WHY WERE YANKEE SCOUTS COZYING UP TO VOLPE TO CLOSELY?

Something feels a miss to me. 

Look, Anthony Volpe’s shoulder has officially become the Yankees’ favorite bedtime story. Every time he looks lost at the plate or boots another routine play, somebody inside the organization whispers “well, maybe the shoulder…” like fans haven’t been watching this disaster unfold for years.

But Aaron Boone accidentally destroyed that excuse himself. Boone admitted today Volpe had “zero issues” with the shoulder during the final stretch of rehab. Zero. None. So enough already. The shoulder didn’t make Anthony Volpe a bad hitter. The shoulder didn’t make him overrated defensively. And the shoulder certainly didn’t force the Yankees to keep pretending he’s a cornerstone player when he keeps performing like a replacement-level stopgap.

The real issue feels much uglier. Anthony Volpe just is not a good baseball player.

And the people responsible for pushing this kid into untouchable status deserve to be called out directly. it is my opinion that Matt Hyde should be under serious scrutiny for this scouting miss. Yes, Hyde gets praise for finding later-round gems like Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler. Great. Nobody’s denying that. But when it comes to Volpe, Hyde sold the Yankees a fantasy.

Matt Hyde

And honestly, the details surrounding this whole thing are bizarre.  We did alittle digging. Volpe himself talked openly about the “bond” Hyde and the late Kelly Rodman formed with the Volpe parents. Not professional respect. Not admiration for the player. A “bond.” Damon Oppenheimer reportedly spent significant time around Volpe’s parents at tournaments and showcases too.

Why? Seriously, why? This is Major League Baseball scouting, not family counseling.

Scouts are supposed to evaluate talent objectively. Front office executives are supposed to make cold baseball decisions. Instead, this whole thing sounds like Yankees officials emotionally attached themselves to a local kid and completely lost perspective. Somewhere along the way, they stopped acting like evaluators and started acting like proud family friends rooting for the kid to succeed no matter what the evidence showed.

That’s dangerous. Because once emotion enters the equation, honesty leaves the room. And that’s exactly what happened here with Anthony Volpe.

The Yankees became so invested in the “New Jersey kid living the dream” narrative that they ignored the glaring flaws right in front of them. The weak contact. The inconsistent glove. The inability to adjust. The complete lack of impact for long stretches. They fell in love with the story instead of the player.

Now the organization is trapped protecting its own ego.  Volpe returned against Baltimore today and immediately went 0-for-3 with an error. That wasn’t some shocking off day. That was the same Anthony Volpe Yankees fans have watched for years now — overmatched at the plate and unreliable in the field despite endless hype telling everyone otherwise.

Yet the Yankees still hand him the shortstop job automatically, even with better options available. Why is Ryan McMahon not out there even though he is stronger defensively? Why is Max Schuemann, who is actually hitting .273, treated like an afterthought while Volpe gets endless chances to fail upward? Boone pushes this kid out there constantly. Why?

Because admitting Volpe is a bust means admitting Hyde and Oppenheimer badly misjudged him, and the Yankees organization hates admitting failure more than it hates losing games.

So look, the shoulder excuse? That's dead now. Boone killed it himself. So, what’s left? Just the uncomfortable truth nobody inside Yankee Stadium wants to say publicly:

Anthony Volpe isn’t struggling because he was hurt. He’s struggling because the Yankees overrated him from the very beginning, and the scouts who got emotionally invested in him helped create one of the most overprotected disappointments this franchise has seen in years.

FEARS THAT FRIED IS DONE

Maybe Anthony Volpe really is really just bad luck. Because every time the Yankees seem ready to settle in, another disaster drops out of the sky like a piano in a cartoon.

Now it’s ace lefty Max Fried heading to the medical report, and the timing couldn’t be worse.

Coming into Wednesday, Fried had been everything the Yankees could’ve asked for and then some. Through his first nine starts, he posted a 2.91 ERA with a 4-2 record and 48 strikeouts over 58 2/3 innings. The guy’s been a workhorse too, throwing more innings than any pitcher in baseball so far this season. In other words, he’s been the one adult in the room while the Yankees have played their usual game of “How Creative Can We Get With Heartbreak?”

But against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, something looked off almost immediately. Fried labored through three innings, giving up five hits, walking one and allowing three runs while striking out just two. The command wasn’t sharp, the velocity looked shaky, and Yankee fans everywhere probably started stress-eating sunflower seeds by the second inning.

Then came the moment nobody wanted to see.

After finishing the third inning and throwing only 61 pitches, Fried walked straight down the tunnel. Minutes later, right-hander Paul Blackburn began warming in the bullpen, which basically sent Yankees Twitter into full DEFCON 1 mode.

Soon after, the Yankees announced Fried exited with left elbow posterior soreness. He’ll undergo imaging in New York and be evaluated by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad.

And let’s be honest here: anytime you hear Chris Ahmad’s name attached to a Yankees pitcher, it feels less like a medical update and more like the opening scene of a horror movie.

