With the 4-3 defeat last night, another Yankee season comes and goes with the same result: October disappointment. After the loss on Monday I came to terms with it and accepted that we were not going to win the series, so immediately after last night’s loss I was not too upset. The inevitable had finally happened and it felt like we made it exactly where we were expected to make. It wasn’t painful like the past few years. Last year we wasted an elite Aaron Judge postseason, the year before was the World Series run and losing Soto. Those hurt more than this one. This one was numb. It wasn’t painful, it was only depressing. It felt like the same song and dance as last year and ended with the same result.
Hours later the reality hit that we were out and sadness started to wash over me. Will Aaron Judge ever win a ring? Will Gerrit Cole? Will Giancarlo Stanton? Some of the guys who have been with us for years are aging and won’t have many more chances and it’ll break my heart to see them retire without ever reaching the mountaintop. And for other players it might be my last time ever watching them in a Yankee uniform. Some I won’t complain to lose but some others I’m going to miss if this is it with them.
We shouldn’t run it back for a third year in a row so there will be additions to the team and there will be losses. Seeing some players leave might be rough but we cannot go out and try the same thing again. I know injuries hurt the team this year, losing Aaron Judge is catastrophic to the offense, but the offense side of the ball ruined what was an elite pitching staff. Defensive miscues and errors also hurt but we had a Cy Young season from Cam Schlittler. Then Max Fried, Gerrit Cole, and Carlos Rodon all had good seasons as well. All three of them landed on the injured list at some point throughout the season but they were all healthy for October. Pitching showed up in the postseason but the offense was absent against Tampa. Allowing, 1 earned run, 2 earned runs, and 4 earned runs should not be all it takes to eliminate you. With that pitching performance, we should not be out at this point but the lifeless offense couldn’t even get one game. It was better in game 3 but still not good enough. I still like our pitching and am glad nearly all our pitchers are still under contract, but changes need to be made offensively so we can capitalize off this pitching staff while we have it and before guys get too old.
I think we need a new voice in the clubhouse. Aaron Boone needs to go. He was not terrible this year, in fact I would say pretty good overall to lead this team to 93 wins after all the injuries. However, in the biggest moments, he is consistently out managed and the players constantly beat themselves with errors and bad defense. Boone isn’t out on the field so it is not entirely his fault, but after nine years of coming up short, I think it is time for a new voice and a new philosophy. Just because he hit a walk off in game 7 in 2003 does not mean he should be allowed to stay manager forever. He has an all time great Yankees moment, but that should not mean we cannot cut ties. I think he needs to go and I think it is time for someone new. I don’t know who at this point but nine years of this is enough. Then I also think Brian Cashman probably needs to go but I think Boone needs to be the first one out the door. Cashman’s seat should be hot and if we don’t get it done soon, he should be next. He has a great history, but he has not won anything since 2009. I will say he has made some good moves, he has helped build this pitching staff with elite arms, the Soto trade prior to the 2024 season was a big splash and I think he needs to try and go out and do something like that again this offseason. Obviously it won’t be for Soto again, but the one time since 2009 that we have made the World Series is when we acquired a superstar in the offseason. Give up a lot of prospects, I don’t care, most don’t pan out anyway. Find a second superstar to pair with Judge and win number 28.
The Upcoming Free Agents
The personnel needs to change too. Upcoming free agents this offseason include Trent Grisham, Jazz Chisholm Jr., David Bednar, Tim Hill, Paul Goldschmidt, John Schreiber, Amed Rosario, Ryan Yarbrough, and Paul Blackburn. Most of these guys can go.
