The Yankees played just a bad team and not a historically-bad team, so they lost. After sweeping the 29-73 Royals, the Yankees were blown out by the 46-53 Mets.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The weekend was enjoyable and easygoing because the Yankees played the Royals, a team on pace for 116 losses. The Royals can’t hit, they can’t pitch, they can’t field and they can’t run the bases, and all of their physical and mental mistakes led to a three-game series sweep for the Yankees. It was the Yankees’ first sweep since May 19-21 in Cincinnati, and it was their first series win since June 27-29 in Oakland.

2. It was also a mirage. The Royals aren’t just bad, they are historically bad and could very well challenge the worst 162-game record in modern baseball, just like the A’s. And just like the A’s, the Yankees are 8-1 against the Royals and A’s this season and 45-47 against all other teams. As satisfying as it was to see the Yankees not only win a series (something they hadn’t done in all of July), but sweep a series, it was nothing to get excited about given the opponent. And if you were foolishly excited about it, the Yankees, the real Yankees, returned on Tuesday in the first game of the Yankee Stadium portion of the Subway Series. The Yankees put together a disappointing effort in a 7-3 loss, losing to a Mets team that everyone beats.

3. The game got off to a poor start when Pete Alonso was able to bloop a two-out catchable ball into left-center to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. It was a ball that Harrison Bader rightfully took the blame for on the field. In the ninth inning, Bader booted a ball on a hop that led to another Mets run.

Like most of the roster, I’m sick of Bader and looking forward to when he’s no longer a Yankee, and that better be once this season ends. Extending or re-signing Bader would be a regrettable decision, just like the decision to extend Aaron Hicks was. And just like Hicks, Bader spent a large portion of his 20s on the injured list, so believing in him to stay healthy in his 30s is like believing in Albert Abreu to put up a zero in a high-leverage situation.

4. Bader spent his first two months of being a Yankee recovering from an injury before hitting .217/.245/.283 in 49 regular-season plate appearances in 2022. He went on to hit a bunch of postseason home runs, but also had the Yankees’ biggest blunder of the postseason when he dropped a fly ball in Game 3 of the ALCS that was immediately followed by a two-run home run. This season, he started the year on the injured list and didn’t debut until the 31st game of the season. He got hurt again on Memorial Day and didn’t return until June 20. During that time, he had a chance to come back for a crucial series at Fenway Park, but opted not to, citing his defense not being ready, so he stayed on his rehab assignment for two more games while the Yankees were swept in Boston.

If the wind blows the wrong way, Bader ends up out of the lineup or on the injured list. When he does play, he’s a good glove with a below-league-average bat. He’s hitting .249/.280/.420 in 2023, and is a .242/.273/.395 hitter as a Yankee. I was extremely worried about the Yankees adding another weak, right-handed bat when they traded for him and his 98 OPS+ with the Cardinals, but he’s been even worse as a Yankee than he was as a Cardinal with an 84 OPS+. Yes, give that guy a long-term deal!

5. In the third inning, the Yankees were still being shut out because Justin Verlander was pitching, and even if the rest of the league has hit around the reigning AL Cy Young winner this season, the Yankees haven’t, just like they never have. The Mets led 1-0, but after Domingo German quickly retired the first two batters of the third, another catchable bloop and a walk put two on with two outs for Pete Alonso, and he made it a 4-0 game. The Mets had built a four-run lead on two bloop hits that had expected batting averages of less than .050.

6. At that point the game was over. The Yankees couldn’t hit Chase Silseth, Austin Gomber and Chase Anderson recently. They weren’t about to hit Verlander. And if the Yankees were going to come back and win the game, they would need five runs to win it. If you’re a Yankees fan who turned the game off after Alonso’s three-run home run in the third inning, good for you as you saved your night and time. Me? I hung around and watched the Yankees get shut out for six innings by Verlander and then score three meaningless runs against a pitching staff that allowed 35 runs over its previous six games against the Red Sox and White Sox. I hung around, so I could write this and so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome.

7. The game never got better. It only got worse. In the sixth inning, Alonso hit his second home run of the game to Monument Park to give the Mets a 5-0 lead with all five runs driven in by Alonso. Alonso’s monopoly on driving in the Mets’ runs only lasted two pitches as Daniel Vogelbach, who has been the ire of every Mets fan this season, crushed a home run to right field to give the Mets a 6-0 lead and back-to-back home runs off German.

