BAUERS THRIVES & PROVES THE YANKEES FRONT OFFICE IS CLUELESS

Jake Bauers spent Wednesday night fighting off Blake Snell. Brian Cashman should have spent it fighting off indigestion.

Eleven pitches. A two-run homer. A seventh-inning lead change at Dodger Stadium that helped Milwaukee beat Los Angeles, 6–2, and move within one win of the World Series. Two nights earlier, Bauers worked a 12-pitch walk ahead of Christian Yelich’s two-run single. Apparently, somebody forgot to tell him he was supposed to be disposable.

Watch those at-bats. That is a skilled hitter working. Recognizing pitches. Protecting the plate. Refusing to surrender an at-bat because the pitcher has better credentials.

The kind of baseball you’re supposed to teach.

Which brings us to the Yankees, an organization that can explain a player’s limitations in seventeen different statistical languages but too often struggles to help him overcome them.

Bauers hit .202 with a .279 on-base percentage, a .693 OPS and 12 homers in 84 games for New York in 2023. The reason? Boone's inconsistency with the lineup.  It still exists today.  There were legitimate problems. Nobody needs to pretend otherwise. The question is whether the Yankees saw problems worth solving or they were just clueless on how to build up players. I say it's the latter.

Here’s his 2026 answer: .266/.389/.484, 26 homers, 86 RBIs. Sánchez added 12 homers and a .771 OPS.

That’s an enormous improvement for Bauers: 110 points in on-base percentage and 180 points in OPS over his Yankees season.

Funny how much better a hitter looks when he keeps reaching base.

And Gary Sánchez? Remember him? Before he became everybody’s favorite punching bag, he was supposed to be the future of the Yankees. In 2016, he hit .299 with 20 home runs in just 53 games. That excitement wasn’t invented by a marketing department. The kid could hit baseballs into next week.

He became a two-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner. Those accomplishments happened in pinstripes, too. That makes the eventual breakdown more frustrating: the Yankees had already seen what he could do.

Sánchez’s batting average this season certainly doesn’t scream superstar. But Milwaukee is getting useful offense from him while Bauers has become a major threat. A contender has found room for two former Yankees to contribute in October.

Somehow, the Brewers managed to survive the discovery that their players weren’t perfect.

Here’s my problem with Cashman’s operation: too often, it feels as though the Yankees acquire talent, identify the flaws and wait for the player to arrive at his own solution. When the solution doesn’t come quickly enough, the organization moves on with another explanation about roster construction.

Where is the accountability for making the player better?

We cannot see every coaching session. These numbers don’t prove nobody in New York worked with Bauers or Sánchez. But they absolutely justify asking why another organization is getting value the Yankees couldn’t sustain.

And before somebody calls this hindsight, remember Texas.

Nathan Eovaldi went 5–0 with a 2.95 ERA in the 2023 postseason. Aroldis Chapman posted a 2.25 ERA across nine playoff appearances. Jordan Montgomery was there too! Three former Yankees, both helping the Rangers win a championship.

Different departures. Different circumstances. Same irritating television experience for Yankees fans: watching familiar faces help somebody else finish the job.

No, every former Yankee doesn’t become a star. But how many of these October reminders does this front office get before its judgment becomes the story?

Development requires patience, instruction and a plan that changes when the player needs something different. You don’t get to take credit for identifying talent and then shrug when somebody else figures out how to use it.

Bauers stood there Wednesday night and made Snell keep working until he got a pitch he could punish.

That takes skill. It takes confidence. It takes the willingness to stay in the fight.

The Yankees’ front office ought to try it.

GIRARDI STEPS INTO THE BATTER'S BOX TO DEFEND BOONE & STRIKES OUT LOOKING!

File this story under "you just can't make this sh*t up!" Seriously. It's bananas. It's hard to find Aaron Boone defenders (especially on this site), but at least one does exist! It's a unicorn ladies and gentlemen!

Yankee fans are sick of Baboonie. He sucks, there is no sugar-coating this one. He's soft, can't manage a team and is the exact opposite of a leader but Joe Girardi defends him. There's no logical explanation to this but, Girardi says this was this was Baboonie's "best year of managing" and he's serious while the rest of us are laughing our asses off, you can read more HERE.

Maybe it was his best year of managing failure and chaos. I'll give him that. He had a lot of adversity to deal with but you know what....so does every manager! He doesn't get a high five for that. Injuries are a part of the game and they've been an obstacle since the beginning of baseball as we know it. Injuries are not the reason for the Yankees failure.

The lack of fundamentals and playing smart baseball is the reason for the Yankees failures. They do the same thing year after year. We've had nine years of this team living and dying by the long ball. They lack fundamentals. They can't play small ball, and they can't play smart baseball. How many stupid Jazz Chisholm quotes did we have to listen to after he botched a play that little leaguers can do? He was a disaster all season. Did Baboonie fix that? NO. He may have talked to Chisholm about it, but it certainly didn't work. It's a lack of accountability no matter how you slice it.

