “It’s all in front of us.” Harrison Bader simply responded, “No,” when asked if he was concerned about the Yankees being as far out a playoff spot as they are. Gerrit Cole spoke metaphorically about how “All mountains are different sizes” when asked about the Yankees’ tall task of erasing such a large deficit with less than one-third of the season remaining.
“He wants everyone to feel OK,” Klapisch said of Boone. “‘Look let’s put it behind us and we’ll come back tomorrow.’ Eventually you run out of tomorrows.”
The Yankees are running out of tomorrows. They are fortunate the Blue Jays lost while they were off on Thursday. But with the offense as bad as it is, and the rotation being a series of unknowns after Cole, it seems improbable for the Yankees to stack wins together and go on the type of winning streak or run needed to erase their standings deficit. They are running out of time, just like they are running out of answers on how to get their veterans players to start hitting and what to do with Severino.
Boone and the Yankees thought using an opener would trick Severino’s fastball into having better command the same way they thought letting Anthony Rizzo play through “fogginess” symptoms would cure his post-concussion syndrome. For some reason letting Severino pitch a few minutes later than normally scheduled didn’t magically fix his fastball command. I don’t know how that didn’t work.
6. Severino got beat up for four runs in two innings and then Boone let Kenyan Middleton go two innings against his former team and give up a run. Trailing by four runs, Boone then had an epiphany that the game was in fact important and turned to ‘A’ reliever Wandy Peralta. Remember all the games throughout the season the Yankees lost leads in because Boone wouldn’t go to Peralta or other ‘A’ relievers on the team? It turns out those games were in fact important. Who could have known that all 162 games in the season hold equal value, and games in April and May are as meaningful as games in August and September? Because of Boone’s inability to treat games with equal value, he now finds himself needing to use Peralta with a four-run deficit because the Yankees can’t afford any more losses.
Peralta gave the Yankees 1 2/3 scoreless innings, and in that time, the Yankees turned a four-run deficit into a three-run deficit. They only had six outs left to play with to erase a three-run deficit, and while unlikely, there was a chance it could be done against a shitty White Sox bullpen. Boone made sure it couldn’t be done.
7. After determining the game was important enough to use Peralta with a four-run deficit, it wasn’t important enough to use Tommy Kahnle or Clay Holmes with a three-run deficit. Instead of going to either of those two he went to the dynamic duo of Albert Abreu and Nick Ramirez. Abreu loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and Ramirez made sure they were cleared with a double from barely-still-in-the-league Elvis Andrus to improve his barely-over-.600 OPS.
Ramirez has been given the Oswaldo Cabrera treatment this season. He’s not any good, and yet, when he gets sent down, he immediately gets called back up because of an injury despite not deserving it. As for Abreu, he has managed to be on the team all season since Opening Day. Another notch on the belt of Cashman and his spectacular roster management in 2023.
8. The Yankees’ offense is a disgrace and their rotation is littered with injuries, ineffectiveness and a scumbag. Their bullpen is their one actual strength, and they would rather keep it in the garage to show off and talk about rather than use. The Yankees need to optimize every little detail of each game they can to have a chance to win and Boone is incapable of it after six years as manager. The Yankees need all aspects of their roster to be at their best at all times, and considering the “best” they can hope for offensively each game is three runs, they need their manager to put all players in the best possible position to succeed. That means using ‘A’ relieves in non-traditional settings at this point in the season. That means using Anthony Volpe as a pinch hitter for Oswaldo Cabrera or Kyle Higashioka with the bases loaded and not with the bases empty.
9. If you remember when the Yankees took two of three from the Rangers in the Bronx from June 23-25 then you remember the last time the Yankees won a series against a team not named the A’s or Royals. Today marks the seven-week anniversary of the start of that series. Seven weeks without winning a series against a team other than the historically awful A’s or Royals. That should tell you all you need to know about the 2023 Yankees. Happy Anniversary!
