New York Yankees fans hoped that Tuesday's dramatic win would prove to have been a turning point that fans look fondly at in a World Series movie in November, but instead, the Bronx Bombers followed that big-time win with an embarrassing and potentially costly loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only did the team commit defensive miscue after defensive miscue, but Max Fried's blister woes resurfaced, raising real concern.
After Wednesday's loss, New York is now 56-46 on the season, sitting 4.0 games back of the first-place Blue Jays in the AL East. They still hold the top Wild Card spot, and are within striking distance of Toronto in the division, so the sky isn't completely falling. But fans are officially starting to doubt the team's chances of winning the World Series, if they weren't already.
This Yankees team has extremely poor fundamentals, is flawed, and folds in seemingly every big game it plays in. It's been excruciating to watch, and these four individuals deserve most of the blame.
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4) Hal Steinbrenner, owner
It might be unfair to blame Hal Steinbrenner, who isn't asked to do much more than cut checks as the owner of the team, especially when New York's luxury tax payroll is over $300 million — the third-highest mark in the Majors. But I am going to do just that.
Look: These are the New York Yankees we're talking about here. I understand that Steinbrenner has invested a lot of money into the payroll, but he could have, and should have, done more. Holes, particularly at third base and in the bullpen, were evident before the regular season even began, and Steinbrenner was fine with that. Now, to fill them, the Yankees are going to have to part with valuable prospect capital when it would've cost nothing more than money (and in some cases a draft pick) to sign, say, Alex Bregman or even Carlos Estevez.
Steinbrenner doesn't deserve more blame than the others on this list, but it'd be wrong not to place any blame on his shoulders, knowing that he sets hard limits when he owns the New York Yankees.
3) Aaron Boone, manager
It feels as if Yankees fans have wanted Aaron Boone fired ever since he took the job to become the team's manager. Obviously, a lot of the criticism he's received hasn't been fair, but some of it absolutely has. It's hard to blame him all the time for pushing the wrong bullpen buttons when the buttons he has aren't very good to begin with, but how can he not be blamed for the years of poor fundamentals?
I mean, all of last season, the Yankees struggled in the field and on the base paths. Many of the players responsible, like Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo and Juan Soto, are no longer in town and were replaced with guys who should've been upgrades in those areas, like Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt. Instead, it feels as if the Yankees have only gotten worse in the field and on the bases. Every night they make a back-breaking mistake, or, on nights like Wednesday night, they make five or six of them.
Yes, the players have to be better, but how can Boone be blame-free when this is an issue every single year? Isn't the manager's job to combat fundamental mistakes? Instead, it feels as if Boone refuses to acknowledge they're even happening whenever he talks publicly. It's infuriating. Boone's teams just can't get out of their own way, and the skipper is absolutely part of the reason why.
2) Anthony Volpe, shortstop
Anthony Volpe is the only player I have on this list. Yes, others have struggled too, but nobody has underperformed to the degree of Volpe, the team's starting shortstop.
Volpe might not have been a star in his first two seasons, but he was a rock-solid starting shortstop despite a wildly inconsistent bat because of his elite defense and baserunning. Well, his baserunning run value has gone from the 97th percentile in 2024 to the 53rd percentile this season, according to Baseball Savant, and his defense, both when using the eye-test and looking at advanced metrics, has taken a monstrous step back.
Normally, we'd expect to see improvement from a 24-year-old in his third big-league season. All Volpe has managed to do this season, though, is regress, and it makes no sense as to why. Is he hurt? Is he in his head? I don't know, but he went from looking like a franchise cornerstone to a player they have to think awfully hard about replacing as soon as this offseason.
1) Brian Cashman, general manager
Some of the blame for Brian Cashman not doing his job particularly well can be placed on Steinbrenner, but Cashman spending over $300 million in payroll and having a team with as many holes as this Yankees team does is largely his fault.
I can't get on Cashman too much for the state of the rotation as injuries have played a huge role there, but the bullpen is a mess, and third base has been a black hole for years. How is it that we're in late July and the Yankees still have these major issues? How do the Yankees have to consistently turn to guys like Jonathan Loaisiga and Ian Hamilton in the bullpen and start Oswald Peraza at third base?
Cashman beginning the year with evident holes is bad enough, but not making a trade, especially as the Yankees continue to fall in the standings, is inexcusable. I get that prices are higher than anyone would like in June, but if making moves can help patch holes, giving the Yankees a better shot of winning the World Series, who cares?
It feels as if we haven't seen enough desperation from Cashman. He only cut bait with DJ LeMahieu after it became so apparent that Jazz Chisholm Jr. had to move to his natural position of second base. He still has yet to admit his Marcus Stroman mistake. Either he refuses to acknowledge or is unaware of evident holes in the Yankees roster. The result of that is a club merely in a Wild Card spot.