By John Jastremski
The 2025 New York Yankees just put together a recent stretch of baseball that sums up their season rather appropriately.
The Yankees got rather fat against three sub .500 teams. The Twins, Cardinals and Rays respectively.
They got absolutely smacked by the Boston Red Sox, one of the better teams in the American League.
It’s been a common theme watching this group play over the course of the season.
When the Yankees are going good, they’re going real good. The ball is leaving the ballpark, their starters are going deep into games and they find a way to hold down leads in the late innings.
When the Yankees are going poorly, a lot of the warts and deficiencies of the group are on full display for the world to see.
It’s a team that can’t win without hitting a home run. It’s a team that yucks up leads with shaky relief work.
Oh and don’t forget about the poor fundamentals in the field and the bases that continue to be a narrative around the franchise dating back to last season.
When the Yankees are going poorly, all of these elements come to play.
Here’s the dirty little secret regarding the 2025 Yankees: They will be playing October baseball.
The team faces a September schedule that is rather reasonable against a good number of sub .500 opponents.
More than likely, the Yankees will find themselves in the Wild Card round the first week in October with a series against a team that has owned them all season.
The only way this group is changing the current bully narrative about their season is two fold.
Stun the world by winning the American League East. Highly unlikely with a 5 game deficit and a month to play, but it would signal a whole lot of wins against both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox.
Two, flip the script in October against the better teams in the American League.
It’s hard to imagine the script changing in Yankees land, but if you’re not satisfied with the narrative, you have to change it.
We’ll see if this team can…
You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts every Sunday & Thursday evenings. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets Postgame on SNY.