Hopefully this turns out to be precautionary and nothing more. Because despite the chaos surrounding this team lately, Fried has been one of the few steady, reliable forces holding the rotation together. The Yankees can survive a bad night. Surviving a long-term Fried injury? That’s a much scarier conversation.

THE BLIND LEADING THE CLUELESS

Brian Cashman is out here trying to convince Yankees fans that nothing has changed — that the organization has always operated with urgency and that this current “must-win” energy is just another normal Tuesday in the Bronx. Please. Yankees fans have watched this movie for years, and we already know how it ends.

This front office has spent season after season forcing bad decisions down our throats, defending underperforming players like they’re family heirlooms instead of liabilities. Fans are constantly told to “trust the process” while overpriced veterans and struggling favorites drain the life out of the lineup night after night. Meanwhile, hungry young players with less hype and smaller contracts routinely outperform the “core pieces” everyone keeps protecting.

And this year? The Yankees’ smartest move was the one they didn’t make: handing the shortstop job to Anthony Volpe out of loyalty and marketing hype. Instead, Jose Caballero actually earned it. He brought energy, production, and looked like someone who understood the assignment. He's also just a better shortstop than Volpe... that was obvious last year. Of course, now that Caballero is hurt, Volpe magically reappears in the majors — only for Max Schuemann to step in at shortstop last night and somehow look more reliable too.

But don’t worry. Boone’s favorite "boy toy" Volpe will be back in the lineup soon enough. Count on it. And here at Bleeding Yankee Blue, we’ll be watching every at-bat like it’s game footage from a criminal investigation, because we know he should not be there.

In the meantime, here’s Brian Cashman attempting to explain that the Yankees have always been urgent. This comes from his interview with The Athletic:

“I know there’s this narrative that all of a sudden we woke up and smelled the coffee... and we know it’s a must-win year — that we’re making roster moves that reflect that, and we’ve almost found a different gear. None of that is true…

“We’re not all of a sudden acting more desperate now or with more urgency... The urgency has always been there. In this current window, we have a lot of the younger players really surging. (Caballero) is obviously surging, but we still have guys like Volpe, and obviously, Elmer Rodríguez is emerging. So if Luis Gil falters, we have a legitimate alternative that allows us to say, ‘Hey, do you just want to keep going with this?’ We felt the profile that Elmer was putting forth made it make sense to make the move. It’s kind of simple. When you have the kind of depth (we have), you can play that decision-making game easier than if you didn’t.”

The problem is Cashman sounds completely detached from reality. Yankees fans aren’t blind, and they’re definitely not stupid. We’ve watched too many seasons of the same nonsense: overhyped promises, stale leadership, bad roster construction, and October disappointment dressed up as “a process.”

This team has to win this year. Frankly, they should’ve won several times already. But as long as Aaron Boone is steering the ship like a guy using Apple Maps in a tunnel, the Yankees keep finding new and creative ways to underachieve.

Think about this for a second: Boone has piled up over 700 managerial wins and still can’t deliver a World Series title. That’s not impressive in the Bronx — it’s embarrassing. In Yankee history, banners matter. Parades matter. Rings matter. Nobody hangs a “Pretty Good Regular Season” flag over the Stadium.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth Cashman needs to hear loud and clear:

THE YANKEES USED TO BE THE STANDARD.

Now? They’re just another franchise talking about “windows,” “depth,” and “internal options” while other organizations actually win championships.

Fans are exhausted. Until this organization shows real urgency — not press-conference urgency, but actual baseball urgency — nothing changes. That means cutting ties with dead weight, admitting mistakes, and stopping the endless protection of underperformers like "Mr. .180" Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe. It also means finally acknowledging that Aaron Boone is not the guy to lead this team to a title.

So, Brian, spare us the speeches. Yankees fans don’t need another corporate spin cycle about urgency. They need results.

Because for the better part of the last six years and many more by the way, this front office has delivered a whole lot of excuses and exactly zero championships.

And people in the Bronx are done buying it.

DO BETTER.

THE LOCKOUT IS LOOMING & A FAMILIAR FACE COULD TAKE CENTER STAGE IN NEGOTIATIONS!

Forget about the pit you feel in your stomach right now with Anthony Volpe back in the big leagues. It's about to get really real. The thrill of the regular season is still heating up, but the real drama is going to unfold off the field this winter. Buckle up, this is the start of a very long lockout with a twist that could come out of left field.

The season is still young, but we are already talking about the end of the season. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires December 1st and Major League Baseball and MLB Players Association (MLBPA) met face-to-face Tuesday to give opening presentations for negotiations, read more HERE.

The league will pursue both a salary cap AND a salary floor, something that players have firmly opposed, including Bryce Harper openly criticizing it most recently when he cursed out MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, check it out HERE.

Even though talks have started, progress on the proposals probably won't be significant until after the season ends. If an agreement can't be reached by March, schedule adjustments for 2027 will need to be made. In a lockout, no transactions can be made so that means no trades or free agent signings. I still remember the last lockout which was 99-days right on the heels of a pandemic. That irritated me beyond belief when Sonny Gray was whining like a baby about money while the rest of us were dealing with our own lockdowns and hardships. That was bad, this could be even worse. 