10. The Yankees will now play a season-defining nine-game stretch against the Marlins, Braves and Red Sox. If they aren’t buried by the Marlins’ pitching staff, humiliated by the Braves’ offense or embarrassed again by the Red Sox then they may still have a chance to turn their season around with what will be 38 games left once this stretch ends.
I have no expectation they will be doing anything other than playing out September as a mere formality, but if they really believe the lies their manager tells that the season is still “in front of them,” well, this it. Survive these nine games and they will have a chance. Otherwise, their season will be over and they will have a new manager next season. (And if they miss the playoffs and don’t have a new manager, I will no longer be a fan.)
The Yankees’ 7-1 win over the White Sox on Tuesday coupled with a Blue Jays loss brought the Yankees back to win 4 1/2 games of the final postseason spot.
The Yankees’ 7-1 win over the White Sox on Tuesday coupled with a Blue Jays loss brought the Yankees back to win 4 1/2 games of the final postseason spot. The Yankees’ win over the White Sox was just their second in five games this season.
1. After stranding 57 baserunners over their previous two games, the Yankees finally drove in runners in scoring position on Tuesday in a 7-1 win over the White Sox. It was the kind of offensive performance you should be able to expect from a Yankees lineup that has the names and payroll it has, but it’s the kind of offensive performance they provide once every few weeks.
2. When Touki Toussaint recorded his first five outs of the game on strikeouts, I had a feeling the game was going to play out the way many games have played out for the Yankees over the last year-plus, in which their starter gives them a winnable effort, but the offense no-shows. Like the game they lost the night before.
3. Through three innings, Toussaint allowed a walk and a single, and it wasn’t until there was one away in the fourth that the Yankees’ offense showed up. Giancarlo Stanton and Billy McKinney produced back-to-back singles, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa drove a two-run double to left-center field. Harrison Bader followed that double with an RBI single, and the Yankees had a 3-0 lead, and after back-to-back walks from Anthony Volpe and Ben Rortvedt, Jake Bauers lofted a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Those four runs were more than any Yankees fan expects on a given night, and they were more than enough for Clarke Schmidt, who was really good once again: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.
4. Schmidt pitched worse than Luis Severino in his first four starts this season (8.79 ERA), and like Domingo German in his next five (4.91). After getting beat up by the Rays on May 14, Schmidt had a 6.30 ERA and the Yankees had lost of six of his nine starts. Now over his last 14 starts (and one relief appearance right before the All-Star break), Schmidt has a 3.12 ERA and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of those 14 starts. The Yankees are only 8-6 over that time because in those six losses, the offense scored 1, 0, 2, 2, 2 and 2 runs.
On a roster that has Severino, Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes, Schmidt is the Yankees’ second-best starter. In a season marred by disappointment, Schmidt is one of three truly bright spots (along with Cole and Aaron Judge).
5. The Yankees improved to 48-13 when they score four-plus runs. That’s all they need to win: four runs. FOUR! And yet, it’s an arduous task for a lineup full of underachievers that has only scored more runs than the White Sox, Guardians, Tigers, Royals and A’s in the AL this season.
Kyle Higashioka provided two runs of insurance with a two-run, pinch-hit bomb in the eighth, and two batters later, Judge ended his eight-game homer-less streak with a solo home run. Both home run came off the left-handed Tanner Banks, who was oddly allowed to pitch two innings against nearly all righties.
6. Higashioka hits lefties (.728 OPS) way better than he hits righties (.630 OPS), but not to the level of a platoon split that Bader has. Bader has an absurd 1.224 OPS against left-handed pitching and an unplayable .584 OPS against right-handed pitching. He has 136 more plate appearances against righties (190) then lefties (54) because there’s a lot more right-handed pitchers than left-handed pitchers. Another reason why the Yankees should move on from him after the season and refrain from giving him a multi-year deal in free agency.
7. The Yankees’ easy handling of the White Sox is how it should look when a supposed “championship-caliber team” plays the fourth-worst team in the majors. The Yankees blew an enormous opportunity to go into Chicago and sweep three games from a horrible team when they lost on Monday night, but at least they won on Tuesday to keep alive the chance of winning the three-game series, which they desperately needed to do.