In German’s last start before the All-Star break, he dominated the Cubs for six innings, allowing just one hit — a solo home run — on 74 pitches. Aaron Boone removed him from that game after the sixth, and the Yankees’ bullpen blew a three-run lead. After the game, Boone said he “wanted to get Domingo out of there on a real high note heading into the second half.”

Like most concoctions in Boone’s brain, that one made no sense and has blown up magnificently. After German’s disastrous performance on Tuesday against the Mets, he has now allowed 11 runs in 12 innings since the All-Star break. A “high note,” indeed.

8. German sucked, but even if he was just bad and not unbelievably awful, the Yankees still would have lost. Through the first six innings, the Yankees had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. They were able to plate their first run because of a hit by pitch, plated their second because a four-pitch walk set up a sacrifice fly and their third came after a bloop of their own. They didn’t have good at-bats or battle or grind or do anything that Boone would lead you to believe they did. They got a few baserunners and scored a few meaningless runs late when the game was over against a horrific bullpen. That’s it. There were no “good things” that Boone likes to talk about the from the game because the Yankees didn’t do anything well in the game. Because there are no “good things” when you lose, especially when you lose when you’re the team doing the chasing in the playoff race.

9. The entire night was cringeworthy, and even more cringeworthy than watching the Yankees celebrate Anthony Rizzo’s short porch home run over the weekend as if it clinched a postseason series. In 17 games in July against teams not from Kansas City, the Yankees have been held to four runs or less in 11 of them. Losing at this point of the season when you don’t hold a playoff spot is bad enough, losing to the Mets in the fashion the Yankees did on Tuesday made it that much worse. 

10. I have zero confidence in Carlos Rodon pitching well on Wednesday night against the Mets because why would I? Rodon was outpitched by Jameson Taillon in his Yankees debut and then got lit up by the Rockies and Angels in his only three starts this season. He also showed he is as soft mentally as Bader is physically with his kiss blowing in Anaheim and that doesn’t bode well for him in an extremely important Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium. Even if the Rodon who the Yankees thought they were getting when they gave him a six-year, $162 million deal shows up on Wednesday, does any sensible Yankees fan think the offense is going to show up? If you think the Yankees offense is going to show up on Wednesday, you were likely one of the Yankees fans excited about the rest of the Yankees season after this weekend’s sweep of the Royals, and if you were excited about the rest of the Yankees season after they swept the Royals, I feel sorry for you.

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The Yankees were swept by the Angels in Anaheim and finished their six-game road trip with one win. They have lost four straight and nine of 11, are in last place in the AL East and four games out in the loss column of the last playoff spot.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The front office of the Yankees watched the second half of the 2022 season and postseason and determined Carlos Rodon was the missing piece to overcoming the Astros in the playoffs. They watched Aaron Judge single-handedly carry an offense that nearly blew a 15 1/2-game division lead and that scored nine runs total in the ALCS and decided, yes, one starting pitcher would close a four-win postseason gap, as if Rodon were going to be a left-handed, middle-of-the-order bat. So they gave Rodon six years and $160 million and ran it back with the same exact offense.

After giving Rodon generational wealth, Hal Steinbrenner proudly said the Yankees “weren’t done” in revamping their roster for 2023. He lied. They were done. They brought back Judge and signed Rodon and called it an offseason.

2. On March 9, it was announced Rodon would begin the season on the injured list. It was the least surprising news of all time as being injured is what Rodon has done best in his career. Since his rookie season in 2015, his starts by season had been 23, 28, 12, 20, 7, 2, 24, 31. Fortunately, for him, the most starts he ever made in a season came the year he was entering free agency, and even more fortunately for him, the team that makes the most money in the league foolishly wanted him.

That day, Rodon said, “I’m not here to pitch until the All-Star break. 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.” Rodon sounded like the perfect new addition to this cocky Yankees group that has never won anything, speaking with the assumption the Yankees would reach the postseason just because they are the Yankees. After Wednesday’s sweep at the hands of the Angels, the Yankees are now four games back in the loss column for the final playoff spot. Every postseason projection and oddsmaker says Rodon doesn’t have to worry about pitching in the postseason this year.

3. After missing half the season with various injuries, Rodon has now made three starts, and the Yankees have lost all three. He’s 0-3 with a 7.36 ERA. He has allowed 21 baserunners and four home runs in 14 2/3 innings. In the middle of his latest shitty outing in Anaheim, the Yankees fans in attendance got to him with their boos and Rodon responded by blowing them a kiss as he walked off the field into the dugout.

