There is something wrong with these 2026 New York Yankees.
No, it's just the fact that Aaron Judge has been missing from the lineup for over a month. It's much deeper than that.
While the crosstown New York Mets have been in the short-hairs of the New York media's wrath this season, which kicked into high gear this week with the firing of manager Carlos Mendoza, the Yankees have basically gotten away free of heavy criticism.
Again, we get it, it's the Yankees. It's about October.
But if this weekend's series up in Boston proved anything, it's that nobody fears this Yankees team. And there is no greater indictment of a team when the teams in its own division look at the Yankees as an opportunity to put together a winning streak.
The Red Sox are pretty much left for dead in the AL East race, but as far as the wild card is concerned? After their sweep of the Yankees this weekend, they are very much alive and well. Boston won all four games against the Yankees this weekend, culminating in a wild 5-4 extra inning victory on Sunday night.
The Yankees were getting no-hit through seven innings by ex-Yanks starter, Sonny Grey who dominated his old team with nine strikeouts, good enough to notch 2,000 Ks for his career.
But be as it may the Yankees were given every opportunity to spoil the night. Errors on the Red Sox contributed to four Yankees runs between the ninth and tenth innings combined, and New York carried a stunning 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 10th before all hell broke loose.
Anthony Seigler led off the bottom of the 10th with an RBI single off Fernando Cruz to cut the Yankees lead to 4-3. A double by Masataka Yoshida and a sac fly by Tsung Che-Cheng tied the game at four. Finally Yankees killer Jaren Durran lined the game winning base hit to right to win it for Boston.
It was the first four game sweep by Boston of New York since 2018. That year Boston won the World Series.
But more disturbingly, the Yankees issues against Boston all weekend highlight a major issue. Boston, despite being in last place in the East, has no fear of the Yankees. In fact they lead the season series 5-4. Last year the Red Sox dominated the Yankees in the regular season before Cam Schilliter shut the door on Boston in the ALDS.
While the Yankees sit at 48-35, and in the catbird's seat of the A.L. Wild Card, they are only 14-14 against teams from within their own division. More interestingly the Yankees are also 7-8 in inter-league play; 14-4 against the A.L. Central and 13-9 against the West.
In other words if you take away the Yankees results against the A.L. Central and A.L. West, they are a mediocre 21-22 on the season.
Whats more disturbing, the Yankees issues against their own division go back at least four years now to 2023. That season New York went 22-30 against the A.L. East and finished the year in fourth place at 82-80.
Two seasons ago, when the Yankees went to the World Series, they were a measly 26-26 against the East, and 45-19 against the rest of the American League. For the record, the Yanks were 23-23 vs. the N.L. that year in 2024.
Last season, New York was a mediocre 27-25 against the East, and 41-21 against the rest of the American League. In October they got bounced by their division rivals, the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS.
Combine all of this and you can see the Yankees are 89-95 against their own division since 2023.
That's not good.
Couple that with the fact that the Yankees still can't avoid the injury bug to their star players; they are without both Judge and Giancarlo Stanton right now. Stanton has been out since May with a calf injury with no timetable to return. Judge won't be back til late August at the earliest.
Yes, Cody Bellinger (.262, 11 homers, 49 RBI) and Ben Rice (.272, 22 homers, 53 RBI) have been next to great this year, but outside of that duo nobody else is hitting consistently enough.
Jazz Chisholm is inconsistent. Trent Grishom has come back down to earth this year. Ryan McMahon has been miserable with the bat.
Anthony Volpe has been just average since coming back from injury. Austin Wells has been hurt and extremely disappointing all the way around. Spencer Jones hasn't done enough. Neither has oft-injured former top prospect Jasson Dominguez.
Ironically, Volpe, Wells, Dominguez, and Jones were all touted as top prospects in the Yankees farm system, and lit things up in Double-A Somerset over the past few seasons. Now they are all struggling either to stay healthy or play well.
The only thing that gives the Yankees a chance is their starting pitching. Cam Schilliter is a Cy Young candidate this year in his first full season. Gerrit Cole is back to throwing bee-bees again. Those two alone could carry the Yankees, and are the only reasons why they are still a favorite to rep the American League in the World Series.
But in order to do that, the Yankees need to start striking fear into their opponents, and with the way things are going in the A.L. three teams could come out of this division in addition to the division winner.
If that becomes true, the Yankees are in for a bumpy ride yet again.
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