The anticipated lockout is only in talks, but it already has the attention of Congress. It is rumored that a lockout would cause an intervention from politicians and President Trump would be possible. The last thing I want is congress or the president meddling with America's favorite pastime, but it's possible that politics and baseball could collide in a new way.

In case you hadn't heard, one of my favorites Mark Teixeira is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas' 21st Congressional District in 2026. By the way Mike O'Hara....if you are out there buddy, LOOK Tex is relevant again unlike Greg Bird! Sorry, I couldn't resist the throwback to old times when we traded zingers. Anyway, Tex is a former member of the MLBPA's executive subcommittee so if he wins his race, he could play a pivotal role in negotiating a new deal. Interesting thought to see him go from one of the MLBPA members, to someone who could potentially bring both sides together in a different capacity.  

I've had several people tell me not to worry about this now because "It's too early" but this is going to be a negotiation unlike any other. Baseball as we know it could look VERY different here soon. Things are gonna get ugly....and this is just a warmup for what's to come.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

BOONE'S VOLPE OBSESSION IS SHOWING & IT'S GETTING OLD

Anthony Volpe's minor league exile lasted all of seven days. With Jose Caballero diagnosed with a broken right middle finger, the Yankees recalled their struggling shortstop from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ahead of Tuesday's game in Baltimore — right in the middle of a four-game skid, because apparently that's the perfect moment to bring back a guy who was rehabbing and sucking at it. 

Aaron Boone's justification? A masterclass in saying nothing with a lot of words: Volpe got "a number of at-bats," "a lot of reps," "a lot of playing time" — basically a "more than a full spring training." Cool. So, Volpe took some grounders and saw some pitching in Triple-A for a week. That's the bar now.

Here's what Boone conveniently glossed over: the error at shortstop. Getting picked off first base. Jogging around second while watching a Spencer Jones fly ball like a tourist while not running hard to get to home plate. These aren't mechanical slumps you fix with a week of reps — they're baseball IQ problems, and those don't get ironed out between bus rides in the minors.

And here's the thing — the Yankees don't even need Volpe to replace Caballero. Ryan McMahon or Max Schuemann is the better defensive option and can slide into short. Amed Rosario can cover third while McMahon shifts to short. The pieces are already there. But Boone didn't go that route, because this was never really about filling a roster hole.

This is about Aaron Boone's bizarre, inarticulate commitment to Anthony Volpe — a crusade to convince a skeptical fanbase that this kid belongs, even as Boone himself can't explain why with any coherence beyond word salad about "reps" and "playing time."

"I would expect Anthony to play a lot," Boone declared. Why? Why, Aaron? That question will remain unanswered, because a real answer doesn't exist.

Caballero reportedly tried to push through it and play. He wanted to be out there for the Yankees, after all, he earned his spot.  But Boone shut that down — "We just didn't want to risk him doing something more to it where it becomes something he had to deal with all summer." Fine, protecting a player is reasonable. But if you're going to be that cautious and deliberate about one roster decision, maybe apply that same energy to figuring out why you're so hellbent on running Volpe out there every day when better options are sitting right in your own dugout.

I am so over this manager and Volpe is a waste.  Filling this hole at short and Volpe going 0-4 day in and day out is just as bad as Caballero playing hurt. The difference? Jose could probably still produce hurt. Volpe? He's just past his time.

BOONE'S OVERTINKERING COSTS YANKEES YET AGAIN

Aaron Boone was bound to show up eventually. Not literally, of course — the Yankees manager is always lurking in the dugout chewing gum like a man trying to solve a crossword puzzle written in ancient Greece. But the real Boone? The panic-button Boone. The over-managing Boone. The “I just outsmarted myself again” Boone. Yeah, that guy finally returned just as predicted.

After Friday’s loss to the Brewers, the bad vibes were already floating around Yankee Universe like a haunted fog machine. We at Bleeding Yankee Blue were ahead of it. You could feel it coming. I even asked the Bleeding Yankee Blue crowd if Boone was about to pull one of his classic managerial faceplants. Turns out the answer was a screaming, flaming YES. Read LET'S HOPE BOONE'S INCOMPETENCE DOESN'T REAR IT'S UGLY HEAD and then let me know I'm a genius. I'll clear my phone line.

Seriously though, the Yankees followed Friday’s disaster with two more losses over the weekend, got broomed by Milwaukee, and then stumbled into Monday night against the Orioles looking like a team trapped in a recurring nightmare. And before anyone tries to pin this latest collapse on Ryan Weathers tonight, stop right there.

Tonights loss belongs to Aaron Boone.

Ryan Weathers — yes, that Ryan Weathers, the pitcher plenty of fans weren’t exactly throwing parades for when he arrived — was dealing tonight. Absolutely great. The guy carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and had Baltimore hitters looking like they were swinging pool noodles underwater. Through 6.1 innings, he’d given up one hit and had thrown 101 pitches. One hit. That’s it.