“A fan was angry as they should be,” Rodon said. “I was just angry at myself and blew a kiss, unfortunately.”

“I would like him not to do that,” Aaron Boone said about the kiss. “Not the reaction you want.”

I’m sure he will do just fine with the Yankee Stadium crowd when he has that kind of performance there.

Rodon is my least favorite current Yankee, based on salary and production, and he’s going to be here for a long time, as he’s owed $27,833,334 in 2024 and 2025 and 2026 and 2027 and 2028. For a pitcher who was injured for most of his 20s and one half of his first season in his 30s, I’m sure he will be healthy and available and productive through his age 35 season. I’m sure that contract won’t be a regrettable disaster.

4. With Rodon being my least favorite current Yankee, Anthony Rizzo owns the second spot. Thursday marks the two-month anniversary of his last home run, which came on May 20 against the Padres. It’s been a long time since John Sterling was able to shout “Nobody beats the Rizz!” because every pitcher beats the Rizz. Righties, lefties, rookies, veterans, All-Stars, long men, middle relievers, you name it and Rizzo can’t hit it.

His last home run came nine days before Memorial Day. The Fourth of July was more than two weeks ago. Maybe by Labor Day he will have finally hit one out. If not, I’m sure he will still find plenty to joke about in the dugout, as he was shown on YES smiling and laughing it up.

5. Maybe Rizzo was laughing at Franchy Cordero running the bases. Cordero got his first start since July 7 and second since the end of April, and he doubled in his first at-bat. A batter later, he erased his extra-base hit by trying to advance to third on a ground ball hit in front of him to the shortstop. The Yankees run into an out in that same situation at least once a week and seem to run into an out on the bases once a game. Their lack of fundamentals, discipline and preparedness combined with the amount of mental errors they produce is a direct result of their manager and coaching staff. There are no repercussions for having a low Baseball IQ on the Yankees because Boone would rather be liked by his players than do his job, which is to put his players in the baseball possible position to succeed and win games. Boone will tell you he liked the aggressiveness of Cordero on that play rather than admit it was a foolish mistake that can’t happen. The Yankees are a sloppy team and when you have one of the worst offenses in the league, you can’t afford to give away outs on the bases or give extra outs on defense, but the Yankees do it every game.

6. It had to feel extra good for Phil Nevin to sweep a series from the Yankees. Nevin had been part of Boone’s coaching staff, and even though the two had been friends since childhood, it didn’t stop Boone from letting Nevin get thrown under the bus a couple of seasons ago, fired and removed from his so-called friend’s staff.

7. If the Yankees fired Boone after Wednesday’s game and left him in his Southern California with his dad and brother, it would have been best the thing the organization has done since drafting Aaron Judge. I would have bought season tickets the moment the news broke and all Yankees fans would have rejoiced and been excited for the weekend series against the Royals. A move like that would completely change the perception of the team, which sucks, and the culture, which is a toxic mix of being comfortable with losing and having zero accountability. It would have sent a message that this is unacceptable, and with 40 percent of the season and the trade deadline still to come, that the front office was going to do everything possible to right the ship.

Instead, nothing happened. Because nothing will ever happen to Boone (or Cashman, who has a lifetime contract). The ship can’t be righted with Cashman at the helm and Boone as his first mate. The two are leading a boat that has been taking on water for years and each time they think they have plugged a hole, another pops up. At some point you need a new boat.

In terms of roster, as Boone says, “This is the group we have.” No rental bat or arm is going to save this team. The Yankees need to change out about two-thirds of the roster, and that’s not something that can be done in-season. That’s not something that can be done period for them because their roster is littered with mid-30s players on high-priced contracts. The championship window that was wide open when Boone was given the keys to a team that came within one win of the World Series is barely cracked open, if it’s not already shut.

8. The Yankees are now 94-95 in their last 189 games. An enormous sample size of games for one roster. This isn’t a slump or a “tough stretch” as Boone likes to call it. This is who they are. They are awful by Yankees standards and average by major-league standards. An average team with the highest payroll in the AL.

9. I ended the most recent Yankees Thoughts with this:

“We got a lot of pride in there,” Boone said. “You want to win and that’s why you show up every day.”

The Yankees have lost three straight. They have lost four of five to open the “second half.” They have lost eight of their last 10 and seven of their last 18. If they are showing up every day with the goal of “wanting to win” they may want to lower expectations. How about they show up on Wednesday with the goal of scoring more than one run against a pitcher with a 6.08 career ERA making his 17th career appearance. That would be a start.

