THE YANKEES ARE IN CHAOS—AND THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE KEEP GETTING A PASS

The Yankees want us to believe they are furious about losing.

Then act like it.

Because what we are watching is an organization that keeps defending its leadership while everything beneath it becomes somebody else’s problem. The coaches are under review. The players are under fire. Important staff members are leaving. Another major pitcher has undergone surgery. Championship Yankees are publicly questioning the standards.

And the people responsible for overseeing the whole operation? They get another chance to explain why their plan should have worked.

It is exhausting.

Fans do not need another lecture about how difficult winning is. They need a reason to believe the Yankees recognize what keeps going wrong—and have the nerve to change it.

Instead, this offseason has given us six reasons to question how this organization is being run.

1. Accountability apparently stops at the executive offices.

Brian Cashman has reached an agreement to remain general manager. Aaron Boone is returning as manager. Hal Steinbrenner, meanwhile, has placed the bulk of the responsibility for the latest playoff failure on the offense, saying: “The bottom line is, the players didn’t live up to their end of the bargain in the playoffs.”

How convenient.

The general manager selects the players. The manager oversees their preparation and performance. The owner endorses the direction. Yet when the season ends in disappointment, the harshest judgment lands on the people wearing the uniforms.

Of course players deserve criticism. Nobody gets a free pass for bad baseball.

But who answers for the construction of the team? Who answers for weaknesses that survive one offseason and show up again the following October? Who determines whether the organization’s approach needs more than another adjustment around the edges?

Apparently, the same people whose work is being evaluated.

That is the problem. The Yankees keep asking fans to trust the judgment of leadership that has every reason to defend its previous decisions.

Continuity has value when it produces progress. When it repeatedly leads back to the same explanations, fans are entitled to call it complacency.

2. The hitting coach is gonzo.

As of November 11, the Yankees had not resolved their hitting-coach situation. James Rowson’s contract had expired, and is going to the Giants, and assistants Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst were also awaiting decisions. Cashman said the Yankees were examining internal and outside options.

So the organization has settled the future of its top baseball leadership while continuing to deliberate over the people working underneath them.

That tells you plenty about where the pressure is landing.

The Yankees need a new hitting coach. But they definitely need a different instructional approach. Maybe the roster itself asks too much of a coaching staff expected to turn its limitations into a productive offense.

Those questions deserve a serious answer.

What fans should refuse to accept is another coaching change sold as a complete solution. You cannot keep changing the person explaining the approach without examining the approach itself.

If Rowson leaves, what changes? The preparation? The instruction? The way players respond when their swings stop working? The expectations for making adjustments?

A different name on the staff means very little without clear answers.

The Yankees need to demonstrate that they understand the problem before presenting another replacement as the cure.

3. Now Brad Ausmus is headed to Houston. Another departure, another repair job.

The coaching shuffle just got bigger. Brad Ausmus is reportedly leaving Boone’s bench to become the Astros’ manager, with reports indicating he will travel to Houston Thursday ahead of the anticipated appointment.

Tanner Swanson has already departed for Seattle’s bench-coach job, prompting the Yankees to promote Aaron Gershenfeld. Add the unresolved hitting staff, and the Yankees have significant work to do around Boone.

Ausmus has every reason to pursue a managerial opportunity. Swanson’s promotion is understandable, too. These departures do not establish that coaches were desperate to escape the Bronx.

They do, however, leave the Yankees replacing important voices during an offseason when the effectiveness of their coaching is already under scrutiny.

Who replaces Ausmus? What perspective will that person bring? Will the Yankees seek someone willing to challenge Boone, or someone who fits comfortably into the existing operation?

And what, exactly, is that operation supposed to do differently?

That is what makes this so damn frustrating. Boone’s return is settled, but the organization is still assembling the people who will help him address problems fans have been watching for years.

Gershenfeld deserves his opportunity, I guess. Whoever becomes bench coach deserves a fair assessment. But the Yankees cannot confuse filling vacancies with fixing weaknesses.

Fans want a better team, not merely a completed staff directory.

4. Max Fried’s surgery adds another health concern to a roster already tested by injuries.

Max Fried has undergone surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow after two injured-list stints during the season for a left-elbow bone bruise. The Yankees expect him to begin throwing in December and be ready for a normal spring training.

