1. The Yankees are 16-16 since sweeping the Brewers to open the season. That’s a .500 record over 32 games, which is equal to 20 percent of the season.
The Yankees fan who thinks Aaron Boone can do no wrong, believes Anthony Volpe is closer to being a star than a bust, feels Cody Bellinger can’t possibly be this bad and promises Devin Williams will figure it out will tell you the Yankees have the second-best run differential in the American League, are playing three games worse than their expected record and are in first place in the division.
The Yankees fan who has watched this team underachieve in every season during the Boone era knows this team for what it really is: a roster with a top-heavy lineup, a top-heavy rotation, a top-heavy bullpen and a manager who is every bit in over his head in 2025 as he was in 2018. The Yankees fan who sees a team with a run differential propped up by a couple of blowout wins over the Brewers, one over the Blue Jays and one over the Orioles. A team that has lost three straight at home and four of five and five of seven overall.
2. The offense is Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt, and at times Ben Rice. The rotation is Max Fried and half the time Carlos Rodon. The bullpen is Fernando Cruz and Luke Weaver. The Yankees have no depth, and the depth they do have is mismanaged in inexplicable ways. It’s how you get Pablo Reyes starting and batting seventh twice recently. It’s how you get Reyes playing over Jorbit Vivas and pinch-hitting nightmare matchups created by a manager who seems to be unaware the opposing manager is allowed to make counter moves.
3. Boone manages the team the same way no matter the personnel. He manages a team whose infield the other day was Vivas, Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza as if he had Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. He manages his rotation as if it’s full of studs and his lineup as if it’s full of sluggers. He thinks fringe major-league starting pitchers (at best) are going to figure it out mid-game after allowing 12 baserunners in three innings. He thinks a 31-year-old, career 76 OPS+ right-handed bat should not only play against a right-handed starter over a left-handed bat, but bat seventh. If you’re going to have a roster with so few impact players, you can’t have this manager managing it.
4. The Yankees aren’t managed, they’re mismanaged. It’s rare when Boone puts his players in the best possible position to succeed. They can’t create offense and fail to ever put the pressure on the defense. They play station-to-station baseball and wait for a multi-run home run to save them, and when they don’t get it, they lose. The Rays used creativity and speed to cause chaos on Saturday and come from behind, just like the Guardians did recently against them as well. When the Yankees get a baserunner on in the eighth or ninth, the runner never advances past their initial base. They’re never in motion. They stand there and wait for the ball to go over the wall, and when it doesn’t, they lose. The ball hasn’t gone over the wall in late-game spots year, and that’s why they keep losing close games: a combination of no late-game power and middle relief decisions made without logic.
5. The two one-run losses last week in Baltimore were frustrating, and the Yankees followed those up by losing another one-run game on Saturday, a two-run game on Sunday and yet another one-run game on Monday. If you’re wondering why the Yankees are 6-13 in games decided by one or two runs and 13-3 in games decided by three runs or more, it’s because they are without a competent manager, are a disgrace fundamentally and lack capable situational hitters. At their core they are the same team the Dodgers spent the offseason publicly laughing about any chance they got.
6. Sunday’s eighth inning roster management was disturbing. Here is the thought process of the man responsible for in-game strategy of the Yankees on his eighth-inning personnel choices on Sunday:
Boone said he was going to pinch hit Ben Rice for J.C. Escarra or Jorbit Vivas. He decided to let Escarra hit because he’s “the guy that’s been here and more experienced.”
(What exactly is Escarra experienced at? Rice has more games played in the majors and then Escarra and has had much more success.)
Once Escarra grounded into the double play, Boone “shut that (idea) down.” Then Vivas had the two-run hit, so Boone used Rice as the potential tying run instead of Oswaldo Cabrera. Boone went on to say he could have used Austin Wells as a pinch hitter, “but I can’t shoot both of them because all I have is Escarra left.”
(Guess what happened? Wells ended up appearing in the game for defense, but wasn’t used as a pinch hitter.)
If you’re confused by all of that, so am I. But Boone has had similar nonsensical answers in the past when asked about lineup choices. Three years ago, Boone went on CC Sabathia’s podcast and was asked how to comes up with his daily lineups:
“My process for making the lineup is actually a little bit different all the time. There’s the ebb and flow of the season. Let’s assume everyone is healthy and we’re not going to bed that night with ‘We’re waiting to find out if this guy’s available tomorrow.’ So if our guys are available, a lot of times, I’ll buzz by my coaches the night before going home where we may have a thought. A lot of times it’s usually with Mendy where I’ll just be like, ‘What do you think about this guy in tomorrow?’ And we’ll kind of bounce things off. When Marcus was here, I said, ‘What do you think of this guy in tomorrow? This guy out? What do you think about flipping these guys in the lineup?’ So that’s usually how it starts and then when I come in, usually I’ll come into my office and Mendy will follow me in and we’ll kind of go through our different things if theres a little tweak we want to make.
Boone said that’s the process he uses if the team is completely healthy. If he said that’s how he thought about things when the lineup was full of Greg Allen, Tim LoCastro, Estevan Florial, Ryan LaMarre and Rob Brantly in mid-July, it would be somewhat acceptable, but that’s the process he uses when “our guys are available?” He’s not even close to done explaining.