Well, Chase Silseth in his 17th career game took his 6.08 career ERA and allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings against and struck out 10. Two nights after Griffin Canning struck out 12 Yankees, Silseth also punched out double-digit Yankees. Add Silseth and his 6.08 ERA to the long list of mediocre starters that have shut down the Yankees in the last two weeks: In the last two week alone, they have been shut down by Jack Flaherty (4.95 ERA entering his start against the Yankees), Dean Kremer (5.04), Jameson Taillon (6.93), Austin Gomber (6.40), Chase Anderson (6.89), Griffin Canning (4.62) and Patrick Sandoval (4.41).

10. “We’re not very good right now,” Boone said after the Angels completed their first sweep of the Yankees in 14 years. “This is a low point for us.”

I would say going 1-5 against the NL-worst Rockies and Mike Trout-less Angels is the lowest point the 2023 Yankees can achieve, but I don’t think there’s necessarily a floor for what the lowest point may be for this team until they miss out on the postseason in a format in which 40 percent of the league reaches the postseason.

After Thursday’s day off, they return home to host the 28-68 Royals, who are on pace to lose 115 games. The Yankees will debut their new, disgusting Starr Insurance jersey sleeve patch on Friday against the Royals, and if you think things can’t get worse than they are after the Rockies and Angels series, you must be new around here.

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The Yankees lost again on Tuesday night in Anaheim. Their 5-1 loss to the Angels was their third straight loss and eighth in their last 10 games. They remain 2 1/2 games out of a playoff spot.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last summer when the Yankees nearly blew a 15 1/2-game division lead to the Rays, Aaron Boone got snippier by the day with the media, culminating in him slamming his fists on the table at a postgame press conference in one of the worst second-hand embarrassment moments I have had to endure with him as Yankees manager. Well, this summer is going a lot like last summer did, and Boone’s level of annoyance with the media he used to be a part of (and will once again be a part of if this season doesn’t turn around) is at an all-time high.

2. The Yankees played and lost again on Tuesday night in Anaheim, scoring just one run and producing only two hits. It was the latest offensive humiliation for a team that can make any starting pitcher look like a first-ballot Hall of Famer. In the last two week alone, they have been shut down by Jack Flaherty (4.95 ERA entering his start against the Yankees), Dean Kremer (5.04), Jameson Taillon (6.93), Austin Gomber (6.40), Chase Anderson (6.89), Griffin Canning (4.62) and Patrick Sandoval (4.41). When the Yankees aren’t playing the A’s they can’t score, and they are now 5-9 since the end of June against, the A’s, Cardinals, Cubs, Rockies and Angels. That’s three last-place teams, the worst team in the history of Major League Baseball, a team that’s six games under .500 and another team that wasn’t even .500 until the Yankees came to town. But like the Yankees’ recent weak opponents, they are a weak opponent for their opponents, sitting in last place in the AL East with the seventh-best record in the AL.

After Tuesday’s loss, Boone wasn’t in the mood to answer questions about why he isn’t good at his job and why his players aren’t good at theirs.

3. “We got really good players in there, Boone said. “A lot of guys are going through a tough, tough stretch.”

Who are the “really good players” the Yankees have? I can think of one position player: Aaron Judge (who hasn’t played in six weeks). Giancarlo Stanton used to be a “really good player,” but he’s a .207/.290/.454 hitter in his last 638 plate appearances. Anthony Rizzo used to be a “really good player,” but Thursday is the two-month anniversary of his last home run, and he has a .504 Ops in his last 178 plate appearances. DJ LeMahieu used to be a “really good player,” but he’s a .258/.340/.368 hitter in his last 1,544 plate appearances. Gleyber Torres has never been a “really good player” without the 2018-19 juiced baseball. Harrison Bader is a below-league-average hitter for his career. The Yankees catchers are a joke offensively, as is Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Oswaldo Cabrera is among the worst everyday players in Major League Baseball, Anthony Volpe has been a disappointment and Oswald Peraza has been in the league for a combined five minutes.

This isn’t a “tough stretch.” The Yankees have been a .500 team at 94-94 over their last 188 games. That’s the equivalent of a full season of being .500 plus another 16 percent of another season of being .500. That’s not a small sample size, and it’s certainly not a “stretch.” This is who these Yankees are: an average, .500 team.

4. “We’re going to keep competing,” Boone said, “Until we break through.”