Grisham had a great 2025 season but that is the only season he has had in years that is above average offensively. I didn’t want him back after last year because I thought whoever got him would overpay him. Turns out that team would be us on a qualifying offer. Grisham didn’t have a very good year as he continued to decline defensively and he regressed greatly on offense. He was the most obvious regression candidate on the team and unsurprisingly he did. I’ll appreciate his 2025 season but I don’t think he should be a Yankee again next year.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. can be a very good baseball player and when he is doing well, he is extremely fun to watch. In his first 162 games as a Yankee, he hit 40 home runs and stole 48 bases. He is a fun and electric baseball player. The summer of 2025 he was elite and one of the best second baseman in the league, both offensively and defensively. But this year he wasn’t. Defensively he was not very good and that showed in game 2 against Tampa. He tries to make the big play too often sometimes as shown by trying to turn two when the play wasn’t there, resulting in an error and a run for the other team. The bat never woke up either. He said back in April that he cannot hit well in the cold and one thing that I know about New York is that it can get pretty chilly, especially in October. Because of this, I don’t think he is a great guy to have batting everyday in a playoff lineup. He never could get it going in the postseason, having a .559 OPS in 2024, .598 in 2025, and .490 this year. All well below league average. And if we want to look only at batting average, he had the same batting average every postseason run as a Yankee: .182 all 3 years. Not good enough when it matters most. So I do like Jazz a lot. He is a great player when things are going well but the lows can get quite low. And with the contract that I think he is going to demand, I don’t think he’ll be back. We might offer him the qualifying offer but if not and he’s gone, I enjoyed the good times with Jazz.
Goldschmidt and Rosario are great vets to have on the team for morale and experience, but they’re both old and probably won’t be back. Rosario is one I am very confident won’t return. He didn’t do much as a Yankee but I’ll always remember his two home run game against the A’s. I watched that with a friend and each time he was up, he would play the same song for Rosario, who had his best game as a Yankee and won us that game with his heroics. Goldschmidt has been a much better Yankee than I expected. He has crushed lefty pitching and I think he is a good player still. Defensively he is sound but I think he might be gone because we still have Ben Rice and Luis Garcia Jr. as first base options.
For the bullpen guys, Schreiber is probably gone and I would assume Yarbrough is too. Tim Hill will be gone as well which is the right move. He wasn’t good this year but he was a huge piece of our pen in 2024 and 2025. It is time to move on from him but he had his great moments in pinstripes. The two guys I would try to bring back are David Bednar and Paul Blackburn. Bednar has been our consistent closer all year and has been lights out in almost every key situation. We need to bring him back or the closer role will be vacant. Blackburn was a huge surprise this year and I think after the year he had, he needs to stay. He was awful after we acquired him in 2025 but this year he had a 1.69 ERA and was one of the best relief pitchers in baseball from June until the end of the season. He was great against Boston and Tampa in the playoffs as well, throwing 6 shutout innings in 4 appearances. I never expected this from him but I would welcome him back.
So with the free agents plus the final $15 million of DJ LeMahieu’s contract coming off the books, that leaves nearly $75 million to work with if we want to keep the same payroll. Some of that will be used on Bednar and Blackburn I would think but with that much available to the owner Hal Steinbrenner and GM Brian Cashman, I really hope we try to acquire another superstar. I know that it is very unrealistic and almost every team will not be willing to trade an elite player away and there aren’t many good free agents available this year, but I hope we try and find someone through trade that will elevate this team in a way similar to Juan Soto. No one available is Juan Soto but try and acquire a bit piece that will help shoulder the load and will be able to provide great at bats in the playoffs and throughout the entire season.
Thoughts on the Guys Under Contract
Aaron Judge is Aaron Judge. If he comes back healthy he’ll be fine and I’m not worried about him. The 2022, 2024, and 2025 AL MVP will be back and assuming he is on the field, he will be one of the best hitters in baseball. My only question with him is if he will be playing in right field everyday or if he will be the DH a lot more to try and prevent injury. He has 5 more years on his contract; I think the front office needs to do everything they can to try and get Judge and this team a ring.
Cody Bellinger needs to be better in the playoffs. He is a very good outfielder, arguably the best defensive left fielder there is. I am happy with his performance this year but it was a bit worse at the plate. He is being paid a ton of money, $42.5 million this year and in 2027, then just under $26 million for 2028-2030 and he needs to play a bit better to justify this. At Yankee Stadium, he is an elite hitter but he is average to below average on the road. In 2025 he had a .909 OPS at home and a .715 away. This year he had a .919 at home but a .628 away. At home he is a very good bat in the lineup but his road splits are quite frankly terrible for someone being paid as much as he is. Then in the postseason he had a .651 OPS last year and a .524 this year. He had a great series vs Boston, which was played at Yankee Stadium, but then he went 1-12 against Tampa in the divisional series. If we can get home field advantage and play a majority of our games at home, that would be excellent news for Bellinger but as things stand, his bat is made for Yankee Stadium and doesn’t do much elsewhere.