So naturally, Boone decided it was the perfect time to yank him. Because of course he did.

The moment Baltimore got a leadoff single and a walk, Boone sprinted to the bullpen phone like he’d just remembered the oven was on. Out came Weathers. In came Brent Headrick. And approximately eight seconds later, Coby Mayo launched a three-run homer that flipped the game upside down.

Masterclass.

This is the problem with Boone every single year: he manages baseball games like he’s trying to beat a spreadsheet instead of the team in front of him. The man cannot resist tinkering. If something is working beautifully, Boone treats it like a suspicious noise in the basement — he has to go mess with it until everything falls apart.

And let’s be clear here: I’m not some card-carrying member of the Ryan Weathers fan club. I didn’t even want the guy wearing pinstripes. But baseball is about rhythm and feel sometimes, and Weathers had both. He earned the right to keep pitching.

You know what else letting him stay in does? It gives the kid confidence. It lets him battle through adversity. It shows the team you trust the guy who’s dominating instead of immediately handing the game over to a shaky bullpen that has inspired all the confidence of a shopping cart with one bad wheel.

But Boone never learns.

Every season it’s the same recycled script. Starter cruising? Pull him. Reliever melting down? Leave him in too long. Offense cold? Rest half the lineup. Big moment? Boone suddenly turns into a laboratory scientist experimenting with combinations nobody asked for.

At some point, the Yankees have to stop pretending this is working with Boone in the manager's seat. The talent changes. The payroll changes. The excuses change. But the outcome always feels the same because the man steering the ship keeps driving directly into the iceberg while insisting the analytics said it was fine.

Monday night wasn’t Ryan Weathers’ failure. He did his job.

Aaron Boone once again couldn't get out of his own way.  My god.

THE SECOND PLACE YANKEES

Ya'll are gonna say it, "Robert Casey is a Yankee hater." Nah bitches, I'm just a realist. You could see it in Boone's eyes before the Brewers series, and then I knew it when they lost game 1 to the Brewers and I wrote LET'S HOPE BOONE'S INCOMPETENCE DOESN'T REAR IT'S UGLY HEAD the next day. By the way, the most popular post of the weekend. Why? Cause I know what I'm talking about. I'm a Yankee fans through and through... but I also know good leadership when I see it.  And Boone? He's a pawn. Clueless in everything he does and this is the start of it. I mean sure, we'll have some nice runs this season, but even if we make the playoffs, this idiot will find a way to ruin the party... because the man is not competent. 

The Yankees look unbeatable when life is easy. When the weather is warm, the home runs are flying, and the entire operation looks smooth and polished. The lineup card writes itself. The starters cruise through six innings. The bullpen slams the door. Cameras catch Aaron Boone leaning against the dugout rail with that familiar relaxed grin and goes into the gap while postgame interviews are filled with phrases like "things are clicking." Anybody can manage that version of the Yankees.

That’s the dirty little secret nobody in the organization wants to admit. Boone is perfectly functional when everything is humming. But baseball seasons are not measured by how a manager handles smooth sailing in May against mediocre teams. Seasons are defined by tension, adversity, injuries, slumps, ugly losses, and moments where a clubhouse starts feeling pressure crawl up its spine.

That’s where real managers separate themselves. And that’s where Boone repeatedly falls apart.

This is something Yankee fans should keep watching closely because it has become one of the defining patterns of the Boone era. Ever since he became manager, the Yankees have shown the same personality flaw over and over again: when things get hard, the team gets worse mentally. Boone cannot manage adversity because he doesn’t know how to confront it. Write that down. Remember it. Because every season eventually circles back to the same ugly truth.

The sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers wasn’t just a rough series. It was a full psychological autopsy of a Boone-managed baseball team. The scores tell part of the story: 6-0, 4-3 in ten innings, and another 4-3 walk-off collapse. But honestly, the scores undersell how bad this looked. The Yankees didn’t resemble a championship-caliber team getting edged out by another contender. They looked fragile. Tight. Undisciplined. Mentally exhausted the moment the games became uncomfortable.

Game one was humiliating. Three hits. Three. Against a Milwaukee pitching staff led by Jacob Misiorowski, who carved through the Yankees lineup with the confidence. The Yankees went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, which under Boone has become less of a temporary slump and more of an organizational philosophy. And Boone’s response? Predictably passive.

 If you read social media, the papers, many questioned the lineup construction and Boone’s refusal to make aggressive bench moves earlier in the game. Struggling hitters stayed in while scoring opportunities evaporated inning after inning. Boone managed the shutout the same way he manages almost every offensive collapse: by staring into the distance and hoping the problem fixes itself organically.  The YES Network crew kept repeating that the Yankees were “just missing” pitches, but eventually “just missing” becomes your identity.

And that reflects leadership.