That quote might as well have come from the 2021 season or the second half of 2022 because it was used so often by Boone then as well. Spoiler alert: Those teams never broke through and this team won’t either.

“They’ll find it,” Boone said of his offense. “They will find it.”

No, they won’t. His 2021 Yankees never found it, and neither did his 2022 Yankees. Both of those teams were massive disappointments and the 2023 Yankees are set up to be the biggest disappointment yet, and the team that will cost Boone his job.

5. I think deep down Boone recognizes he will be fired if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs. He has to. There’s no surviving missing the playoffs when you manage a team with the highest payroll in the AL and not reaching the postseason when 40 percent of the league does. It doesn’t matter that Boone isn’t the one who poorly built a $300 million team. Brian Cashman will remove anyone under and around him to save himself, and that started when Dillon Lawson was fired, as if he were the issue with the offense.

“Obviously, we have a new voice in there with Sean Casey,” Boone said. “I think he already has had an impact and is starting to get to know those guys.”

If a hitting coach is graded on the success of the offense they “coach” then Casey is the worst hitting coach of all time. The Yankees couldn’t touch Gomber or Anderson in the best-hitting ballpark in the league at Coors Field, and now they have scored four runs in 19 innings against a pitching staff that the Astros just hung 28 runs on in three games this past weekend. Lawson wasn’t the problem, and Casey wasn’t the answer. The offense just sucks. It sucked last year and zero new pieces were added to it.

6. The Yankees were a wild-card team with Judge (30-19) and without him (20-27) they are basically the White Sox.

“That’s what the story is, so we can correct it,” Boone said of being able to win without Judge. “We got the players to do it. We have the players with track record to do it.”

No, no you don’t.

“I understand that’s the story and it’s fair for this year,” Boone continued about the Yankees’ performance without Judge. “We have been through stretches in ’19 where we were down Judge and ‘G’ and kept on banging.”

Boone is citing what the Yankees did four years ago when Judge injured his oblique in April and when Stanton missed all but 18 regular-season games.

What Boone is forgetting to mention is that LeMahieu was an MVP candidate that season, Torres was a budding superstar, Luke Voit had an .842 OPS, Mike Tauchman played like Mike Trout for a month, Gary Sanchez hit 34 home runs and Brett Gardner hit 28.

What Boone also forgot to mention is that the AL East was top heavy that season with the Yankees (103 wins) and Rays (96 wins) being the only good teams. The Red Sox suffered a World Series hangover, the Blue Jays had yet to arrive (95 losses) and the Orioles were one of the worst teams of all time (108 losses). Not only did the Yankees get career years from their roster, they also rarely had to play a competitive team. 2023 isn’t 2019.

7. “Last night against Canning he kind of shut us down,” Boone said, “But we at least made him work hard to do it.”

Well, at least the Yankees made Canning work hard to strike out a career-high 12 batters! That should make all Yankees fans feel better about the team losing that game, being in last place and no longer holding a playoff spot.

8. “The care factor is so much,” Boone said. “The game is so damn hard and hitting is so hard you have to strike that balance between focus, work, preparation.”

After Monday’s loss, Boone told us how happy he is with the Yankees’ “compete” and now after Tuesday it’s about their “care factor.” Two unmeasurable, fake traits. Here I was thinking that wins and losses were what mattered in baseball and in the standings, when all along it’s been “compete” and “care factor.” The Aaron Boone Yankees: Six-Time Compete and Care Factor World Champions. Maybe they can have a ring ceremony for that because it’s the only ring ceremony any team managed by him will be getting.

9. “It’s on all of us. On me, on coaches, on staff, on players.”

Wait, what’s that? No, it couldn’t be, could it? Is that … ACCOUNTABILITY? Is that Boone placing some of the blame for this season not just on the players, but also on himself?

I have heard nearly every word Boone has ever said as Yankees manager, and he has never once took even an ounce of blame for any issue or loss with the team. Not once. This is a major breakthrough and an exciting and very important first step in Boone becoming somewhat respectable as Yankees manager. However, I highly doubt he will build off this moment and ever mention himself as part of the problem again.

10. “We got a lot of pride in there,” Boone said. “You want to win and that’s why you show up every day.”

The Yankees have lost three straight. They have lost four of five to open the “second half.” They have lost eight of their last 10 and seven of their last 18. If they are showing up every day with the goal of “wanting to win” they may want to lower expectations.

How about they show up on Wednesday with the goal of scoring more than one run against a pitcher with a 6.08 career ERA making his 17th career appearance. That would be a start.

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