8. Taking two of three from the White Sox lies in the right arm of Severino who is setting every possible negative record imaginable in Yankees history with his season. In his last two starts, he has allowed 21 baserunners and 14 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings. Here are his 2023 numbers with his career numbers in parentheses.
9. Unfortunately, for Severino, he’s having this disastrous season as impending free agent. Unfortunately, for the Yankees, he’s having this season when they have needed him to be the Severino he’s always been when Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes were hurt and Domingo German was his inconsistent self. Now they need him to be the Severino he has always been with Rodon hurt again and German in rehab for alcohol abuse.
10. The Yankees can’t afford to have Severino be anything less than the best version of himself. They can’t afford for anyone on the roster to be that at 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot with 48 games left to play. They certainly can’t afford to have him allow a crooked number in the first inning on Wednesday night and then ask an offense that can’t be trusted anymore than Severino can to climb out of four-, five, or six-run hole.
The Yankees need Severino to be great again. Their season depends on it.
The Yankees arrived in Chicago desperately needing to stack wins. With three games against the majors’ fourth-worst team, the Yankees opened their series against the White Sox with another loss.
The Yankees arrived in Chicago desperately needing to stack wins. With three games against the majors’ fourth-worst team, the Yankees opened their series with the White Sox with another loss.
1. On Sunday, Carlos Rodon was removed from the Yankees’ eventual loss to the Astros with a hamstring injury. After giving up five runs in 2 2/3 innings Rodon was pulled when he couldn’t convince Aaron Boone and the training staff to let him continue.
“In this moment I feel normal,” Rodon said after Sunday’s game. “I feel confident that everything is OK … (Going on the injured list) is not what I’m thinking … In this moment I feel pretty confident that I should be able to pitch.”
In typical Rodon and Yankees fashion, he wasn’t “normal” and he’s not “able to pitch.” A day after making those claims, Rodon was placed on the IL with a hamstring strain.
2. It’s hard to like Rodon. I actually like both Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson more than Rodon. Rodon has made six starts in four-and-a-half months as a Yankee and has lost five of them. He has never completed six innings as a Yankee and hasn’t even been able to complete 4 2/3 innings in three of his six outings. Rodon hasn’t pitched because of various injuries, and when he has pitched he has sucked. Add in the nearly $800,000 he “earns” every five days whether he pitches or not and his kiss blowing in Anaheim, and I don’t know how anyone could like him. There’s also his cocky, arrogant quote from spring training when it was announced he would start the season on the IL.
3. “I’m not here to pitch until the All-Star break,” Rodon said on March 9. “I’m here to pitch well into October. If this was down the stretch, yeah, I would be going for sure. If it’s October 5 or the ALDS, I’m taking the ball.”
Well, it’s “down the stretch” and Rodon isn’t pitching because of a new and different injury. As for pitching on “October 5 or the ALDS” Rodon won’t have to worry about either of those because the Yankees won’t be playing baseball on October 5 and they certainly aren’t going to the ALDS. The last game of the regular season will be the last game of the Yankees’ season.
4. After losing to the White Sox 5-1 on Monday night in Chicago, the Yankees are now 5 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. The idea “It’s in front of us” like Boone keeps reiterating and Rodon echoed last week in talking to the media, is one more game in the standings from being untrue. The Yankees have six games remaining against the Blue Jays (who won again on Monday), the team they trail by 5 1/2 games. Once the Yankees’ deficit to the Blue Jays is higher than the amount of games left between the two teams, the Yankees will no longer control their own destiny. That could happen as early as Tuesday night.
5. After Sunday’s loss to the Astros, Harrison Bader gave the most tone-deaf postgame interview imaginable. Asked if the Yankees missed an opportunity to win a four-game series against the Astros, he said, “Actually, I feel the complete opposite.” Asked if he’s concerned with how many games the Yankees are out from a playoff spot, he said, “No concern at all.” One day and one game later, the Yankees are another game out of a playoff spot. I wonder if Bader is concerned now. I doubt it.