Because when a team constantly looks tense, emotionally fried, and fundamentally sloppy during difficult stretches, that is not random baseball luck. That is culture. That comes from the dugout. Boone has spent years trying to manage the Yankees like a motivational speaker trapped inside an analytics department. Smile a little. Clap a little. Tell the media the process is good. Defend obvious mistakes. Pretend every loss is just part of the marathon. But there’s a massive difference between staying calm and refusing to confront problems.

The Yankees under Boone still make the same mental mistakes they made years ago. They run the bases poorly. They lose situational awareness defensively. Hitters press the second momentum swings against them. The bullpen starts pitching scared. And Boone keeps standing there with the same expression of detached optimism while the game slips away in real time.

Game two was peak Boone baseball compressed into ten innings of frustration.

The Yankees had opportunities to steal the game, but every key moment became another example of poor execution mixed with questionable management. Boone’s handling of the bullpen immediately drew criticism. Fans and analysts questioned why Tim Hill was handling such a critical extra-inning situation instead of a higher-leverage arm.

Then came the play that perfectly summarized the entire Boone era. Hill fielded a comebacker in the tenth inning and attempted to force the lead runner at third instead of simply taking the guaranteed out at first. The throw struck the runner, everybody was safe, and the inning exploded into chaos. It was the kind of little-league sequence that leaves fans screaming at televisions because the fundamentals were so painfully obvious.

And here’s the important part: fans blamed Boone immediately because they no longer trust the Yankees to execute basic situational baseball under pressure. That matters. When a team repeatedly looks unprepared in key moments, people stop viewing mistakes as isolated incidents. They become symptoms.

The failed play also destroyed Boone’s defensive flexibility. Because no out was recorded, he lost the ability to intentionally walk William Contreras for a preferred matchup against Jake Bauers. Contreras then delivered the walk-off sacrifice fly while the Yankees slowly walked off the field looking emotionally shell-shocked yet again.

Afterward Boone did what Boone always does after these losses: calmly explained the process, praised the effort, and acted as if fans should ignore the obvious emotional collapse unfolding on the field. But vibes are not leadership.

Strong managers stabilize teams during adversity. Boone’s Yankees unravel during adversity. That is the defining characteristic of his tenure. When pressure increases, the Yankees get sloppier. Hitters chase more. Fielders rush plays. Pitchers nibble instead of attacking. The dugout energy becomes strangely passive, like everyone is waiting for Judge to rescue them with a three-run homer.

Then game three happened, and honestly, by that point the collapse felt inevitable.

Another 4-3 loss. Another late-game disaster. Another walk-off. David Bednar gave up the ninth-inning homer to Brice Turang, but even before the pitch left his hand, the entire game carried the emotional tension of a car with failing brakes rolling downhill.

Boone was criticized again for sticking with Bednar despite previous warning signs. He should have been. Fans questioned why the struggling reliever continued handling the ninth inning while better options existed. 

This has become another Boone trademark: managing spreadsheets instead of managing the actual human beings playing baseball games.

Even Carlos Rodón’s outing reflected the larger issue. Rodón walked five hitters and hit another in only 4.1 innings, yet Boone seemed slow to react, further draining a bullpen that was already wobbling by the end of the series. Everything felt reactive instead of proactive. The Yankees constantly looked one step behind the game.

And by the end of the sweep, the numbers became impossible to ignore. The Yankees had fallen to 1-8 against teams with winning records during that stretch. That is not meaningless noise. Contenders beat other contenders sometimes. Boone’s Yankees looked incapable of handling competitive baseball once the games became tense and uncomfortable. That’s the most damning part of all this: none of it felt new.

This is the same movie Yankee fans have watched for years. The Yankees beat weaker teams, pile up regular-season wins, and everybody starts talking about chemistry and vibes. Then they face real resistance and suddenly the flaws burst through the walls. The offense tightens up. The fundamentals disappear. The bullpen management becomes chaotic. Boone sounds less like a manager and more like a corporate spokesperson delivering damage control.

The Milwaukee sweep didn’t expose a temporary slump. It exposed a personality problem that has followed the Yankees throughout Boone’s tenure. The team looked mentally soft. Over-reliant on stars. Poorly disciplined. Unable to adjust once adversity arrived.

And after all these years, the same question keeps returning: If the Yankees always look this rattled when things get hard, what exactly is Boone bringing to the table besides calm postgame interviews and optimistic clichés?

Because championship managers are not judged by how they handle easy nights in May when everything clicks. They are judged by whether their teams can survive chaos without mentally collapsing.

And right now, Boone’s Yankees still collapse the second baseball starts getting hard.

RODON RETURNS & HELPS THE YANKEES GET SWEPT!

Well, that stings......a lot. The Yankees were just swept in Milwaukee, and to make matters worse they are no longer in first place in the AL East. The Yankees were on an easy stretch, and now that has come to a screeching halt. Now we wait and see how they react.

The Yankees shouldn't have been swept by the Brewers. They had momentum on their side with strong start to the season and they had the long awaited return on Carlos Rodon AND a debut for young "phenom" Spencer Jones in their back pockets. A good run was supposed to get better, but we fell off the rails.

