STILL WAITING FOR OUR NEXT CHAMPIONSHIP
 
Besides watching the Yankees prior to the playoffs, I watched a lot of  American and National League games like I typically do each season.  The top-tier teams, including the Brewers, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Mariners, Phillies, and Padres seemed to be very good but none of them stood out as being an inevitable World Series Champion for 2025 any more than the Yankees did.  This season, I was unsure who had the best chance to win it all.  In the end, the Dodgers, the team with the highest payroll, won the World Series, which is not always the case.   
 
For the Yankees, this past season had, as usual, some frustrations and lull periods.  In the end, we finished respectfully but not sensationally.  While the Yankees won 94 regular season games, tying the Blue Jays for the best record in the American League, it clearly was not enough.  That American League tie became insignificant in the end because the Yankees lost their head-to-head games against the Blue Jays during the regular season (winning only 5 of 13).  That result gave the Blue Jays the right to become the team with the “buy” in the playoff rounds which enabled them to rest and skip the first round (against the Red Sox).  Instead, the Yankees had to face the Red Sox in that Wild Card Series.  Thankfully, the Yankees won against them 2 games to 1 in the best-of-three.
 
Sadly, though, the Yankees then lost (again this season) in their head-on games against the Blue Jays (3 games to 1 in the best of 5).  The “buy” period proved to help the Blue Jays because they didn’t have enough starting pitchers but were able to rest and align their top 2 starters so that they could be used multiple times, while the Yankees lacked enough strategic rest periods for their starting staff.  Hopefully, next season the Yankees will remember how they caused their own disadvantage in the playoffs!  Besides their failure to position themselves better in the playoffs, the Yankees lost based on many other reasons, but mostly because their 2 top starting pitchers, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón, failed to pitch well once they finally got to start their games.  In one optimistic and future point, at least Judge proved to many fans that he can indeed produce in the playoffs.  During the collective 7 games, he had an impressive .500 batting average with 13 hits, 1 home run, scored 5 runs, and 7 RBIs.
 
Once the Yankees were eliminated, the Blue Jays moved onto the next round to face the Mariners.  While they didn’t have that same advantageous rest period, they still managed to beat the Mariners in the best of 7, needing all 7 games for their victory, advancing to the World Series.  The Blue Jays, again, needed to play all 7 games when facing the Dodgers in the World Series, but came out on the losing side for that final round when the Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series.  It wasn’t easy for the Dodgers as they, too, had to play all 7 games to win it all.
 
Collectively, the 2025 World Series had the most innings ever (including 2 games in 1 with an 18-inning marathon of approximately 6 hours during Game 3).  The games had a lot of intensity during 6 of the 7 games.  Yet, neither team demonstrated any superb dominance.  In fact, some of the defense and baserunning decisions were bad, especially by the Blue Jays.  That, for Yankees’ fans, helped alleviate what we witnessed during last year’s World Series when it was the Yankees demonstrating similar flaws against the Dodgers, including Judge’s misplay in center field.  Still, this season’s World Series provided a lot of nail-biting entertainment for its viewers (including me).
 
Getting back to the Yankees’ 2025 regular season, the Yankees brought the fans a lot of good games (especially at home) with Captain Judge leading the charge with 53 homeruns and 114 RBIs, although he had to spend 10 days on the Injured List with a right elbow flexor strain, which also resulted in his need to DH often due to his healing but weak elbow being a hindrance as an outfielder (diving and throwing).  Giancarlo Stanton had to play right field for many of those games in order to stay in the lineup.  Some of those plays were not wonderful to watch because of his lack of running abilities.
 
For all of us to remember, the top successful Yankees’ hitters from the 2025 season in order of WAR (Wins Above Replacement) which is today’s main weighted category along with each player’s OPS (On-Base plus Slugging) is as follows (based on their players who played at least 130 games):
 
Aaron Judge (9.7) WAR / 1.144 OPS
Cody Bellinger (5.1) / .813
Jazz Chisholm (4.2) / .813
Trent Grisham (3.5) / .811
Ben Rice (2.3) / .836
 
As for our starting pitching, we had very good performances during the regular season from several including veterans Max Fried and Carlos Rodón, along with rookie phenom, Cam Schlittler.  Based on my favorite WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) stat, here are their respective numbers:
 
Max Fried (1.101)
Carlos Rodón (1.049)
Cam Schlittler (1.219) - with a little less than ½ season
 
Our bullpen descended as we got past the midway point.  Our 5 best performers included:
 
David Bednar (0.0932) - Cashman thankfully attained him on July 31 in which he became our official closer almost immediately replacing Devin Williams
Luke Weaver (1.021)
Brent Headrick (1.043)
Tim Hill (1.104)
Devin Williams (1.129) - finally got his act together towards the end of the season
 
As usual, the Yankees need a decent amount of improvements to be made prior to the 2026 season.  Also, as usual, they are already in a deficit with injuries before the season’s Spring Training games begin.  Gerrit Cole will continue his 2025 rehab from Tommy John surgery into at least May.  Rodon is also in rehab with anticipation of a May return after he had minor surgery removing loose bodies and shaving down a bone spur from his elbow.  He, too, is expected to be unavailable until May.  Anthony Volpe had surgery on his shoulder and is expected to be unavailable through May or June.  That injury was determined late by the Yankees’ doctors and apparently caused Volpe to have a lot of poor hitting performances and poor defensive plays, although Volpe denied blaming the shoulder.  Hopefully, Volpe was wrong and the repair will enable him to be a very good shortstop again.  If not, the Yankees have another issue for the 2026 season!
 
In the end, once again, we failed to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the World Series Championship.  For most teams’ fans, 16 years is not awful, but to the Yankees’ fans, it’s way too long!  Is 2026 going to be our year?  In my next blog posting, I will provide and analyze some of the available free agents and, of course, compile my own wish list for us to acquire and include our own free agents who I feel we should not pursue along with a list of players we package in trades for good returns.