So this is my problem. Look at the pattern with Chisholm this season, how the hell is that his best year of managing? This failure falls on Baboonie. He's not solving the problem, he's trying to cover it up in hopes it won't show up again. Interestingly enough, Girardi does say that the Yankees have a culture problem, read more HERE. So who exactly is the one that cultivates culture? It's not the bat boy, it's the manager! How can you possibly be a good manager when you have a culture that lacks accountability? You can't! A good manager knows how to help their team thrive. That's not what Baboonie is doing. If he is going to argue the Yankees need a culture change, no one is going to disagree with him there. However, arguing for a culture change that includes keeping Baboonie is the dumbest thing he could ever say.

So basically Girardi is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He stepped up to the plate, tried to make a case for Baboonie and boy did he swing and miss. Epic failure.....just like another Yankees season.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

BLEEDING YANKEE BLUE BROUGHT THE DYNAMITE. RIZZO LIT THE FUSE.

First off, you’re all late to the party.

If you’ve been reading Bleeding Yankee Blue for the past five years, none of this should surprise you. We’ve been hammering the Yankees’ front office, questioning Brian Cashman’s judgment and calling out Aaron Boone’s failed leadership while everyone else kept waiting for the same operation to magically produce a different ending.

Now the criticism is getting louder. Wonderful. Grab a chair. We’ve been sitting here for years.

And thank God for Anthony Rizzo.

On Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered, Rizzo questioned how a team with this much talent and financial muscle keeps coming up empty. His description? “The definition of insanity.” He challenged the endless repetition and the Yankees’ inability to beat the teams standing between them and a championship.

Finally. Somebody who wore the uniform is saying something worth hearing.

Rizzo didn’t name Boone. Let’s be clear about that. But BYB will: Aaron Boone has failed as a leader, and the front office has failed by continuing to accept the results.

There comes a point when defending your players becomes protecting a culture that desperately needs to change. A manager has to demand something. Preparation. Discipline. Accountability. And when October exposes your team again, he needs a better answer than another explanation of how close everything was to working.

Close doesn’t get a parade. Close gets the equipment packed.

The Rays swept the Yankees out of the Division Series, giving Boone his fourth ALDS exit in nine seasons. That’s an awfully long audition for a franchise supposedly obsessed with winning championships.

And Cashman doesn’t get to watch this from behind the glass like an innocent bystander. He builds the roster. He backs the manager. He owns a substantial piece of this recurring disappointment.

You cannot keep selling the plan while asking everyone to ignore its ending.

Then there’s the communication. Boone publicly described Aaron Judge’s calf strain as moderate; Judge questioned that characterization. That disagreement doesn’t establish a clubhouse revolt, but the manager and captain offering conflicting injury messages certainly doesn’t inspire confidence in how this operation communicates.

The Yankees have enough problems beating other teams. Getting their own message straight ought to be manageable.

Now the looming labor situation is being discussed as a reason they might keep Boone. Reporting has identified a possible December lockout as a complication in making a managerial change. That is a consideration, not an announcement that Boone is staying.

But if organizational convenience becomes the justification for another year of this, fans should be furious.

Leadership changes require work. So does winning. The Yankees can afford both.

Rizzo’s comments matter because they puncture the comfortable idea that another expensive roster will finally fix everything. Talent needs direction. Spending needs judgment. Players need leadership that produces more than loyalty to the manager.

For five years, we’ve been asking where the accountability is.

Now more people are asking.

Welcome aboard. But don’t confuse your arrival with the beginning of the conversation.

BYB has been sounding the alarm. The Yankees keep hitting snooze.

HOW ABOUT WE BRING BACK GLEYBER?

The Yankees MUST bring back Gleyber Torres. Put him at second base, let Jazz Chisholm leave and find a new home for Anthony Volpe. I think it’s a brilliant idea. And yes, Brian Cashman, you’re allowed to make one of those without first shopping for an injured pitcher.

Enough already. I want Gleyber back in pinstripes.

Now, I remember the mistakes. Please don’t send me a seventeen-minute video of every ball he booted. I watched them live. Some of those games aged me in dog years.

Gleyber could drive you crazy. You’d cheer his double, then watch him do something on the bases that made you wonder whether his controller had disconnected.

But I liked the player. I still do. And I believe bringing him back to play second base would be a smart move for a team that needs to rethink its infield.

Jazz? Talented guy. Plenty of ability. But I’m ready to turn the page. The Yankees need to decide what they want from that position, and my vote is Gleyber with a glove, a bat and a clearly marked parking space.

Volpe can go, too. Find a trade. Give him a fresh start somewhere else. Being a Yankees prospect should earn you an opportunity, not a deed to the property.

We’ve spent enough time waiting for the organization’s plans to come together. At some point, fans are allowed to ask whether the cake is ever coming out of the oven.

Cashman would probably tell us it needs another three years and a waiver claim.

Here’s what appeals to me about Gleyber: we know him. We know the good, we know the frustrating, and we know he understands what comes with playing in the Bronx. He wouldn’t need an orientation explaining that a Tuesday groundout can become a Wednesday radio segment.