Game one was pathetic, the offense disappeared and I am tired of pointing that out year after year. It's even worse to lose the next two games by walk off home runs. I can't say I was surprised by the result Sunday. Disappointed, but not surprised. After Rodon had to be yanked after four and 1/3 innings, and we had to go to the bullpen so quickly, I knew it was a bad sign. Rodon's command wasn't there and eventually David Bednar gave up the walk off last night. It's what the Yankees do historically.

I've had so many people try to give me a silver lining psychological spin because Jones got his first hit and RBI as a big leaguer. Good for him. I'm not his biggest fan but I can give credit where credit is due. It's a start, but he will need to do more to force the Yankees hand to stay once our other ailing outfielders recover from their injuries.

And all of the keys to the Yankees winning success are going to come from Aaron Boone. It was obvious that Rodon had unraveled in the fourth inning. He had eight straight balls, a strike, then hit a batter on the second pitch and a wild pitch. Common sense says Rodon doesn't have it and he should've already made a move, but he didn't. It's a classic Baboonie screw up that we are forced to re-live season after season. It's maddening.

The American League has been massively underperforming so far this season. The Yankees and the Rays are the best teams in the AL. The Yankees need to find a way to play better against these competitive teams because this doesn't cut it. It's the same theme song all over again. You have to play at your best amongst the best.....this isn't it!

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

WASTING A SCHLITTLER GEM

I wrote earlier today that Aaron Boone has a habit of managing high-pressure situations like a guy trying to disarm a bomb with oven mitts. After tonight, that no longer feels like a hot take — it feels more like something you’d submit with supporting documentation.

To be fair, Boone wasn’t the only reason this one went off the rails. The Yankees spent the entire night inventing new and creative ways to waste opportunity. Cam Schlittler deserved a win, or at least a standing ovation, after throwing six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, and casually absorbing a line drive to the leg like it was part of the job description. That should’ve been the story.

Instead, the offense treated run production like it required a premium subscription. Seven hits, seven walks, and only three runs — a stat line that feels less like baseball and more like a missed connection. And despite carrying leads in both the eighth and tenth innings, the Yankees still managed to turn it into a 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

From there, it unraveled in familiar fashion. The bullpen blinked, the defense fumbled through its assignments, and in the 10th inning Tim Hill delivered a throw so far off target it may still be clearing airspace over Wisconsin.

So no, the original point doesn’t feel any less valid. Nights like this are exactly why the questions around Boone linger. When the game is orderly, the Yankees look functional enough. But when things get tight, chaotic, and unscripted, it starts to look less like managing and more like a group project where nobody checked the assignment sheet.

FREE TREVOR BAUER

Trevor Bauer is on Long Island right now doing what Trevor Bauer has always done best: making hitters look completely unprepared for professional baseball.

Only this time, he’s doing it in a Long Island Ducks uniform — which honestly feels like watching a Formula 1 car pull into a go-kart track and ask everyone if they’re ready to race.

And that’s the thing. This comeback tour already looks way too easy.

Bauer isn’t surviving independent league baseball. He’s dissecting it. The fastball still jumps. The breaking stuff still bends like it hit a pothole halfway to the plate. The command is surgical. Every outing feels less like a comeback attempt and more like a reminder that this guy was one of the best pitchers on the planet not that long ago.

Because people forget just how dominant Trevor Bauer was before baseball essentially slammed the door on him. Manfred is an absolute tool for what he did to Bauer by the way.

The former Cy Young winner built a career frustrating hitters and obsessing over the science of pitching in ways most organizations eventually copied. Bauer wasn’t just talented — he was ahead of the curve. Over his MLB career with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, he posted an 83-69 record with a 3.79 ERA and piled up 1,416 strikeouts while becoming one of the nastiest and most intelligent pitchers in the sport.

Then everything exploded in 2021.

MLB placed Bauer on administrative leave following sexual assault allegations involving Lindsay Hill. The league later suspended him 194 games under its domestic violence policy despite Bauer never being criminally charged.

And from that moment on, MLB treated Bauer like he had been erased from baseball history.

Now look — Bauer has never exactly been “quietly existing” in public life. The guy is outspoken, combative, polarizing and about as subtle as a stadium siren. But the deeper this situation has gone, the murkier the entire story has become — and that’s where MLB deserves criticism.

Because in an era where accusations travel faster than facts, it felt like the league reacted first and sorted details out later. Shame on MLB for that.

Fast forward to June 2025, when a Los Angeles judge ordered Hill to pay Bauer more than $309,000 for violating terms of their settlement agreement through repeated social media posts and claims. Then there was another civil suit filed against Bauer in 2023 by a separate woman — a case Bauer claimed was an attempted $3.6 million shakedown. By April 2024, that accuser had reportedly been indicted on fraud-related charges tied to those allegations.

At the very least, it became clear this wasn’t the clean, one-sided narrative baseball originally rushed to present.