“Sometimes I’ll reach out to like I’ve even done this with Cash and Cash is not usually very much involved at all. But sometimes if I have a tough decision that I’m really wrestling with, I may call Cash on it. I may call Mendy on my way home. I may call Marcus Thames when he was here on my way home. When there’s that tough decision I have when I’m thinking about getting a different guy in tomorrow or sitting a guy a day, I may go to different people and ask their opinion on it, and then ultimately, I gotta decide which way I want to go.”
When Boone interviewed to be manager of the Yankees, he was so extraordinary that the front office canceled all other interviews and didn’t even hold a second round of interviews, handing Boone the job with no prior coaching experience at any level. I’m certain he didn’t explain this process in his supposed spectacular interview.
“We have a very strong analytics department that gives us so much information that kind of helps us decisions, give us context on what we’re seeing, what we’re looking at. And I think the reality is any of the really strong franchises are very strong analytically, but ultimately, the teams that do it the best are able to … the secret sauce is how do you strike the balance? Because every day is unique amongst itself, especially in a big league season when you’re playing 162 games. So you’ve gotta be able to strike the balance, but as Cash puts it, ‘We want to have a buffet of everything available to us,’ so that we can make really good decisions and I think we do that here even though we get criticized about it a lot.”
“Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t know where it’s going. I just hope to find it somewhere along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.“
OK, that final part was from Michael Scott on The Office, but everything else came out of Boone’s mouth. Now knowing exactly how his lineup creation process works, I feel much more at ease about the team’s failure to meet expectations since he became manager because it makes perfect sense that someone who uses the above strategy to create a lineup would fail to meet expectations. The man who gave that answer is now in his eighth season in the same position, having overseen more than $2 billion in payroll.
Boone’s managing on Sunday was a mess. It was nonsensical, illogical choice after choice, and ultimately (to use Boone’s favorite word), the Yankees lost 7-5 in the latest disastrous Will Warren start (4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HR).
The day before Boone had another banner day when he decided with a one-run lead in the eighth to use Mark Leiter Jr. against the Rays’ 2-3-4 hitters. It went about as well as expected when the Rays scored twice to take the lead and go on to a 3-2 Saturday afternoon win.
It was the latest example of the Yankees blowing a late lead in a game and then rolling over and losing with a chance to stage a comeback of their own. It was the latest example until Monday.
7. On Monday, the Yankees and Padres started late due to a rain delay and then were interrupted in the fourth inning with another rain delay. When play resumed, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead they would carry into the seventh inning.
With two outs in the top of the seventh, Boone removed Carlos Rodon from the game (6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K). Rodon provided his fourth straight quality start after having none in his first four starts of the year.
Boone went to Cruz and Cruz ended the innings with two pitches.
The Yankees still led 3-0 when the eighth began. Cruz had only thrown two pitches in the seventh, so it made sense for Cruz to get two or all three outs in the eighth and for Weaver to take care of the rest. A simple formula with a high win probability.
Boone had a different plan.
Boone removed Cruz from the game in favor of Williams. After removing Williams from the closer role last week, Boone has continued to use him a high-leverage role and only in close games. Boone felt three scoreless appearances from Williams was enough to erase his first 10 miserable appearances of the season.
After recording a leadoff strikeout, Williams walked Tyler Wade. He then allowed a two-strike single to Brandon Lockridge, and with two outs, he walked Luis Arraez. Williams walked career .590 OPS Wade, couldn’t put away career .561 OPS Lockridge and then walked Arraez who despises free passes. Boone removed Williams for Weaver, leaving Weaver zero margin for error and that margin was destroyed by a Manny Machado double and a Xander Bogaerts single.
8. Why did Boone remove Cruz after one out and two pitches?
“Cruz had thrown two innings two days ago,” Boone said. “Keep everyone in play moving forward.”
There it is. There is Boone admitting he was playing for tomorrow with his decision to remove Cruz. He’s more worried about a fictional late-game scenario in the future in this series in which he may need Cruz instead of the three-run, late-game situation that actually existed.
The best part about Boone’s answer is that once Cruz entered the game with two outs in the seventh, he either had to get the last out of the inning or face up to three batters to come out of the game. When Boone went to him, he was accepting of the possibility that Cruz may throw a lot of pitches and then be down for a few days, which makes his thought process even more idiotic.
9. Once Williams ruined the eighth and the Yankees fell behind, the rest of the game became a formality just like it does every time these Yankees trail late. These Yankees only blow late leads, they don’t overcome late deficits. They have yet to win a game this season when trailing after six innings. They lead the majors in games blown in the eighth inning or later with five.
10. The always-injured Clarke Schmidt who was scratched on Saturday with discomfort that couldn’t be detected with imaging tests (just like Volpe’s shoulder “pop” that wasn’t enough to take him out of Saturday’s game, but was enough to keep him out of Sunday’s game only to return on Monday couldn’t be found with imaging either) will take the ball on Tuesday. He will be asked to outpitch former Yankee Michael King.
Wade continued the tradition of ex-Yankees coming back to haunt the team with his eighth-inning walk to start the Padres’ rally on Monday. King is a bad matchup for the Yankees lineup, though I guess what opposing starter isn’t? The Yankees need Schmidt to match or better King to end the current three-game losing streak, but even if that happens, there’s a good chance the manager will be more worried about a future late-lead the Yankees may have instead of the one they actually have.
Last modified: May 6, 2025
