The New York Yankees travelled to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers in what they hoped would serve as some sort of redemption for last year's World Series loss. Things did not turn out that way for manager Aaron Boone and his staff. The Yankees were fortunate to escape their West Coast rivals with a victory on Sunday that permitted them to dodge getting swept.
Plenty of Yankees deserve blame for what went wrong against the Dodgers. Saturday's 18-2 loss was particularly embarrassing for one of baseball's most prideful franchises. Losing an early lead on Friday night with Max Fried on the hill won't go down as a highlight for the team's 2025 campaign.
These three players really let their teammates down during the high-profile series. At the very least, these three Yankees need to show they can show up in meaningful games down the stretch. Questions will swirl around them until they're able to atone for their missteps in Los Angeles.
1. Will Warren
Will Warren has been a relatively bright spot for the Yankees' starting rotation this year, but his start against the Dodgers on Saturday was nothing short of a disaster. He looked completely overmatched by Los Angeles's star-studded order and gave up seven earned runs on just 1.1 innings pitched.
Failing to get out of the second innings did not just put his offense under intense pressure to make a comeback. It also provided immense stress on his bullpen to cover almost eight full innings of work. In the end, Boone resorted to putting reserve infielder Pablo Reyes on the mound to finish out the lopsided defeat.
One ugly outing won't doom Warren's tenure with the Yankees but it could have lasting effects on how the franchise views his ceiling. If the team is fortunate enough to make the playoffs there will be fierce competition to round out Boone's rotation. If healthy, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon seem like locks. Warren would like to be the No. 3 option but he'll have to show better stuff during the regular season to turn that dream into a reality.
In particular, pitching coach Matt Blake will pay a lot of attention to how Warren performs in high-profile matchups down the stretch. It's one thing to dominate the Rockies in May. It's quite another to go deep into a World Series game against the Dodgers in October.
Warren's maturation process will be a big issue to monitor for the Yankees in the coming months. His disastrous start against the Dodgers is only one data point, but it might be the most important start he's put on his resume to date.
2. Mark Leiter Jr.
Warren gave up seven earned runs on Saturday night but his bullpen managed to give up 11 after he left the field. Mark Leiter Jr. was guilty of surrendering four runs in just .2 innings of work.
That's a disappointing result for a reliever who has gained a lot more trust from Boone and his coaching staff on the young season. He was not the effective reliever the Yankees hoped they'd acquired down the stretch of last season. The upside is that Leiter Jr. seems to have more life in his arm after an offseason of rest.
He will still get loads of opportunities to wash the bad taste of this appearance out of the franchise's memory books but he won't have an unlimited leash if he wants to be a key part of the team's late-inning options when October rolls around. Failing to keep the Dodgers offense at bay in this game won't work in his favor when his team makes their playoff roster decisions.
3. Cody Bellinger
Three games is a small sample size for any MLB hitter, but Cody Bellinger would have hoped for more success against his former club. He only managed one hit in nine at-bats against the Dodgers on the weekend. That raises mild questions about his continued ability to produce against elite competition.
The good news for the Yankees and Bellinger is that he continued to field competent at-bats against Los Angeles's pitching staff. He handled their velocity relatively well and was no chasing pitches outside of the zone. There's every reason to believe that bad luck played heavily into his poor results against the Dodgers.
Even so, he could have done more to help his team win. The Yankees need meaningful contributions from everyone in their lineup if they're going to knock of MLB's best team when the stakes are at their highest. He wasn't the reason New York failed to win this series but he was not a big part of any positive solution either. The Yankees need more for Bellinger moving forward if they're going to realize their World Series dreams.