Does Bauer have flaws? Absolutely. Does he sometimes create his own storms? Without question. But there’s also a strong argument that MLB made him the league’s public villain long before the full picture was available.

Which brings us back to Long Island — where Bauer is currently treating the Atlantic League like a rehabilitation assignment from another galaxy.

And here’s the funniest part of the whole thing: he wants back into MLB so badly that money doesn’t even matter anymore.

Bauer has openly suggested teams could sign him for basically nothing because all he wants is another chance to pitch in the majors. Think about that for a second. While average relievers are cashing checks big enough to buy small islands, a former Cy Young winner is practically standing outside MLB headquarters holding a cardboard sign that says: “Will throw sliders for food.”

Yet teams still won’t touch him.

Not because he can’t pitch.

Not because he’s washed up.

Not because the talent disappeared.

But because organizations are terrified of the conversation that comes with him.

Meanwhile, Bauer keeps doing the worst possible thing for MLB’s narrative: dominating every place he pitches. He succeeded overseas. He’s overwhelming hitters with the Ducks. And now he’ll reportedly spend the season mic’d up during games and practices, turning his comeback into part baseball experiment, part reality show and part giant middle finger to the league that blackballed him.

Classic Bauer.

Subtlety has never exactly been his pitch selection.

But underneath the controversy, cameras and chaos is an unavoidable baseball truth: Trevor Bauer can still flat-out deal.

And every dominant outing with the Ducks makes MLB look more uncomfortable by the day.

Some team with absolute brass balls needs to pick up Bauer, if for anything ticket sales, and then let this guy cook, because he still has it, and he was wronged... NOT QUESTION.

LET'S HOPE BOONE'S INCOMPETENCE DOESN'T REAR IT'S UGLY HEAD

The Yankees look unstoppable when everything is humming. Aaron Judge is launching baseballs into orbit, the pitching staff is rolling, and the lineup card practically writes itself. In those moments, Aaron Boone’s job is easy. Smile in the dugout, clap a little, say “the guys battled,” and collect another win.

But baseball seasons are not built on easy stretches. They’re built on adversity, injuries, slumps, bad losses, and pressure. That’s when a manager earns his paycheck — and that’s where Boone continues to come up short. This is something that you need to keep you eye on and something that I have been watching extremely, obsessively close ever since Aaron Boone became the Yankees manager. Boone can't manage when things get hard! Why? Because he doesn't know how. Write that down.

A 6-0 loss to the Brewers should never have happened. The Yankees managed just three hits all night — two from José Caballero and one from Judge — while the offense looked lifeless from the first inning on. Worse yet, the timing couldn’t be more concerning because the injury list is beginning to grow again.

Luis Gil is now sidelined with shoulder inflammation after landing on Triple-A’s injured list. Boone says Gil won’t throw for at least three weeks, and any pitcher knows the ramp-up process after a shutdown can take just as long as the injury itself. Boone doesn't know what he's talking about. The Yankees may not see him for well over a month. We all know Jasson Domínguez is dealing with a shoulder sprain after being a freaking boss and running through a wall, Giancarlo Stanton is hurt again, Ben Rice day to day, and that’s before even mentioning the ongoing concerns surrounding Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón.

This is the part of the season where leadership matters.

Anybody can manage when the machine is running perfectly. The challenge comes when pieces start falling off and tough decisions have to be made. That’s where Boone’s critics, me — and plenty more — keep circling back to the same issue: he struggles when things get uncomfortable.

Too often, Boone sounds like a broken postgame press conference generator. The Yankees lose because of sloppy defense, lazy baserunning, or flat at-bats, and fans get another speech about “the grind” and how the team “just has to keep going.” Meanwhile, the same mistakes keep happening. Accountability feels optional. Urgency feels missing.

And then there’s the constant lineup roulette. One guy gets hot? Perfect time for a scheduled day off. Someone finally finds rhythm? Better move him down three spots in the order because the analytics spreadsheet said so. Boone manages like he’s terrified of disrupting a formula, except the formula keeps producing the same October ending.

Yes, Boone has over 700 wins as Yankees manager. That sounds impressive until you remember the Yankees don’t hang participation banners in the Bronx. Championships matter. October matters. And despite all the talent Boone has been handed over the years, there’s still no title to show for it.

That’s the part nobody wants to say out loud. I will.

Managing a stacked roster when everyone is healthy isn’t exactly climbing Everest. Most baseball fans could fill out a team featuring Judge, Fried, Caballero, Bellinger and a loaded bullpen and accidentally win 95 games. The real test comes when injuries hit, momentum fades, and difficult choices need to be made on the fly.

That’s when great managers separate themselves.

If Boone truly has final say over the lineup decisions like he and Brian Cashman insist, then he also owns the failures when the offense disappears, when the fundamentals collapse, and when the team sleepwalks through games they should win.

The Yankees are now clinging to first place by half a game with the Rays breathing down their necks. One bad week and that disappears completely. So no, this isn’t panic mode after one loss. But Yankees fans have seen this script before: injuries pile up, the offense gets inconsistent, Boone keeps repeating the same clichés, and suddenly a comfortable division lead becomes a dogfight.

