The Yankees World Series Drought Continues

 

*This piece was written the morning after Game 4 of the ALDS between the Yankees-Blue Jays.

 

The Yankees season is over. After all the momentum from Game 3, the Yankee offense who a night before stormed back and took control, in Game 4 they went quietly into the offseason against the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen.

The Bronx Bombers didn’t get a hit from Ryan McMahon’s solo home run in the third inning to Ahmed Rosario’s single in the seventh inning. They only had four baserunners over those innings all via the walk. When Paul Goldscmidt touched second base on the Rosario single—that was the first time the Yankees had a runner in scoring position in a game with the season on the line. Until Aaron Judge singled home Jasson Dominguez in the 9th inning, that was the first hit with a runner in scoring position, they were 0-4 until that. The top of the Yankees order (Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton) collected two hits, Judge had two of them, and Stanton single in his last at-bat in the 8th inning to kickstart the Yankees failed rally. The Yankees left multiple runners in scoring position in the 6th, 7th, and 8th inning and couldn’t get the job done. The biggest regret the lineup will have from last night is Austin Wells swinging at the first pitch against Blue Jay closer Jeff Hoffman in the 8th with the bases loaded. Hoffman was all over the place coming in during the middle of the inning, walking pinch hitter Ben Rice, and looking like the moment may be a little too big for Hoffman to handle. That immediately went out the window when Wells hit a weak flyball to left to end the inning. The lack of baseball IQ was an undoing for the Bombers all year and showed again in the biggest moment of the season.

The Yankees bullpen also ran out of gas. Devin Williams and Camilo Doval were fantastic for the entire series—until last night. In the top of the 7th coming in for Cam Schlittler, who looked like he’s a five-year postseason veteran and not a rookie making his 16th career outing, again, Williams allowed Nathan Lukes to single home a pair to give Toronto two needed insurance runs. The Yankees brought some home back into The Stadium from their bottom of the 7th but that didn’t last long. Doval an inning later suffered a lead-off double from Alejandro Kirk and then a one-out single to Myles Straw to make the game 5-1 Blue Jays. At that point everyone in the building that paid to be there feared the season was over and the second longest World Series drought in franchise history would extend another year.

“When it ends this way, it’s terrible. It hurts” said Yankee Manager Aaron Boone said postgame. For all of Boone’s tenure this is how it’s ended. Short of the ultimate goal. Short of the mandated goal set by the organization every year of winning the World Series. Yet again the Yankees analytics got them to a certain point but not to the point of raising the Commissioner’s Trophy.

Part of the reason why the Yankees are going home and not getting on a flight to Toronto is because of two lineup decisions Aaron Boone failed to make again. The first being Anthony Volpe. The Yankee shortstop in the last two games of the series was 0-7 with six strike outs. You cannot win in the postseason when you have an automatic out at the bottom of your lineup. Boone not playing Jose Caballero to switch things up is a stain on the manager. The other lineup mishap was staying with Trent Grisham and not going to Jasson Dominguez. Grisham who had a career year in pinstripes was just 2-19 in the division series and looked lost at the plate in three of the four games. Staying with the guys who got you here is one thing, but Grisham reached the point of no return. Dominguez pinch hit for Volpe in the 9th inning, doubled and later scored in his first career postseason action. There were concerns over his ability to hit left-handed pitching and his defense, which have been valid concerns, but given Dominguez’s limitations why have him on the roster at all if he wasn’t going to play his natural position in center? That falls on the plate of General Manager Brian Cashman.

Going into the offseason the Yankees have some roster construction questions that need to be answered. Mostly all up the middle. How will they fix having three left-handed hitting catchers? What’s going to happen with Anthony Volpe at shortstop? Will Trent Grisham resign to play centerfield? Is Cody Bellinger coming back? How do you reconfigure the bullpen? Cashman has some work to do to better this team after taking a step back this season. Perhaps the Yankee Captain said it best “we gotta clean some things up and we’ll be right back here.” That they do let’s see if they do and how the chips will fall in the 2026 season…