Ryan McMahon needs to go but I don’t think he will. He sucks offensively. Pure garbage. Then defensively he was supposed to be elite but like other guys, he has regressed there too. I knew he was not that good at the plate, but I expected his lefty bat to excel at Yankee Stadium. Yes it is a bit above league average at home but that does not make up for how bad he is on the road. He hits .176 with a .510 OPS on the road. In 2026, the American League average OPS is .712 and the league batting average is .241. Ryan McMahon falls well below both of them. He can’t hit at all and he now plays as a below average glove at third base. There needs to be a better option there. But I don’t think he will be gone since he is making $16 million and I doubt the organization wants to cut ties and then be stuck paying that much and getting nothing out of that money. Maybe we can attach a prospect or two and try and trade him to somebody to take his contract but I doubt it. I don’t want to see him as a Yankee again.
Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodon are all still under contract. Cole and Rodon through 2028 and Fried through 2032. We need to capitalize in the next 2 years with these guys powering the staff along with Cam Schlittler. I have faith in this group and I know if I was Carlos Rodon, I would feel sick knowing that I never got to pitch in the postseason after having a very good season. He went all year without allowing more than 3 runs in a start, yet he never got the chance in October even after shutting the Rays down for 8 innings in his last start against them.
Then there’s Stanton. I don’t even know how to describe his time with the Yankees. He has never reached the heights he did in Miami and he has missed 591 out of 1356 (43.58%) of his regular season games as a Yankee, but his postseason heroics will make his time here unforgettable. With all his injuries and the Marlins paying $10 million yearly of his remaining contract, I won’t be shocked if we choose to move on or if he retires. One of the best sluggers of the generation but now likely won’t get to 500 home runs due to injuries. I don’t think he’ll be a hall of famer since he will fail to reach that milestone and since he has never won a ring. But he has had some great moments. His duo with Aaron Judge was supposed to be one of the best home run hitting duos ever. And it kind of was. We won nearly every game when they both homered. I know we lost the game but Game 3 of the 2024 ALCS, Emmanuel Clase had been unstoppable all season but then Judge and Stanton went back-to-back off of him to give the Yankees the lead. If this is it for him, I’m going to miss that duo. I’m going miss how hard he hits the ball. I’m going to miss the towering moonshots. I might not miss all the strikeouts on sliders low and away but I’ll miss Stanton. It probably is the time to move on. He does clog the DH spot so we can’t put Judge or Rice there if he is in and with his injury concerns he isn’t the best anyway to still keep around. He was great in the 2018 regular season, elite in the 2020 postseason, was good in the wild card against Boston in 2021, had a legendary postseason run in 2024, and had a great 2025 regular season. He had many great and memorable Yankee moments, but injuries have taken their toll. I loved that 2024 team, it is my favorite Yankee team I remember watching. I loved Juan Soto and Aaron Judge had his best season, but 2024 postseason Giancarlo Stanton was something special. He had 7 homers and a 1.048 OPS. Had the game winning home run in game 3 of the ALDS, 4 homers against Cleveland in the ALCS to help send us to the World Series, and homered to give us the lead in game 1 of the World Series. I wish 2024 ended differently. Soto magic in the playoffs and Stanton with an otherworldly run but it came up short. And that might have been Big G’s best chance at a ring and now he might never win one. He wasn’t the best Yankee but he cared about winning and would constantly show up when he was needed. If this is the end for him, I’ll miss him.
Under Arbitration
The rest of the guys are still young and don’t have enough service time yet or they are under arbitration. They are still under team control and won’t be going anywhere next year unless they are non-tendered. The guys under arbitration this year are Luis Garcia Jr., Clarke Schmidt, Anthony Volpe, Luis Gil, Jose Caballero, Fernando Cruz, and Ryan Weathers.
Garcia was a good deadline addition and made an immediate impact. His first game he hit the go ahead home run against St. Louis to go up 7-6. Sure we lost 13-7 but that was such a fun moment seeing a new addition start off so well. His September was pretty bad and he seemed to swing at every pitch no matter what in October, but he should be good next season. I wonder if we’ll try to play him at second or third, but his defense has not been good there in his career. We’ll see how we make it work.