I doubt it because the manager still isn’t concerned. Well, he’s concerned, just not with wins and losses or the standings or if Giancarlo Stanton cares even a little bit about running the bases with even the smallest amount of effort. Boone is concerned with the umpires and balls and strikes.
6. Home plate umpire Laz Diaz was inconsistent on Monday in Chicago, and yet, the White Sox had no problem touching up likely Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole for four runs and Tommy Kahnle for a fifth. That didn’t stop Boone from performing the most ridiculous, outrageous, over-the-top tirade on the field in protest of Diaz’s strike zone. It made me uncomfortable to watch Boone give a dramatic, sarcastic impression of Diaz’s emphatic strikeout call, and it made me embarrassed to be a fan of a once-proud franchise that has resorted to blaming the umpires for losses.
7. “I heard Anthony’s was a strike maybe,” Boone sheepishly admitted after the game, implying Diaz was to ring Volpe up.
Not “maybe.” It was a strike. Every pitch in Volpe’s at-bat that sent Boone over the edge was in the zone. Yes, it’s Diaz’s fault the Yankees are 5 1/2 games out of the playoffs and 47-52 against teams not named the A’s or Royals. It’s Diaz’s fault the Yankees drew seven walks in the first four innings against Dylan Cease and didn’t score any of them. It’s Diaz’s fault the Yankees had one extra-base hit on Monday and loaded the bases three times in the game, scoring just one run. It can’t possibly be anyone employed by or playing for the Yankees’ fault that they lost another game, lost another game in the standings and lost another game to a team with nothing to play for.
8. The White Sox are an organizational mess, even more than the Yankees. They are 22 games under .500. A week ago they officially gave up and traded away important roster pieces at the deadline. Their starting catcher reportedly slapped their starting shortstop during this season. On Saturday, that starting shortstop ignited a bench-clearing brawl with the Guardians. On Sunday, newest Yankee Kenyan Middleton gave an interview in which he gave insight into the disfunction within the White Sox’ clubhouse, dugout and bullpen, and former White Sox and newest Dodger Lance Lynn confirmed Middleton’s claims on Monday. The White Sox have the fourth-worst record in Major League Baseball and are on pace to lose 97 games. And yet, the Yankees not only lost to them on Monday, but are 1-3 against them this season.
9. It was the Yankees’ second straight loss. They have lost six of nine and are back in the basement of the AL East. They need a lengthy winning streak to gain ground on the Blue Jays, and a three-game series against the White Sox was a perfect opportunity to begin that hypothetical winning streak. Instead, they wasted another Gerrit Cole start and stranded 13 baserunners.
This was supposed to be the “break” in the schedule sandwiched between having to play the Orioles, Rays, Astros and then the the Marlins, Braves and Red Sox. This was supposed to be when the Yankees started their late-season run to a postseason berth. It ended up just being another inexcusable loss in a long list of those types of losses. The Yankees are now 50-50 in their last 100 games and 99-101 in their last 200 games.
10. Boone has never been worried about the Yankees’ place in the standings. A week ago, it was Rodon who told the media he wasn’t nervous by the Yankees not holding a playoff spot. On Sunday, it was Bader who said he wasn’t concerned. On Monday, Cole took the baton.
“It’s doable,” Cole said when asked about being 5 1/2 games back with 49 games left to play. “Mountains are different sizes. The goal is just to get to the top.”
The Yankees now have a 10.7 percent chance of climbing the mountain and reaching the postseason. Don’t be surprised if the top of the mountain and the postseason get a little farther away after Tuesday’s game.
The Yankees had a chance to win a four-game series against the hated Astros, but they didn’t. They split the four games with the Astros, and are still searching for their first series win over a team not named the A’s or Royals since late June.