The Yankees don’t just need a win now. They need momentum again. They need another stretch where they start burying teams instead of playing flat baseball every other night.

And Boone? He needs to prove he can actually steer the ship once the water gets rough — because smooth sailing has never really been the problem.

JASSON DOMINGUEZ PLAYED LIKE A TRUE THROWBACK

Maybe this is the old man in me talking, but baseball today feels a little… moisturized. Everybody’s worried about “load management,” preserving bodies, launch angles, recovery days, sleep metrics, hydration charts, and whether a guy’s heart rate got too high jogging to first base. Somewhere along the way, baseball stopped looking like a game played by maniacs and started looking like an HR department seminar.

I grew up watching players who treated the warning track like it was optional and basic human safety like a rumor.

Pete Rose didn’t slide into bases — he tried to assassinate them. The man played baseball like he had unpaid parking tickets waiting at every bag. Headfirst dives, dirt in his teeth, jersey permanently stained brown. Nobody ever accused Pete Rose of “taking a smarter angle.” The only angle he knew was full speed.

Then you had Ken Griffey Sr. and Dave Winfield scaling outfield walls in Yankee Stadium like rent was due at midnight. Those guys didn’t jog toward fly balls calculating risk assessment percentages. They went after baseballs with the kind of recklessness normally associated with action movies and bad financial decisions.

And don’t even get me started on Derek Jeter launching himself face-first into the stands against Boston. The man basically became an airborne folding chair just to record an out. Bloody face, bruised shoulder and Yankee fans still replay that clip like it’s the Zapruder film. THAT was baseball.

And honestly, that’s why I’m rolling my eyes at everyone ripping Jasson Domínguez for smashing into the wall making that catch against Texas. People are calling it stupid. I’m calling it beautiful.

The kid ran 81 feet tracking a rocket off the bat, went full speed into the chain-link part of the wall, got absolutely detonated on impact, lost his sunglasses, lost his hat, probably briefly lost contact with several ancestors — and STILL held onto the baseball.

That’s not stupidity. That’s baseball DNA. That is why you play the game. That is why Sportscenter invented the 10 ten plays!

That’s “the run doesn’t score because I’m catching this ball no matter what happens afterward.”

And yes, he got hurt. Shoulder sprain. Concussion protocol. He’ll miss a few weeks. But since when did effort become something we criticize? Since when did “he played too hard” become an insult?

Baseball was built on lunatics doing unreasonable things for outs. Why? Because it's the greatest game ever made.

You know who else played like this? Aaron Rowand. That man once smashed face-first into the center-field wall in Philadelphia so hard it looked like he got hit by a city bus, then walked away bleeding because he caught the ball anyway. ESPN literally dubbed players like him part of the “All-Run-Through-A-Wall Team.” Aaron Rowand played center field like every fly ball had personally insulted his family.

And then there was Jim Edmonds — a human highlight. The guy treated diving catches like performance art. Half the time he’d leave his feet so dramatically you’d think he got launched out of a cannon.  Jim Edmonds basically created baseball pornography for SportsCenter. Before every phone became a television studio, people waited all night to see the SportsCenter Top 10 because some lunatic center fielder sacrificed his skeletal structure robbing a double in July.

That stuff MATTERED.

Now everybody immediately turns into a risk-management consultant.
“He should’ve protected himself.”
“He needs to think long-term.”
“He’s too valuable.”
“He shouldn’t risk injury in May.”

Man… what happened to us?

 

You play to WIN THE GAME. You play to steal outs. You play to make the pitcher walk back to the dugout screaming into his glove because you just erased a guaranteed extra-base hit.

And what makes Domínguez’s play even better is this: the kid easily could’ve coasted. He JUST came back from an elbow bruise. Nobody would’ve crushed him for pulling up a step early. Most modern players probably make the “business decision” there, let the ball bounce off the wall, and jog after it while pretending they almost had it.

Not Domínguez. He went full-send. And that’s why I respect it.

That’s also why I’ll always love guys like Harrison Bader. Sure, the guy gets hurt a lot. But every inning looks like his mortgage depends on making the next catch. There’s something refreshing about players who still play with chaos in them. Because baseball is supposed to have some chaos.

It’s supposed to have dirt-stained uniforms, guys crashing into walls, catchers blocking the plate, infielders diving into the hole, and outfielders running like their cleats are on fire. Not everything needs to be optimized by a sports scientist with an iPad and a protein shake.

Of course players should be smart. Nobody’s saying careers should end for one catch in May. But there’s a massive difference between being smart and being soft. And lately, the line between those two keeps getting blurrier.

So no, I’m not criticizing Jasson Domínguez. I’m applauding him. Because for one play, baseball looked dangerous again.

It looked emotional again.
It looked gritty again.
It looked like the game I grew up loving.

And honestly?
We need more of that.

--Alvin Izzo
BYB Yankee History Contributor