And there’s something refreshing about the Yankees admitting they might want a player back. Imagine that meeting.

“Brian, perhaps we should reconsider.”

Security would be there in seconds.

But reconsidering is part of running a baseball team. You’re supposed to evaluate the roster, recognize what isn’t working and make changes. You don’t get bonus wins for remaining loyal to your own PowerPoint.

Bring Gleyber back and make him the second baseman. Give him clear expectations and hold him to them.

Nobody is asking for a lifetime contract or a monument. We’re asking for a reunion that I believe could make this team better—and would certainly make me interested in watching that infield again.

Let Jazz walk. Trade Volpe. Bring back Gleyber.

And if it works, Brian, you can tell everybody it was your idea.

We know how much you enjoy that.

GIAN-GONE-LO! IT'S TIME FOR THE YANKEES TO SAY GOODBYE TO STANTON

It's time to blow everything up and start from scratch....and I mean everything. Say goodbye to dead weight in the front office, players and coaches on the field and that means some big names. I'm talking about Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman, but not just them. It's time to do it and do it right....

Aaron Judge deserves a legit chance at a championship and he isn't getting any younger. The idea of "running it back" with the same team and giving it another shot is just stupid. The insanity must stop. Some tough decisions need to be made, and one of those is his good friend Giancarlo Stanton. It's time.

Cutting someone isn't easy. The Yankees had to do it with DJ LeMahieu and Alex Rodriguez only to name a couple. It happens. They aren't easy decisions to make and they becomes especially difficult when they are still obligated to pay those players but, sometimes it is what is best for the team and that is the case here.

Stanton has been a Yankee for nine seasons now. Out of a possible 1,356 games he's only played in 764 (the 2020 season was shorted to only 60 games due to the Covid pandemic). He's been plagued by injuries over the years and this year was no exception. When Stanton is on, he's on. He's a force to be reckoned with but like Judge, he's not getting any younger and I am tired of tying up a roster spot with a guy that can't stay healthy. It doesn't get easier as anyone ages but Stanton is too focused on his heavy lifting instead of mobility and stretching. It's a problem the Yankees just can't afford anymore.

It's time to cut our losses and release Stanton. A long lockout is coming, and whenever we come out the other side of this and are ready to play Stanton just doesn't have a place on this team. I've had too many people tell me it makes more sense for the Yankees to keep him and I couldn't disagree more. All I keep hearing about is how Stanton's power is still there and with only one more season the Yankees might as well bring him into whatever Spring Training looks like next season post lockout and see if he can contribute anything, even if it is just as a DH.

But why should that be enough? The only way Stanton contributes is by staying healthy because it takes him for freaking ever to get his timing back when he does return from IL stints and he hits .250 because occasionally he runs into one. He tempts you with power occasionally otherwise he just clogs up the bench and the bases with no ability to run the bases. The whole idea of keeping him to see what he has left in the tank is the exact philosophy that got us into this mess. We have the data, it ain't good and it's not going to change.

A roster is valuable and has limited space. If the only thing Stanton can do is DH and go to the IL, that's not worth $15 million. If he had a proven track record of 500-600 productive at bats a season, it might be different. But he hasn't so he is a waste of a spot on the bench. Stanton can’t even run to first without tweaking something. My grandmother runs faster than him.

Not to mention, I am tired of tying up the DH spot with one person. The Yankees would greatly benefit having that spot more available so they can give guys a partial rest. It would help the Yankees avoid the infinitely long IL list. It's called smarter baseball.

So as much as some people may hate it, it's time to dump Stanton's dead weight. Bench space is too valuable to carry a guy who really lives on the IL. There's no convincing me otherwise!

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

 

VOTTO WANTS VOLPE? SOMEBODY FIND THE PACKING TAPE.

Finally, an Anthony Volpe story I can get excited about. It involves another team.

Reds On SI reports that Joey Votto endorsed a fan’s suggestion that Cincinnati trade for Volpe, responding, “I like this idea.” There’s no reported deal brewing. Just an idea. But what a lovely little idea it is.

I love that Votto likes it. If his endorsement helps get Volpe out of the Bronx, put Joey on my Christmas card list.

I’ve had enough of the Volpe sales pitch. The potential. The patience. The endless suggestion that we’re all one adjustment away from witnessing something special.

At some point, the adjustment needs to be a change of address.

Volpe’s career OPS below .700 and he hit .265 after returning from his 2026 demotion. Fine. An encouraging stretch. To me, that’s nowhere near enough to erase the frustration or justify another round of blind faith.

His bat has too often made the promise look ridiculous. I’m tired of grading him on what he might become while watching what he actually produces.

This is the Yankees. Fans are allowed to expect an offense that doesn’t require a motivational speaker to explain it.

And Brian Cashman needs to stop treating moving on as an admission he can’t afford to make. You picked the player. You gave him the opportunity. Now evaluate the results. Your scouting report isn’t sacred scripture.