The Yankees had a chance to win a four-game series against the hated Astros, but they didn’t. They split the four games with the Astros, and are still searching for their first series win over a team not named the A’s or Royals since late June.
1. After play on Sunday, July 23, the Yankees were 53-47. They were 8 1/2 games out in the AL East and two games out of the final wild-card spot. They were about to play a crucial 12-game stretch against the Mets, Orioles, Rays and Astros to hopefully not just get themselves back into holding a wild-card berth, but also to get back in the division race. Coming off a three-game sweep of the Royals (their first series win in a month) and with the trade deadline taking place and the expected return of Aaron Judge during these 12 games, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic.
That 12-game stretch is over. Their 8 1/2-game deficit in the division is now 12 games. Their two-game deficit for the final wild card is now 4 1/2 games. After going 5-7, they are the farthest they have been out of a postseason spot this season. They didn’t win any of the four series. They split the two games with the Mets, lost two of three to the Orioles and Rays and then split four with the Astros. They are now 58-54 this season and 50-53 against teams not named the A’s or Royals.
2. The Yankees have become a laughingstock on the field with the highest payroll in the AL and only a higher run differential than the Guardians (four games under .500), Tigers (13 games under .500), White Sox (23 games under .500), Royals (on pace for 110 losses) and A’s (on pace for 117 losses). And they have become a laughingstock off the field with their roster management, handling of injuries and public relations nightmares. As I wrote last Monday, every single day the Yankees create at least one bizarre headline that borders on the unbelievable. Watching this team is like watching a cheesy, unrealistic soap opera in which the plot makes little to no sense.
3. To show how their daily, preposterous drama has played out in recent weeks, here’s a timeline of the last week.
Monday, July 31 Aaron Boone is asked about Anthony Rizzo’s prolonged slump dating back to May 21, and why he believes he will come out of it. “He’s Anthony Rizzo. He’s healthy,” Boone says.
After losing two of three to the Orioles over the weekend, the Yankees spend Trade Deadline Eve losing to the Rays. They score one run on three hits. Prior to the game, Domingo German is scratched from starting with a supposed “armpit” injury and Boons says he will be evaluated by a doctor. A little over hour after not throwing the first pitch of the game as the starter, German enters in relief and throws five scoreless innings.
Tuesday, August 1 The Yankees make a last-second deadline move to acquire Kenyan Middleton, just to say they did something before the deadline. They are the last team in the majors to make a deadline move. They are neither sellers nor buyers, keeping the status quo with a last-place team that doesn’t hold a playoff spot.
Willie Calhoun is designated for assignment after coming off the injured list. In Calhoun’s most recent game with the Yankees, he batted third, then after coming off the IL, he is designated for assignment with the entire league passing on him on waivers. None of the other 29 teams want a player the Yankees deem worthy of being their 3-hitter.
On the field, star free-agent Carlos Rodon gets lit up for four runs, two home runs and eight baserunners in four innings. Rodon, who was signed for six years and $162 million in the offseason, is outpitched by Zach Eflin, who throws six scoreless innings. Eflin was signed for three years and $40 million by the Rays in the offseason.
Wednesday, August 2 Boone teases a “major announcement” involving the rotation. That announcement ends up being Domingo German going on the restricted list for alcohol abuse. The Wall Street Journal reports he was belligerent in the clubhouse on Tuesday, confronted Boone, argued with teammates, smashed a TV and had to be restrained in the sauna in the clubhouse. Brian Cashman says German won’t pitch for the Yankees again this season.
Luis Severino is asked if he’s starting on Friday, and says he “thinks he’s starting on Friday” and tells the media, “If you guys know something, let me know.” How could he not know or be told if he is starting in 48 hours? How could he be asking the media for the team’s planned rotation? Then again, how did he not know what time Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS started? Good thing Boone was hired for unrivaled communication skills. The same skills Gerrit Cole cites Boone as having in his in-game interview with FOX the following night.
