Sorry, but Yankees are in absolutely no way an underdog

We do not live in a world where the New York Yankees are underdogs, no matter what you might have heard.

An inevitable trope in baseball is that every star player will eventually cycle through the New York Yankees roster. Nothing personifies that more than the popular Philadephia Eagles underdog masks now being assimilated into Yankees culture — that’s right, apparently the World Series favorites are viewing themselves as underdogs this year.

According to GM Brian Cashman, the AL East belongs to the Boston Red, who claimed the division last year while the Yankees nabbed a Wild Card spot last season.

Cashman spoke with George A. King III from the New York Post, anointing the Red Sox as the team to beat in their division, for now at least.

"“They are the American League East champs so we are not on equal footing,’’ the Yankees’ general manager said Wednesday during a team workout at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “We were a wild card. They are the American League East champs and we are not. We are not on equal footing until we take it away from them.’’"

The underdog comments from Cashman caused a big stir on Twitter, leading to the New York Daily New’s to roll out this cover referencing Eagles offensive lineman Lane Johnson’s dog mask.

The idea of the Yankees being labeled as underdogs is deeply stupid. Brian Cashman trying to take some pressure off his young team make sense, especially with expectations soaring in the Bronx.

But it’s the freaking Yankees we’re talking about; they’re essentially a corporation posing as a baseball team. There’s never a situation where there isn’t pressure to on the club to churn out a successful season — they haven’t had an actual losing season (sub-.500) since 1992 and have missed the playoffs just six times in a quarter century. For Millenials born in 1992, they’ve never witnessed a Yankees team that finished a season below .500.

An easier way to interpret this is it’s a rather lame attempt by Cashman to buy himself some wiggle room if his club does get off to slow start. Such a thing wouldn’t be unheard of: A rookie manager in Aaron Boone, young players like AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge might hit a sophomore slump, new players trying to work their way into team chemistry — this season isn’t a sure-thing.

Cashman’s comments are nothing more than a lame diversion attempt to try and push some of the pressure off on the Red Sox and possibly give his club an early goal of their season.

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While it may work for their clubhouse, nobody else in baseball is taking the Yankees lightly and not a single soul feels like they’re up against underdogs.