Volpe will be back for sure. I think he looks better at second base than he did at shortstop. He had an up and down season and was sent back to the minor leagues for the first time in years. It was deserved and he worked on his game, came back and did pretty well. It was a small sample size but he hit a grand slam in his first game back and did well in his limited postseason action. He won’t ever live up to what he was hyped up to be but I know he has heart. He has never been able to put it together for a full season but he has had moments. The start to 2024 was excellent for him, he started strong in 2025 too. He had a rough year this year but he was one of the few to do anything against Tampa Bay in the end. I hope he can put it all together and make an impact at second base.
Ryan Weathers had a good season and will be back as the number 5 starter. He had a couple of rough outings but his last month of the season was excellent. Based on his performance I’ll gladly have him to close out the rotation. He also showed briefly that he can come in as a reliever if necessary, with 2 scoreless outings against Tampa.
Caballero will be back and he’ll continue to be a great base stealer. He should be a utility guy who can play all over the field if needed and can come in as a pinch runner when necessary. I like Caballero and like how he plays, but he should not be getting over 400 at bats per season. He doesn’t have a good enough bat to have such consistent playing time at the plate.
Clarke Schmidt I think returns but I don’t think he will be a starter anymore. I think he’ll go back to being used as a bullpen arm which he has had success as before. Coming off Tommy John surgery, he barely pitched and then went on the IL again. I believe using him as a starter will be too many innings for him and he’ll be a reliever again next year. We might start him for a few games when necessary but I don’t think he will be a consistent starter again even though he had success there in 2024 and 2025.
Then for the other two guys, I think Fernando Cruz is gone. I liked him out of the pen with his great splitter, but he’s old and will likely need surgery to repair a partially torn UCL. It sucks to end this way with him but I think that’s the way to go. Then Luis Gil. He was so good through May of 2024. He was an ace for two months. But since then everything has gone wrong. His command isn’t great, his velocity is down, he doesn’t have it anymore. I won’t be shocked if we get rid of him. I would love to try and trade him for something since he really isn’t helping us by sitting down in the minor leagues all year.
The Young Players
Now for some closing thoughts on some young guys who haven’t started salary arbitration yet. Focusing on Ben Rice, Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr., Heliot Ramos, and Austin Wells. I would assume all five are going to be back next year. Rice and Lombard for sure. Jones we might try and trade but I think he stays. Then Wells and Ramos I think will both return. Ramos will be a backup and Wells not be the near everyday starter anymore if we sign a righty catcher to go alongside him.
Ben Rice was the best hitter on the team this year and it wasn’t close. In the regular season he hit 41 homers, the next closest had 19, he had 97 RBI, next closest was 73, he tied with Bellinger for the team lead in batting average, he led the team in on base percentage, led the team in slugging, and finished the year with a .897 OPS. He was one of the best hitters in baseball and will finish top 10 in AL MVP voting. He had a great year and should be even better next year if Judge is healthy. Having Judge next to him in the order helped Rice get off to an incredible start. He cooled down a bit without him but still had a great year before getting hot again before the playoffs. When Judge was healthy, Rice had a .306 average, .397 OBP, and a 1.056 OPS. Having Judge after him allowed him to get more pitches to hit and he capitalized. He had a bad June, great July, and bad August but got hot again in September. Hitting .333 with a .450 OBP in the month and a 1.055 OPS. This hot streak continued into October where he hit .421, had a .500 OBP, slugged 1.105, and had a 1.605 OPS with 4 homers and 9 RBI. He was the best hitter in the playoffs and it sucks that we wasted such an incredible stretch of his.
Spencer Jones struggled his first time up in the big leagues but he crushed it when he was called up the second time. He was one of the best hitters vs lefties but really struggled against righties which is odd for a left handed hitter. He has had some hiccups defensively at the MLB level but I think the plan might be to have him take over as the center fielder. So the outfield would be Bellinger-Jones-Judge. Or maybe they saw his struggles vs right handed pitching and they think that he will continue to strike out a lot and might look to trade him. Maybe some team will see his stats and think that he has the potential to be one of the best hitters in the league and trade for him. I don’t know. I want him to succeed in New York but if there is an offer too good to pass up, we might have to trade him away.