If the Reds see something they can fix, wonderful. Let Cincinnati take its turn staring under the hood. Get a useful return and move forward.

Could Volpe improve somewhere else? Sure. That possibility doesn’t obligate the Yankees to keep waiting, and it certainly doesn’t obligate me to keep applauding the wait.

Votto likes the idea. I love the possibility.

Give me a sensible trade that sends this kid out of the Bronx, and I’ll supply the packing tape.

We’ve spent enough time unwrapping the promise.

ANTHONY RIZZO HAS A BACKBONE. YET THE YANKEES STILL DON'T HAVE ONE

Back in February 2025, I suggested that Anthony Rizzo could return to the Yankees in a player-coach role. The idea was simple: keep a respected veteran in the clubhouse, use his experience to teach younger players, call out bad attitudes and preserve something this organization too often treats as expendable—leadership. Read: COULD RIZZO EVOLVE INTO A PLAYER-COACH ROLE WITH THE YANKEES?

Newsweek picked up our article, as we documented at Bleeding Yankee Blue. Why did it deserve attention? My answer remains the same: because it made baseball sense. Rizzo’s value extended beyond whatever production remained in his bat. There was knowledge there. Credibility. An understanding of what winning requires and what wearing that uniform demands. Oh yea, and his presence provides leadership.

Now, after another miserable October ending, that argument looks pretty damn relevant.

The Rays swept the Yankees out of the ALDS, finishing them with a 4–3 loss. Another season ended with the other team celebrating and Yankee fans wondering when the people running this operation will stop confusing expectations with accomplishments.

Then came Jazz Chisholm’s confusion about getting booed. Apparently, amid the disappointment of a playoff elimination, we needed to stop everything and discuss whether the paying customers had been sufficiently encouraging. Jazz, read the room. Preferably before explaining it to everybody else.

On Ross and Rizzo, Anthony Rizzo slammed Jazz. He questioned how Chisholm could be surprised by boos after seeing established Yankees stars receive the same treatment. Rizzo described him as looking like “a player that’s lost.” He also challenged the organization’s annual championship declarations: the Yankees cannot keep announcing the highest standard without producing results that justify the talk.

"Jazz Chisholm's comments after the game just looks like a player who is lost,"

"He says after the game about being booed, 'I don't understand, I was confused why I was being booed.' It surprises you that you were booed? What do you mean?"

"You've played there for three-plus years now, you've seen [Anthony] Volpe get run out of town. You've seen Judgey get booed. You've seen Stanton get booed.

"It surprises you that you got booed? That's just not the right way to answer questions...You just have to be smarter there… it shows a little bit of immaturity there."

That is accountability.

No soothing soundtrack. No lengthy explanation of why disappointment is secretly encouraging. A former teammate heard something that needed challenging and challenged it.

That is the voice I wanted inside the Yankees’ clubhouse in February 2025. But more importantly its the voice I wanted there since Girardi left. Boone's a pushover. He's a fanboy. He wants to be friends with all his players. He is a poor leader. 

You can debate whether booing helps a player. Fine. Have that conversation. But the first response after failure should concern the failure. What went wrong? What needs to improve? What responsibility do you bear?

Fans did not strike out for you. They did not throw the ball away. They did not assemble the roster or write the lineup. They bought the tickets.

The Yankees seem awfully comfortable accepting championship prices while asking their customers to practice developmental patience. And that brings us to Aaron Boone. My problem with Boone is that his public leadership too often sounds like an effort to cushion every uncomfortable landing. There is always another explanation, another encouraging interpretation, another reason to believe the breakthrough is approaching.

At some point, the breakthrough needs to show up wearing a uniform. A manager should support his players. Absolutely. But support must include correction. When protection becomes the default response to repeated failure, you risk teaching players that the explanation matters more than the improvement.

From where I sit, Boone babies this team. His public posture too often shows no backbone when the moment calls for a firm standard. He can defend a player’s dignity and still say the player’s performance was unacceptable. These are professional athletes. They can survive a sentence without a pillow under it.

I want a manager who can say: we prepared poorly, we executed poorly, and we are going to fix it.

BUT THEN THEY ACTUALLY FIX IT.  

Rizzo’s history gives me reason to believe he understands that responsibility.

Consider October 2024. With fractured fingers keeping him out of the Division Series, Rizzo helped Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera with positioning at first base. He remained useful while somebody else occupied his position. That is a concrete example of a veteran transferring knowledge under postseason pressure.

Think about what that tells you.

His contribution did not end when he came off the lineup card. He recognized what teammates needed and helped them prepare. Teaching the details of a position is coaching work, whether the organization prints the title next to your name or not. That was the foundation of my player-coach argument back then and it's what I would expect from a leader in the Yankees clubhouse now. I was proposing that the Yankees give structure to something Rizzo was already demonstrating.

He subsequently returned for the 2024 ALCS, starting at first base just 16 days after fracturing two fingers. He spoke about the opportunity to compete for a pennant and the importance of appreciating it while it was there. That matters because opportunities expire. A talented roster does not come with a reservation for next October.

