The New York Yankees have lost four straight, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Miami Marlins. That has never happened before in Yankees-Marlins history, so the vibes are bad. A seemingly productive trade deadline has turned nightmarish in record time. Jake Bird has already been demoted to Triple-A. David Bednar and Camilo Doval have both been knocked around. This "super bullpen" does not look so super.
Something has to change in New York. Clearly. The return of Aaron Judge will help, but New York continues to kneecap its own success with mind-numbing errors on the base paths and in the field. This team is so far behind other contenders in terms of fundamentals that it's difficult to imagine the Yankees fully turning things around. Thei 2024 pennant win is but a distant memory.
Now 60-53 on the season, New York is third in the AL East — 5.5 games behind first-place Toronto and 2.5 games behind second-place Boston. The Yankees are third in the AL Wild Card standings, only 1.5 games ahead of the Texas Rangers, who just beat New Yok on Monday night. This is a precarious position for the Bronx Bombers.
If the Yankees fall out of the postseason, it will be a grave disappointment — and these folks may not stick around after such a failure.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
RHP Devin Williams
The Yankees swung a trade for Devin Williams last offseason with hopes of securing one of the best closers in baseball. After a dominant 2024 campaign in Milwaukee, however, Williams' production has plummeted in a Yankees uniform. He has a 5.10 ERA and 1.13 WHIP with 55 strikeouts in 42.1 innings pitched.
Williams is probably better than those numbers suggest — he's still missing bats, with a whiff rate in the 97th percentile — but he has allowed three hits, two walks and four earned runs over his last three outings. He's not trending in the right direction. New York has other options now, so Williams' claim on the closing role is in jeopardy. In a few months, his contract expires and he hits free agency.
After acquiring multiple controllable bullpen arms at the deadline, including established closers in Doval and Bednar, it feels like a given that Williams will not return in 2026. That is especially true if the Yankees continue to tank in the months ahead. He's a strong bounce-back candidate next season, but right now, Williams is far too volatile to earn a long-term spot in the Bronx.
SS Anthony Volpe
Anthony Volpe has probably performed better than his current reputation suggests — he's at 1.2 fWAR with a palatable .710 OPS and 95 wRC+. Nothing spectacular, but he's at least a functional back-end bat at shortstop. To be frank, however, the former top prospect does not seem comfortable under the harsh lights of Yankee Stadium. It feels a bit reductive and simplistic to say a player might perform better in a smaller market, but Volpe probably looks less catastrophically bad in, like, Minnesota than he does in New York.
He continues to stack errors, now up to a league-worst 16 on the season. Volpe's minus-7 outs above average puts him in MLB's third percentile. The 24-year-old is a complete disaster in the field at one of the most demanding positions. Once praised as a potential Gold Glove candidate, Volpe is second-guessing throws and bobbling simple grounders. Whether it's a technical or a psychological problem, we can't know for sure. But it sure feels like the latter.
Volpe is becoming a persistent negative for a team that already struggles on the defensive end. There are too many holes in the Yankees' defense right now, with Volpe emerging as the most significant of those vulnerabilities. If New York's slide continues, we have to believe the Yankees look for shortstop upgrades and bite the bullet on Volpe this winter.
Manager Aaron Boone
Is Aaron Boone really at fault for New York's torpedoing bullpen and consistent mental errors? Maybe not. He can't run the bases or field ground-balls. He also can't make his ostensibly very good bullpen arms actually perform when it comes time to preserve a lead.
That said, Boone's bullpen management has come under fire all the same. He has a tendency of use all his bullets up early. He puts guys in difficult positions. It's more a player issue than a coaching issue, but New York's bullpen is bad enough relative to expectations for folks to start questioning the coach.
As for the base-running and fielding errors, well... it's on the coach to sharpen fundamentals and get guys in the right headspace. The Yankees are the worst team in the league right now when it comes to completely avoidable miscues. Boone can only so do much to instill a competitive mindset in his players, but an inability to hold folks accountable has become the defining feature of Boone's 2025 campaign. It's not a good look when players run into needless outs and fumble simple defensive plays without consequence or any real gesture at change.
If the Yankees miss the playoffs with this roster, Boone may finally be in search of a new gig.