1. On Friday in Tampa, the Yankees faced a left-handed starter for the second time in as many days, and for the second time in as many days they lost in embarrassing fashion, falling 5-3 to the Rays.
On Wednesday, the Yankees had one hit after the first inning. On Thursday, they were one-hit for the game. On Friday, they were held hitless from the end of the first inning until Ben Rice’s pinch-hit home run with one out in the eighth. The Yankees have five runs, 10 hits and 35 strikeouts over their last three games. They lost all three and have lost four of their last five. The enjoyment of the first week-and-a-half of the season has been completely undone by the offense.
2. “We’ve got to hit,” Austin Wells said.
Nice of Wells to chime in on the state of the offense, considering he has five hits this season in 38 plate appearances, with just one going for extra bases (a double). He has yet to drive in a run through the first 13 games.
“It’s going to happen sometimes from the offense,” Aaron Boone said, as the manager went into his Mary Poppins-like bag of annual bullshit clichés to describe his offense. “They’re going to get it rolling and some people are going to pay the price.”
This comes one day after Boone said, “Hopefully we’ll get things going.” Who exactly are the Yankees going to make pay? I know. The No. 4 and 5 starters on the worst teams in baseball and 26th-man-on-the-roster relievers, that’s who. That’s what these Yankees do. Lose close games (0-4 in one-run games this year) and then beat the shit out of fringe major leaguers to prop up their personal stats and the team’s run differential to make everyone say things like, “Oooo, the Yankees led the league in runs last year!” Then come the postseason, when it’s cold and only elite pitchers take the mound, they revert back to the team we have seen these last few days: a team that survives on the long ball, can’t score leadoff doubles and can’t get runners in from third with less than two outs.
3. It wasn’t cold in Tampa on Friday because the game was played indoors in a controlled environment. But that didn’t stop Jazz Chisholm from continuing to suck. On Thursday, Chisholm said his “swing is great” and the only reason he isn’t producing is because it’s cold outside in New York City. In Friday’s game, Chisholm popped up to third with Rosario on third in the first inning, struck out in the fourth inning (and wasted another challenge in the process), grounded out in the seventh inning and grounded out for the first out of the ninth with the tying run on base. Another stellar 0-for-4 night for Mr. 50/50.
4. It was another hitless night for Randal Grichuk, Jose Caballero and Wells as well. Grichuk was brought in because of his career success against lefties and he struck out two more times and remains 0-for-the-season. Caballero has been so bad he has fans yearning for Anthony Volpe and the only reason everyone isn’t calling for Wells to be benched is because the alternative is J.C. Escarra, who is also 0-for-the-season.
During the offseason, in an interview with Kevin Durant, Aaron Judge said three players he was excited about were Chisholm, Wells and Ryan McMahon.
“He can be one of the greats in the game,” Judge said of Chisholm. “I think this will be a big year for him to take that next step.”
Chisholm is hitting .170/.235/.234.
“I think this will be a big year for him,” Judge said of Wells, “he’s really going to take that next step.”
Wells is hitting .152/.263/.182.
“I think there’s just so much more potential,” Judge said of McMahon. “I think what he’s about to do with the bat this year, he’s going to take off for us.”
McMahon is hitting .069/.250/.069.
Judge is as bad at this as his front office. That’s how you end up with a new contract for Anthony Rizzo, an extended leash for DJ LeMahieu and going on a ninth season with Boone as manager.
5. The bottom of the lineup sucks, but so does the top. Trent Grisham served as a pinch hitter with two outs in the ninth and the tying runs on second and third and he popped up to first to end the game. If there’s a Yankees fan out there who thought Grisham would drive those runs in to extend the game, I would like to meet you. The $22 Million Qualifying Offer Man has been a disaster to this point with a .445 OPS and no home runs after hitting 34 last year. No one could have seen that coming! No one!
6. Judge continues to look lost, afraid to use the ABS system in his favor while the opposition continues to strike him out with it. The common narrative around Judge is “Hey, he started out this way two years ago and went on to win MVP!” Yeah, you know what else happened two years ago? The Yankees had Juan Soto to carry the team while Judge slumped. The only hitter capable of carrying the team right now is Rice, who didn’t even start on Friday despite career success against Jeffrey Springs, and in his one plate appearance of the night, he homered. I don’t know, if it were me I would play the current best bat on the team every game. But then again, I care about winning and winning every game.
I’m sure Judge will get it going at some point, though one of these seasons he won’t get it going and will no longer be the generational, all-time talent he has been in his prime. Maybe that’s this year? Maybe it’s next year? Maybe it’s in 2030. I don’t know when it will be, but the Yankees need to stop taking for granted his Hall of Fame talent with the idea that it will never end and stop being so reliant on one bat.
7. Cody Bellinger set a precedent at the end of his time in Los Angeles that there are seasons when he’s awful. It’s too early this season to say that, but with each passing game he looks like a player the Yankees paid for his past rather than his future, and now that he has his massive, guaranteed payday, it’s never out of the question that he may turn back into the guy the best organization in baseball — the Dodgers — were willing to non-tender after his age 26 season.
(Giancarlo Stanton has been pretty good and gets a pass.)
8. The last three games represent the first time in franchise history that the Yankees had any three-game span with 15 or fewer total bases and at least 35 strikeouts. (Stat from Katie Sharp.) Another line to add to the Boone era Yankees history! The Yankees have the fewest hits in the majors and are third-worst in batting average at .201.
9. “I don’t think there’s any concern,” Rice said.
Spoken like a true Boone Yankee. There’s never any concern. Not on April 10. Not in mid-July. Not in September. Not when facing elimination in October. Not when stifled by a fatigued Blue Jays bullpen in a bullpen game with the season on the line.
10. One of these days, and maybe as early as Saturday, the Yankees will explode for 15 runs, have a laugher of a win where they hit against a position player at the end of the game and everyone will say, “There they are! There’s the Bronx Bombers!” But for a team that has 12 home runs in 13 games and for a team that has a bench player with as many home runs this season as everyday hitters in the 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 spots combined, a laugher here and there against shit teams to improve the run differential isn’t going to fool me. It’s not early because this isn’t a “new” team, and while it’s technically a “new” season, it’s really just a continuation of last season. The only difference being this year we might hear “It’s right in front of us” much earlier than the summer if the Yankees continue to play this way.
Last modified: Apr 11, 2026