Rizzo had already helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series, ending their 108-year championship drought. He experienced the pressure of playing for a franchise whose history could feel like an extra opponent. He was part of a team that finally delivered. That experience gives weight to his criticism of empty championship language. And his leadership record extends beyond baseball. A cancer survivor, Rizzo established his family foundation in 2012; he received the Roberto Clemente Award in 2017.

In 2018, he returned to Parkland after the school shooting and spoke at a vigil for the victims.

Those actions show someone willing to accept responsibility when there is no easy thing to say. Someone who shows up for other people.

That quality matters in a clubhouse. Players need to believe that a leader cares about them before criticism carries its full weight. Rizzo’s case is compelling because compassion and directness can coexist in the same person.

You can care about a teammate and tell him his answer was lousy. You can believe in a young player and tell him his preparation needs work. You can build confidence while demanding competence.

The Yankees need considerably more of that.

Instead, this organization keeps inviting questions about whether its development process produces improvement or simply produces more reasons to wait.

Anthony Volpe is the obvious example.

Through his first three seasons, Volpe had a .662 OPS and an 84 OPS+, below league average. By the end of his fourth year, I want answers from the people who scouted him, projected him, promoted him and were responsible for developing him. This kid sucks.

What did you believe his offensive ceiling would be? Which weaknesses did you identify? What was the plan to address them? And how long does the organization get to keep selling potential before somebody evaluates the return?

Calling the results a dud isn't harsh. The Yankees helped create the expectations, and they should have to answer for the gap between the projection and the product. Volpe’s effort does not absolve the organization. Neither does his prospect pedigree.

Scouting is supposed to identify ability. Development is supposed to help turn that ability into reliable major league performance. If the results disappoint year after year, examine both. A framed scouting report cannot take an at-bat. And a manager repeating his belief in a player cannot substitute for a coaching plan that works.  Boone is in love with Volpe still looking for a moment. Rizzo would have benched this dude in June.

This is why the Yankees’ training and preparation deserve scrutiny. What are they emphasizing? How are they measuring progress? What happens when an approach keeps failing? Where are the consequences for poor execution?

I am tired of the franchise treating those questions as an attack. Show us the improvement and the questions become easier to answer.

Complacency is comfortable. You can keep the same voices, repeat the same reassurances and tell yourself continuity is a virtue.

But continuity without correction is how you preserve a problem.

Would Rizzo make a terrific manager? I believe he has the qualities to become one. On paper, he's better than Boone already.

His case starts with credibility earned as a player, experience under championship pressure, demonstrated willingness to teach and the ability to deliver an uncomfortable message. Those are substantial foundations for managing people. Boone hit a homerun against the Red Sox that really doesn't matter because the Yankees lost in the World Series anyway.

Sure, Rizzo would still have to prove his ability to run a pitching staff, construct lineups, manage workloads and make decisions over 162 games. Being a respected player does not automatically qualify someone for every responsibility in the dugout.

But the Yankees should take his leadership potential seriously because clearly they don't.  Someone like Rizzo would challenge people and not roll over.  My February 2025 proposal was about recognizing an asset before it disappeared from the room.

Now Rizzo is speaking into a microphone in a new role, delivering the kind of blunt assessment I know he would deliver if he were the Yankees manager, and that should bother the Yankees. You know, the fact that there are better managerial options out there rather than the one they have.

This is now a former teammate publicly reminding them that accountability belongs at the center of a winning organization, while fans are left wondering who delivers that message inside the building.

Rizzo would not magically fix every flaw. But I believe he could help steer the ship because he understands that leadership includes telling people when they are heading in the wrong direction.

The Yankees need that. They need alot, but they definitely need leadership.

They need better teaching, firmer standards and an honest review of the people responsible for the results. They need to stop protecting their preferred narrative and start correcting the baseball.

I saw the value in Rizzo in February 2025. After this October, the Yankees should be asking why that voice is outside their clubhouse.

BURN IT DOWN. THE YANKEES HAVE TO REBUILD.

The Rays swept the Yankees, celebrated in their ballpark, and blasted “New York, New York” in the visiting clubhouse.

They took the series. Then they took the soundtrack.

Want to stop another team from turning your stadium into a punchline? Beat them. Tampa Bay earned its celebration. The Yankees earned another winter of uncomfortable questions that somehow never seem to produce meaningful consequences.

Start with Brian Cashman. Then Aaron Boone. This operation needs a complete overhaul, and another offseason of rearranging the same furniture isn’t going to cut it.

Fire Boone. Move on from Cashman. Burn down this approach and build something that actually works in October.

Look at the offense against Tampa Bay:

• Game 1: One hit. Zero runs. A 1–0 loss.

• Game 2: Two runs, both on solo homers by Ben Rice. A 5–2 loss.

• Game 3: Three runs. A 4–3 loss that ended the season.