The first week of George Lombard Jr. was amazing. He was playing at a gold glove level at short, he homered in his first game, it was awesome. Then he struggled for a bit, had a streak of errors, then hit for a bit more power in September before having a decent playoff run. From what I saw from the 21 year old shortstop in the Bronx, I think he will be the guy at short for years. I think the glove will continue to get better and be more consistent. He has had flashes of defensive greatness and I think over the course of an entire season, he’ll be playing gold glove caliber defense. I think that bat will also improve and he’ll be around a .760 OPS guy next year which would be a huge improvement over anything we’ve had at short for years. I think he’ll be a core member of the team for years to come.
Then in the minors we also have Jasson Dominguez, Elmer Rodriguez, and Carlos Lagrange. I don’t know what we’re going to do with Dominguez. He is still super young but has never really hit the ball well in the majors. He probably has very little trade value at this point so he is someone that I have no clue what we’ll do with him. Elmer Rodriguez pitched a bit in the majors this year and was fine. Him and Lagrange are two young pitching prospects that should be ready to be major leaguers next year. However I’m not sure how they fit in with the depth we have at starter. Speaking of starter depth, we still have Will Warren who had a fine year. He’s probably the number 6 starter but he is good depth to have in case we deal with injury again. We might send some of the prospects to the bullpen to add some depth there. We only had a few reliable arms all year like Bednar, Blackburn, and Brent Headrick. Headrick pitched in over half the games and had a scoreless outing in around 65 of them. He’ll also be back next year.
Then there is one key contributor I haven’t mentioned too much that is still very young. That being the soon to be AL Cy Young winner: Cam Schlittler. What a year he had. After his pretty good rookie season in 2025, I expected him to be a good number 4 starter behind Cole, Fried, and Rodon this year. He blew by those expectations and was an ace. He was the best pitcher in the American League and had one of the best Yankee pitching seasons ever. 239 strikeouts, an ERA under 2 at 1.95, a 0.92 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), and only 49 walks in 193.2 innings. He had a 1.16 ERA on the road which is one of the lowest in history. He was nothing short of extraordinary. He had 25 starts where he allowed 1 or fewer earned runs which is a record for starting pitchers in the live ball era (since 1920). He made 33 starts in the regular season and in my opinion he only had 2 bad starts, vs Cleveland at the start of June and vs Detroit at the end of that same month. The other 31 ranged from pretty good to excellent. 8 innings with 1 earned at Boston in April, 6 innings with 13 strikeouts vs the Reds in June, 8 innings with 1 run at Tampa in July, 7.1 shutout innings with 12 strikeouts at Philadelphia, 7 innings with 1 run and 11 strikeouts vs Atlanta in August, then of course the 6.1 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts vs Boston in the playoffs. He was our best pitcher and our best player. He has a real case for the AL MVP which I don’t think he’ll win but he should be a unanimous Cy Young winner. He’s still only 25 years old and should be around a long time. Plus if his curveball improves and maybe works on his slider more that he rarely uses or some other breaking pitch, he can get even better. He was phenomenal to watch all year and I look forward to many more years of dominance from Cam.
Closing Thoughts
It was a decent year, winning 93 games with an injury-riddled team wasn’t easy, but there needs to be changes. I want Boone gone. I want a new third baseman, hopefully a new catcher to pair with Wells, and I want a star who can make a huge impact in this order. Too many times we get to the postseason and can’t hit the ball. We need an impact bat for the middle of the order. I have hope for us in 2027 and beyond but we need to change our approach. Things have not worked in October the past two years and I think we need to get more guys that can hit the ball and get on base. We sell out for power a lot but having someone who can keep rallies going and can drive in runs is a necessity in my eyes. I know it sounds so simple and in my opinion batting average does not mean that much in today’s league. However, I want a guy that I can rely on to get a hit. Sure it might not be extra bases or a homer, but we already have a lot of guys that can do that. We strike out too many times and having someone who can put the ball in play more would help the lineup in my opinion.
Anyway, thank you for reading, I know this was a long post but I had a lot to say. I’ll always be a Yankees fan and I love these players and the team, but I want them to do better. As I have had to say for years now: “Maybe next year.”
I thoroughly enjoyed all of this. You are right — Boone and Cashman need to go. It is long past time for them both.