Thursday, August 3 It turns out Rizzo isn’t “healthy” like Boone said not even 72 hours prior. Rizzo is placed on the IL with post-concussion syndrome dating back to a May 28 collision at first base. At best, Rizzo and the Yankees are lying about the injury and symptoms to put him on the IL. At worst, they just let a player play baseball every day at the highest level for more than two months with a brain injury.
Rizzo complained about “fogginess” over the past weekend series against the Orioles and then played in all three games of the series. Boone is asked if there was any consideration in not playing Rizzo after the first baseman complained of “fogginess.” Boone responds, “No.”
Friday, August 4 After beating the Rays on Wednesday and Astros on Thursday, the Yankees lose to the Astros 7-3. The loss is made possible by Severino keeping his rotation spot and allowing three first-inning runs and five runs in four innings. Boone is asked about Severino remaining in the rotation and answers, “Everything is on the table moving forward,” which is the same answer he gave when asked the same question five days earlier after Severino bombed in the first inning in Baltimore.
Saturday, August 5 Giancarlo Stanton elects to not run (or even jog) from second base to home plate on a single to right field and is thrown out at the plate on what would have given the Yankees a lead in a game they are facing Justin Verlander in. Boone defends Stanton not running on the play, calls him “healthy” and says, “It’s just him trying to preserve himself.” (Preserving himself for what? His ridiculously absurd offseason workout routines he posts on social media?)
Sunday, August 6 Trying to win their first series against a team not named the A’s or Royals since June 23-25, Rodon is torched for two home runs and five runs in 2 2/3 innings and then is forced to leave the game with a hamstring injury. It’s his fifth loss in six starts as a Yankee, having never completed six innings for the team so far.
4. This is just the last week of Yankees drama. In the two weeks prior to this timeline, the Yankees fired their hitting coach and hired Boone’s longtime, experience-less friend in his place; lost two of three to the last-place Rockies; got swept in Anaheim with Rodon blowing a kiss to heckling fans and announced Jose Trevino would undergo season-ending wrist surgery after having played since spring training with a wrist tear. And oh yeah, six days prior to the Trevino announcement, Boone said Trevino was OK physically aside from the usual bang-ups a catcher deals with during the season. Ah, the usual bang-ups like tearing your wrist in spring training and then posting a .570 OPS through mid-July before being shut down.
Every other major-league team plays a game each day and occasionally has an injury, trade or signing announcement. Not the Yankees. Each day of the Yankees season is full of lies, hidden injuries, misdiagnosed health problems, underachieving play, confrontations with fans and really just an overall negative shitstorm surrounding a lost season. And nearly half the days also include a loss on the field.
5. The Rizzo situation is completely unsurprising. This is the same organization and medical staff that after 2019 couldn’t diagnose a broken rib and punctured lung in Judge for six months. The same organization Severino told he had forearm pain to in October 2019 and then nothing was done about it until he tore his UCL and needed Tommy John surgery in 2020 spring training. The same organization and medical staff who didn’t do an MRI on Severino in June 2019 when he was returning and then suffered a setback, for which Cashman said if the Yankees could do it all over again, they would have had Severino undergo an MRI. Misdiagnosing is what the Yankees are better at than any other team. They used to be better at winning any other team, but that hasn’t been the case for a while now, and doesn’t look like it will be the case for a while.
6. If you ask ownership and the front office, they will tell you this is a “championship-caliber roster.” Last Tuesday after the trade deadline, Cashman said, “Obviously, we’re in it to win it. So you know, we stayed the course.” They really still believe it, and likely believe it at this moment coming off a 5-7 stretch against the Mets, Orioles, Rays and Astros. They believe it even though they’re 8-1 against the A’s and Royals and 50-53 against all other teams.
The manager believes it. He keeps saying “It’s in front of us” even as the games keep coming off the schedule and they keep losing ground on a postseason berth. The players believe it. Rodon said, “It’s all in front of us,” last Tuesday as if he were doing a Boone impression. And no one believes it more than Harrison Bader, who if I didn’t know any better was auditioning for a future managerial role with the Yankees after Sunday’s loss to the Astros. This is the exchange Bader had with the media on Sunday afternoon.