Five runs in three games. That’s 1.67 runs per game, calculated from those scores. Gerrit Cole gave them a chance in the opener, and the lineup responded by practically disappearing. Austin Wells finally broke up the no-hitter, then got thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple. Their only hit became another mistake.

This wasn’t merely an offense going cold. It was a team failing to execute when every out mattered.

Four errors in Game 2. Then, with elimination staring them in the face, Boone moved Wells up to sixth. Wells went 0-for-3 before being lifted for a pinch hitter. Trent Grisham went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in the finale. Those are the results of the lineup Boone trusted to save the season.

And Boone’s Game 2 decisions deserve scrutiny.

Against left-hander Ian Seymour, he let Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones hit in the sixth, then stayed with Jazz Chisholm, Grisham and Wells in the seventh. Seymour retired all five. Boone had right-handed alternatives sitting on the bench. His explanation was that Seymour’s numbers made him a relatively neutral matchup, and that he was waiting for baserunners before deploying those alternatives.

Waiting for somebody to reach base while the offense keeps making outs is a hell of a rescue plan.

Yes, there was a statistical argument for staying with the lefties. That doesn’t make the decision untouchable. A manager has to recognize when his plan is producing nothing and decide whether another approach gives his team a better chance.

Boone watched the outs accumulate.

Then came the elimination-game shuffle. Jazz and Ryan McMahon sat. Anthony Volpe and José Caballero started. Asked about choosing Volpe, Boone offered: “Just felt like it.”

Volpe actually contributed in Game 3. Give him that. But the Boone’s explanation still deserves more than a shrug. With the season on the line, fans are entitled to hear a coherent baseball reason.

That’s my problem with Boone’s constant tinkering: What is the governing principle? Matchups? A hot hand? Defense? A feeling? Players need defined responsibilities, and fans need some evidence that all this movement serves a purpose. We cannot prove that lineup changes caused the offensive collapse. We can absolutely judge Boone by the collapse he failed to stop.

He is a failed championship leader. Fire him.

And Cashman doesn’t get to hide behind the manager he keeps endorsing. He built the roster. If the available choices keep leaving Boone searching for a spark, the person assembling those choices belongs in the firing line, too.

Then there’s Jazz, questioning the boos:

“So you’re booing a guy that’s playing, trying to help the team win, and you’re hearing boos instead of trying to hype guys up.”

Jazz, nobody owes you a standing ovation for trying.

You finished the regular season with 19 homers, 41 steals, a .231 average and a .711 OPS. The 19/41 club. Not the 50/50 club. Those steals have value. Your athletic ability has value. But the swagger needs more consistent production behind it. Play cleaner. Play better. Give the fans something to cheer about.

Fans paying real money to watch another October collapse are allowed to express disgust. Millionaire players treating the crowd’s frustration like the central problem is pathetic. The boos didn’t construct this roster or make those errors.

Do not bring back Jazz. Do not bring back Grisham. Get a dependable everyday catcher. Shop Volpe and make a trade that improves this team.

That doesn’t mean giving Volpe away for nothing. It means ending the attachment to what everybody was supposed to become. Evaluate what they are, what they can realistically become, and whether someone else makes the Yankees better.

Judge is asking the front office to address the holes and go all in. He’s right. His message is especially pointed because he also acknowledged that a winning team alone isn’t enough in New York. For accuracy, he backed Boone’s return; the demand to fire Boone is mine.

Build a complete roster around your captain. Stop asking one superstar to cover every organizational weakness.

Get hitters who put together competitive at-bats. Get defenders who finish routine plays. Establish roles. Hire a manager who communicates clearly and demands execution. Make every department answer for whether its work produces a better baseball team.

The greatest franchise in baseball history cannot keep selling its past as an excuse for its present.

I haven’t paid for a ticket to that ballpark in four years because I’m done financing the same bad movie. Be a fan however you want. But ask yourself what incentive this organization has to change if disappointment keeps selling just as well as ambition.

The fans want a championship.

Stop asking us to accept less while charging us more.

Fire Boone. Move on from Cashman. Revamp the roster.

Burn it down and build it back up—because this version of the Yankees has exhausted its excuses.

It is absolutely pathetic.

JUDGE DESERVES A CHAMPIONSHIP. CASHMAN & BOONE DELIVER NOTHING

Aaron Judge shouldn’t have to remind the New York Yankees what the New York Yankees are supposed to be.

Yet here we are. Another October ends, another opponent advances, and the captain has to explain that the assignment is winning a championship.

“I feel like they [the front office] should go all-in and do what they need to do. If we’ve got holes, if it’s finding certain players or personnel, whatever we need, you’ve got to go out there and get it.” Judge said after the elimination. He’s absolutely right.

And I back him 100 percent.

Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, Hal Steinbrenner—are you listening? Because the rest of us are sick of watching this organization congratulate itself for getting through the door before falling down the stairs.

The Rays swept the Yankees in three games. New York scored five runs in the entire series. Five. That’s an offensive collapse, and it deserves a harder examination than another winter of assurances that the organization believes in its people.

Well, the fans have seen what that belief produces. We’d like some results.

