Now that one other Yankee season has concluded prematurely with no championship trophy, the same old finger-pointing begins and followers in each nook of Yankeeland are on the lookout for culprits. However I’m right here to say on this newest playoff elimination by the hands of the Blue Jays the blame ought to fall squarely on the gamers themselves.
Briefly, the Blue Jays proved themselves to be a greater crew — and that was not the fault of Yankees GM Brian Cashman. He did the whole lot he might to, first, pivot to different areas of want after Juan Soto’s defection final December and, later, to shore up the infield protection midseason, and at last to land a top-flight nearer in David Bednar together with a much-needed burst of velocity and vitality in Jose Caballero on the commerce deadline.
You can actually make the case — as I’ve — that no GM in baseball had a greater 12 months than Cashman along with his profitable trades and signings of Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Fernando Cruz, Bednar and Caballero that value the Yankees no gamers of consequence and in any other case simply cash.
What the AL Division Collection — and truly their common season matchups wherein the Yankees have been 5-8 in opposition to the Blue Jays — got here right down to was a matter of Toronto being the very best crew in baseball when it comes to making contact and placing the ball in play and the Yankees one of many worst. Through the season the Jays’ batters had probably the most hits and second lowest strikeouts within the majors.
Against this, the Yankees had the third most strikeouts behind solely the Rockies and Angels, and the twelfth most hits. As well as, the Yankees hit 83 extra homers than the Jays throughout the season however scored solely 43 extra runs. When it got here to clutch hitting, the Jays led the majors hitting .292 with runners in scoring place versus the Yankees who ranked twelfth at .255.
Though on paper it might be argued the Yankees had a top quality participant at each place (as soon as Cashman shored up third base with the acquisitions of Ryan McMahon and Caballero), the very fact remained they have been nonetheless the identical residence run-or-bust offense they’ve been for the previous couple of years. And it was a lot the identical within the ALDS because the Jays out-hit the Yankees 37-24 within the 4 video games and struck out solely 34 occasions to the Yankees’ 50 — 12 of them by Anthony Volpe.
Which brings us to what comes now for Cashman in his effort to rectify the one over-riding Yankee flaw that seemingly exhibits up method too many occasions within the common season and particularly in opposition to good pitching within the postseason – too many rattling strikeouts and two few multi-hit rallies. If Cashman might be blamed for something this 12 months it was his blind loyalty to Volpe, who hit .212 with 150 strikeouts and simply 43 walks in one of many traditionally worst seasons ever by a serious league shortstop. And his 73.3 strikeout share within the ALDS was the worst mark ever in a divisional sequence (minimal 15 plate appearances).
This can’t proceed. The Yankees’ high prospect, George Lombard Jr., is a shortstop however he’s not almost prepared, hitting simply .237 in 132 video games at Excessive-A and Double-A this 12 months — which implies Cashman in all probability wants to accumulate a stopgap shortstop to platoon with Caballero subsequent 12 months. In any case, it may possibly’t be Volpe.
What the Yankees want greater than the rest is a leadoff hitter, who makes constant contact and doesn’t strike out. They’re going to let Trent Grisham go and never danger tendering him the $22 million qualifying provide, and proper now are taking a look at turning over left and heart discipline to the children (Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones). However once more we’re speaking extra strikeouts — Dominguez had 115 versus 41 walks as a part-timer this 12 months and Jones, regardless of his minor league-leading 35 homers at Double-A and Triple-A, additionally had a disturbing 179 strikeouts.
As without cost brokers, there may be nothing to the stories that the Yankees have curiosity in Kyle Schwarber. The very last thing they want is to speculate a $100 million in a 33-year-old DH who struck out 197 occasions and went 3-for-16 with eight strikeouts within the NLDS vs. the Dodgers. Nevertheless, I really feel pretty assured Cashman will re-sign Cody Bellinger, who was the second most useful participant on the Yankees this 12 months and loves being a Yankee. I may also see him bringing again Goldschmidt on a one-year deal to platoon at first with Ben Rice.
A minimum of Cashman won’t must dip into the most costly space of free company — beginning pitching — the place as soon as once more his participant growth division has completed a commendable job assembling a secure of high quality younger starters. Conceivably Cam Schlittler will advance even additional in ’26 as a top-of-the-rotation starter, and beginning subsequent season at Triple A, righty Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, who Cashman acquired in December 2024 from the Purple Sox for catcher Carlos Narvaez, has been rated by scouts as one of many high pitching prospects in all of the minors. With Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt each returning subsequent 12 months, the Yankees determine to have a wealth of beginning pitching which could be counted on to maintain them to a different journey to October.
It’s what Cashman does concerning the hitting that may as soon as once more decide how far they go in October.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
Final Tuesday Jacksonville actual property developer Patrick Zalupski, Ohio businessman Invoice Cosgrove and Ken Babby, proprietor of minor league franchises in Jacksonville and Akron, have been launched at George M. Steinbrenner Subject as the brand new house owners of the Tampa Bay Rays, and whereas all of them expressed sunny optimism about the way forward for the franchise, on the finish of the day they supplied no solutions as to why they might have spent an astronomical $1.7 billion on a crew with no stadium and historically one the bottom attendances in baseball.
Presumably they paid $1.7 billion for the crew — that earlier proprietor Stu Sternberg purchased for a reported $200 million in 2004 — with the intention of getting a brand new stadium in Tampa (Hillsborough County) the place the majority of the Tampa Bay inhabitants is. It most actually was not price near that if Rays remained in St. Petersburg. However as was revealed on the press convention, the brand new house owners weren’t permitted to have any discussions with Tampa/Hillsborough County officers till the deal was accomplished. In order that they went into this blindly. What they did say, is that their imaginative and prescient is for a brand new stadium (with a non-retractable dome) in a village-like setting with outlets, eating places and bars much like the Braves’ Truist Park in Cobb County outdoors Atlanta which they termed “the gold standard” for modern-day ballparks. In addition they stated they would wish a minimal of 100 acres — someplace — to construct such a fancy. Left unsaid was the place the cash was going to return from for the brand new ballpark — which had been the issue with Sternberg in quite a few stadium plans that by no means have been fulfilled.
A telling backstory to the press convention have been the remarks of each Hillsborough county commissioner Joshua Wostal and Tampa mayor Jane Castor who re-affirmed their earlier stances that no taxpayer {dollars} could be authorised for a brand new stadium for the Rays. As well as, the brand new house owners admitted that the Rays’ financial scenario won’t change so long as they’re nonetheless taking part in at Tropicana Subject (the place the lease runs out in 2027), dampening any hopes of Rays followers that the crew payroll (additionally constantly among the many lowest in baseball) will likely be considerably elevated. I’m certain the brand new house owners have been totally briefed by Sternberg concerning the estimated mixed $100 million the crew reaps yearly from income sharing and the MLB central fund, which greater than covers the crew payroll. So primarily what you had was a press convention of three wealthy guys speaking about how excited they have been to be house owners of a baseball crew, and I couldn’t assist however be reminded of the final scene within the Robert Redford film “The Candidate” wherein Redford’s character, a political neophyte who unexpectedly wins the governorship of California, turns to his marketing campaign supervisor and asks: “Now what do we do?”
Initially Printed: October 11, 2025 at 10:30 AM EDT