A successful recovery would be welcome news. Right now, though, it is another important player entering the offseason with rehabilitation on his schedule.

This follows a season in which Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were unavailable for substantial stretches, leaving major holes in the offense.

Nobody should manufacture an accusation of medical negligence from an injury report. Surgery alone does not prove anyone mishandled Fried’s care.

The organizational question is about how much uncertainty this roster can withstand.

What happens when an important starter goes down? What happens when a centerpiece of the offense misses months? Are the replacements credible, or does the entire plan start wobbling?

The Yankees cannot eliminate injuries. They can be judged on whether they have built enough depth to survive them.

Fans have heard plenty of encouraging recovery forecasts. They want an organization prepared for the possibility that a forecast changes.

A championship plan has to function when something goes wrong. Otherwise, the season becomes a waiting room—and October becomes another explanation.

5. Championship Yankees are questioning the standards, and current leadership is defending the culture.

CC Sabathia has questioned whether the current clubhouse has enough people maintaining the standards he experienced as a Yankee. He called for greater involvement from former players. Boone disputed that assessment, pointed to his invitations to former Yankees, and described the clubhouse as a strength. Cashman said he had contacted critics and maintained that the issues raised were not why the team lost.

Joe Girardi raised a more immediate question: Is someone addressing the mistakes? He criticized sloppy baserunning and questioned Jazz Chisholm’s explanation of a failed double-play attempt during the ALDS. Girardi also acknowledged that he is not in the clubhouse every day.

That limitation matters. Former Yankees cannot know every private conversation taking place inside the building.

But they know what disciplined baseball looks like. So do the fans.

Nobody needs Boone to hold a daily public execution. He does not have to humiliate a player to prove he has spoken to him.

What he does need is for the instruction to produce results.

If mistakes are being addressed privately, why does the public keep watching preventable mistakes? If the standards are understood, why are championship veterans questioning whether those standards are being maintained?

The response cannot always be reassurance about how much everyone cares.

Caring is a starting point. Preparation, execution and correction are the job.

The Yankees need to win this argument on the field. Defending the clubhouse at a press conference does not settle it.

6. Jorge Posada says he feels unwelcome. How the hell does it reach that point?

Posada said he does not feel welcome around the Yankees and questioned whether the organization wants him involved. He also argued that the current team needs a coaching staff willing to push players toward greater accountability.

Cashman subsequently said Posada is welcome, confirmed that they had spoken, and pointed to invitations to spring training and Old-Timers’ Day. Posada’s comments describe his experience; they do not establish that the Yankees excluded him.

Still, this is an embarrassing disconnect.

One of the central figures of the championship years publicly questions whether the franchise wants him around, and the general manager has to explain that invitations were extended.

How does a relationship that should be valuable to both sides deteriorate into that conversation?

An invitation opens the door. Building a useful relationship requires an actual role, mutual understanding and a willingness to listen.

The Yankees should be capable of finding meaningful ways for willing former champions to contribute. Those players do not need automatic authority over the current staff. Their experience does deserve thoughtful consideration.

This franchise knows how to celebrate its history. It knows how to sell the memories, stage the ceremonies and remind fans what those teams accomplished.

It should put comparable effort into maintaining relationships with the people who made those memories possible.

Because when Posada questions whether he is wanted, Sabathia questions the standards, and Girardi questions whether mistakes are being corrected, fans have every right to demand more than another defense of the status quo.

Enough with the explanations.

Each individual issue has an explanation.

Coaches earn promotions. Contracts require decisions. Players get injured. Former champions disagree with current management.

The anger comes from seeing all of it together: a coaching staff in transition, unresolved instructional questions, another important recovery to monitor, and a public dispute about the standards of the organization.

Above it all sits a leadership group that continues to receive ownership’s confidence.

That confidence needs to be justified by something fans can see.

A better prepared team. A roster with credible depth. Coaches whose instruction produces lasting corrections. A leadership group willing to acknowledge when its own decisions deserve scrutiny.

The Yankees keep telling people how badly they want to win. Fans have supported this team through enough disappointing endings to expect more than that.

Fix the problems. Explain the decisions. Accept responsibility at every level.

And stop treating another chance for the people in charge as though it is an accomplishment for the franchise.