Judge missed the postseason with a calf injury. His absence hurt. Nobody with a functioning brain would suggest otherwise. But his absence also raises a question Cashman should have to answer: How prepared was the team you built to survive without its best player?

A championship roster needs enough depth, discipline, and dependable production to withstand adversity. Injuries happen. Building a team means preparing for them, too.

Judge’s injury belongs in the explanation. It cannot become the front office’s escape hatch.

Cashman owns the construction of this roster. He owns the choices, the priorities, and the judgment behind them. You cannot spend years accepting credit for assembling contenders and then treat their failures like weather events nobody could have anticipated.

Enough with the résumé. Evaluate the work.

The Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009. How many more disappointing endings does this front office get before its own performance becomes the central offseason question?

And Boone? He deserves the same scrutiny.

The manager’s responsibility extends beyond keeping the clubhouse comfortable. Preparation matters. Execution matters. Recognizing when an approach is failing matters. When the season ends in a sweep, the manager should have to answer for the performance of his team.

I want Boone replaced. He absolutely sucks. I want a different voice, a different approach, and a manager whose continued employment requires more than the organization’s affection.

Judge didn’t demand Boone’s firing. That’s my position. Supporting the captain doesn’t require pretending he said something he didn’t.

It means taking his actual message seriously.

He wants the Yankees to commit fully to winning, address their holes, and match the effort he gives this team and this city. He also acknowledged that acquiring every player he wants isn’t realistic. That’s a reasonable demand from a captain, not some reckless shopping list.

The front office needs to meet it with decisions that improve the team.

Spending alone doesn’t settle the argument. You can write enormous checks and still assemble a roster that doesn’t work. Cashman’s job is to make the pieces fit. Hal’s job is to hold him accountable when they don’t.

And if Hal keeps approving the same leadership after the same disappointment, then Hal owns the outcome, too.

Fans aren’t paying championship prices to hear another presentation about how difficult championships are to win. We know they’re difficult. That’s why the people entrusted with pursuing them need to be exceptional.

Judge deserves an organization willing to examine its own failures as seriously as it examines a player’s swing.

He deserves help. He deserves urgency. He deserves leadership willing to change course instead of defending the course that brought us here.

Back the captain. Demand better from the people building his team.

Cashman and Boone have had their opportunities. My vote is to move on from both and give Judge a championship plan shaped by fresh judgment.

Because the Yankees cannot keep selling greatness while asking everyone to lower the standard.

Fix the damn team.

STOP PAYING FOR THE SAME DAMN YANKEE FAILURE

It's a Boone loss in the playoffs, because leaders need to lead when a team needs them most. But Boone can't lead. Boone can't close and worst of all, the fans? The fans are fed up. But I have bone to pick with the fans in this post... so read and you will see what I think for real.

Look, it's another October and it's another embarrassment. But we at Bleeding Yankee Blue told you this was going to happen.  It's pathetic and obvious to everyone except Brian Cashman. Last night another team celebrating in the Bronx while the Yankees prepare to explain why the roster they assembled and the baseball, they played were not good enough.

The Rays finished the sweep last night, beating the Yankees 4–3. Ben Rice delivered an RBI single. Spencer Jones added an RBI double. New York fought back to tie it twice, then Victor Mesa Jr. hammered a two-run homer off Max Fried in the sixth. Anthony Volpe’s apparent tying homer became an RBI double after a fan-interference review. Volpe still had this high school demeanor about his like he was robbed by the umpires, but that's what happens when you get everything you want in your life without working hard to get it. But whatever, he shouldn't have even been in the line up.  Bottom line, the Yankees never recovered. Season over.

And please, spare me the argument that one replay decision explains a three-game sweep.

This is the same bad movie, and the Yankees keep charging admission like they’ve produced a masterpiece.

Aaron Boone is a failed leader. A loser in the job this organization supposedly values most: delivering a championship. The stupidity is watching the failures pile up and continuing to treat his leadership as something worth protecting.

After the loss, Boone said, “We gotta be more complete offensively, defensively, pitching.” 

What a stupid fuck. So… everything, Aaron? You talk to the press like an 11-year-old. Go away.

You manage a baseball team, and your October assessment is that it needs to improve at practically every part of baseball. What the hell are we preserving here?

Boone should lose his job. Fire this dope. There needs to be a consequence beyond standing at a microphone and explaining another failure.

But firing Boone while protecting Brian Cashman would leave the bigger problem sitting comfortably upstairs.

Cashman builds these teams. He owns the roster, the holes, and the assumptions that fall apart when the competition gets tougher. He cannot keep collecting credit for the talent while treating the weaknesses as somebody else’s responsibility. Cashman is more complacent this year than the last. I mean do you realize that both Cam Schlittler and Rice have succeeded better than any other player this year on the Yankees and it has NOTHING to do with Cashman? I mean, think about that for a second.

Yes, the Yankees reached the World Series in 2024. Nobody forgot. They also didn’t finish the job. A World Series appearance does not buy this front office permanent immunity from criticism.