7. Do you think this was a lost opportunity to take the series from the Astros?
“Actually, I feel like the complete opposite. I thought that for the first time in a long time, a really good game and a really good battle. There wasn’t a single time during that game regardless of what was happening on the other side where we felt like we were out of it. All you can do after nine innings is ask yourself if there was ever a swing or a situation where you put yourself in a position to win the game and obviously the way it came down there we did a great job of that battling back, so I think this is actually a really big momentum boost for us moving forward.”
How much of a concern is it being 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot, the highest it’s been all year?
“No concern at all. One game at a time. We keep playing this brand of baseball it’s going to be just fine. Like I said, all you can do is put yourself in a position to win and what’s what we did, which feels really good moving forward.“
Bader knows the Yankees lost, right? I mean he started and played all nine innings in Sunday’s loss. He had to know the final score, and yet, those answers make it seem like he has no idea.
But why wouldn’t Bader think everything is going to be “just fine?” Why wouldn’t he not be concerned about the team being 4 1/2 games out a playoff spot with a 16.2 percent chance of reaching the playoffs? Every day since he has become a Yankee a year ago, he has listened to his manager tell the media just that. When they couldn’t win a game last August or September and nearly blew a 15 1/2-game division lead. When they trailed the Astros 3-0 in the ALCS and he used highlights from the 2004 ALCS as a motivational tactic. Boone has created a clubhouse and culture that is comfortable with losing and Cashman let him create it and Hal Steinbrenner let Cashman let Boone create it.
8. As for the “momentum” Bader speaks of, well, momentum in baseball is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. Right now, outside of Cole, the Yankees’ starters consist of a pitcher who has lost five of six starts this season and is undergoing an MRI on Monday, a starter who has a 7.74 ERA and doesn’t know if he’s still in the rotation from start to start, a pitcher who is currently in rehab for alcohol abuse, a lefty who has pitched four innings since May 30 and Clarke Schmidt, who was nearly as bad as Severino earlier this season. Momentum doesn’t exist with the Yankees because their rotation is a complete unknown every four out of five days and their offense can disappear at any moment even with Judge (who no one knows if he will play from day to day). It’s why they haven’t won more than three games in a row since May.
The only way the Yankees are going to overcome their now extremely long postseason odds are if they stack wins and win more than three games in a row at a given time. They need a lengthy winning streak, and it’s just doesn’t seem possible with this rotation, with this roster.
9. Part of me still thinks the Yankees will reach the postseason, only to lose in the wild-card round or ALDS and then have the organization think the team simply reaching the playoffs was a success. That scenario would lead to no change within the roster, coaching staff or front office and it would be detrimental to the future success of the Yankees, just like reaching the one-game playoff in 2021 was or barely getting past blowing a 15 1/2-game division lead in 2022 was.
Then again, I’m not sure finishing in fourth or fifth place in the AL East and missing the postseason in a format in which 40 percent league makes the playoffs will lead to any change either. The Yankees haven’t been a true contender since 2019, and the front office continues to believe a two-month stretch from the end of April 2022 to the end of June 2022 is who they really are. They started using the Injury Excuse Tour back on May 4, and that was a month before Judge went down. They will likely turn to it once this season ends. It’s convenient and it prevents them from taking any responsibility for the embarrassment that is spending nearly $300 million on this roster.
10. It’s off to Chicago now for three games against the White Sox, who are 23 games under .500 and took part in a bench-clearing brawl in Cleveland on Saturday. Their season has been over for months, and it was over long before they took two of three from the Yankees in the Bronx back in May. They traded away important roster pieces at last week’s deadline and are counting down the games until this miserable season ends for them.
Anything less than a sweep over the next three nights is unacceptable, and yet, I have no expectation the Yankees will win the series let alone sweep it. If they lose one or more games against the White Sox, the Yankees won’t need Boone to tell everyone they will be fine. They have Bader for that.