How many chances does one executive get to solve the same problem?

And why does ownership keep acting as though replacing the people responsible would be more dangerous than keeping them?

Because the money keeps coming.

Fans bitch. Fans boo. Fans demand changes. Then fans reach into their pockets and pay this organization again. Why? Stop doing that.

The Yankees keep losing, and you keep spending your hard-earned money on the losers responsible. Tickets. Parking. Concessions. The whole expensive ritual. You work all week, pay the bill, and get another October explanation from people whose jobs somehow survive the results. You all know you didn't believe in this team.  I surely didn't. Why? It's not the players guys, it's the front office. You don't give you a reason to believe, because the whole thing isn't baseball anymore with the Yankees... it's numbers. The Yankees are no longer the fun franchise to watch. Let's be honest, 2009 was fun, but the magic left in the 90's. Hard-nosed teams, where managers managed and players that sucked DID NOT PLAY even though the piece of paper in front of the manager had projections.  Boone doesn't manage with his gut, he manages with what "could be" because the analytics told him so.  How's that worked out since Boone's been in charge. WHAT A LOSER.

Look, be a fan however you like. Take your kids. Wear the jersey. Enjoy an afternoon at the Stadium. That is your choice.

But aren’t you noticing a pattern?

Your loyalty is unconditional. Their accountability barely exists.

The Yankees front office doesn’t care about you the way you care about the Yankees. That is how I see it. They know you love the history, the uniform, the memories. They know walking away from the spending feels like walking away from something personal.

And they benefit every time you confuse those two things.

I haven’t paid for a ticket to that ballpark in four years. That decision was made long before this latest embarrassment. The Yankees have spent those four years reinforcing it.

My money can no longer go to a loser. I work too damn hard to finance the same failure while the people responsible keep getting another opportunity.

At some point, loyalty becomes permission.

Permission to keep Boone. Permission to keep Cashman. Permission to sell championship expectations without delivering championship accountability.

They’re counting on you being furious today and buying tickets tomorrow.

That’s the business model: sell the history, collect the money, explain the failure. Repeat.

The fans deserve better. But ownership has little reason to fear our anger when our spending keeps rewarding its decisions.

THE MOMENT THE SPENDING STOPS IS THE MOMENT THE PRESSURE BECOMES REAL.

Let Boone explain another collapse to empty seats. Let Cashman pitch another roster to fans who have stopped buying the sales job. Let ownership discover what disappointment looks like on a balance sheet.

We’ve paid enough.

Make the failures expensive for the people responsible for them.

F this manager and front office.  Happy winter. Let's go hunting.

DISGRACEFUL!

 Commentary tomorrow. I'm sick of it.

ONCE IS A MISTAKE, BUT TWICE AND BEYOND IS A PATTERN

It sucks to suck, and that's exactly what the Yankees have established. It's dejavu all over again and it doesn't have to be. But the Yankees choose it because they like to suck more than they like to win, apparently. I just twitched violently as I typed that.

Year after year this team is plagued by awful fundamentals. The Yankees manage to lose. Keeping Aaron Boone and the front office in place is a losing strategy. The official box score says the Yankees were charged with four errors but let's be real that was six. One of those errors was miraculously called a hit by the official scorer and the other was saved by George Lombard Jr and Jazz Chisholm should bow down and praise him for saving his butt. This organization does not teach good fundamentals, and they certainly don't expect it out on the field. It's an afterthought for the Yankees as long as they can smash homeruns out of the park.

But that's not serving us well at all. We saw it against the Dodgers in the World Series two years ago and we haven't learned anything from it. Here we are two years later still beating ourselves and we did it against a very fundamentally sound team. That's what makes it worse. It's also what gives us another dose of harsh reality.

Good teams don't just ride a hot streak, they literally outplay everyone else and make inferior teams look stupid. That's everything we see with this Rays team. I've always said Kevin Cash is a good manager, and he is smart. The Rays play fundamental baseball and what makes it worse, they know how to create those pressure situations that make bad teams like the Yankees crumble. The Rays have created chaos, and the Yankees haven't overcome it. The Rays have a manager that knows what he is doing, and what other teams are not doing. He is the opposite of Aaron Boone and we are reminded of it yet again.

In MLB postseason history, only 10 out of 91 teams have ever come back to win a best-of-five series after losing the first two games. Coincidentally, the Yankees are the last team to do that back in 2017 but this isn't even a shadow of what that team was. Saying that really makes me miss "the good old days" because at least we weren't THIS tragically pathetic. Anything is possible but it is hard to have faith in this team with no Aaron Judge and weak players like Ryan McMahon, Chisholm and Austin Wells unnecessarily filling in the roster.

The Yankees need to change everything they do and think. It's time to turn things upside down. We've already endured 16 seasons of losses with no championships but Hal Steinbrenner hasn't understood our frustration. I wonder if this is the year it finally clicks and he gets it.....but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Please boys....show us something today. Don't just rollover and get eliminated at home. Please.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj