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

 

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.

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

A LOT OF BOONE IMPROVEMENT PROMISES, BUT ALL THESE YEARS LATER, NOTHING CHANGES

Yup, we don't forget.

Players have changed over the years, but one thing remains. Boone. And after the mistakes, he's not out there reprimanding them.  Just a lot of talk to the press about how things need to get better, but the players do not.

What the Yankees did against Tampa Bay on Monday was an embarrassment.

Four errors. A 5–2 loss. A 2–0 deficit in a best-of-five division series. A team supposedly built to compete for a championship suddenly standing one loss from elimination because it could not handle the basic responsibilities of playing baseball. Catch the ball. Make the throw. Understand the situation. Give your pitcher a chance. It's your job.

Apparently, those expectations are too demanding.

We here at Bleeding Yankee Blue has been hammering this organization about leadership, accountability and fundamentals for years. The other night supplied another miserable example of why. The names change. The opponent changes. The calendar changes. The Yankees keep finding familiar ways to sabotage themselves.

And Aaron Boone keeps finding something to say afterward.

That is the part I cannot stomach anymore. There is always an explanation. Always another assurance. Always a suggestion that the Yankees understand what went wrong and will address it. Then another important game arrives, and the same problems show up wearing freshly washed pinstripes.

How many times are we supposed to buy this?

Boone kept Ryan McMahon in the lineup partly because he wanted “to prioritize the defense.” McMahon then mishandled a routine grounder on the second pitch of the game. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s attempted double-play throw went astray. Austin Wells added catcher’s interference. Three official errors in the first inning.

Prioritize the defense?

The Yankees could barely survive it. Those were the opening moments of a playoff game. This was the preparation they brought to a night when they desperately needed to even the series.

By the end, the defensive damage extended beyond the four errors in the box score. There were additional misplays, including mistakes involving Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr. and Luis García Jr. Three unearned runs helped bury the Yankees.

Every one of those players has a responsibility to execute. Their mistakes belong to them. But the manager and his coaches have a responsibility to prepare a team that can perform under pressure. When these breakdowns keep resurfacing in important games, the people running that preparation deserve scrutiny.

Boone has had years to establish his standards. We are looking at the results. Cam Schlittler was left trying to navigate the mess around him. He departed after 4⅓ innings, charged with four runs, only two earned.

His outing was not flawless. He kept grinding. But his teammates made an already difficult assignment harder. Before making the pitching change in the fifth, Boone had watched his defense repeatedly compromise his starter.

I wanted to see Schlittler get a chance to work through that inning. Pulling him did nothing to repair the fielding behind him. George Lombard Jr.’s subsequent error extended the inning, and Richie Palacios delivered the two-run single that pushed Tampa Bay’s lead to 5–1.

Meanwhile, Ben Rice supplied two solo home runs. The rest of the lineup went a combined 2-for-28. Rice was trying to drag an entire offense across the finish line while the defense was busy digging a hole underneath it.

That is a hell of a way to approach October.

Afterward, Boone said:

“We’ve got to get over it.”

Of course they have to recover. There is another game to play.

But fans deserve something more substantial than the latest invitation to move past a disaster. We have been moving past these disasters for years. Eventually, somebody has to explain why the organization cannot stop producing them.

The history of these comments makes last night even harder to accept.

In 2022, Boone said of baserunning:

“It’s been a stronger point of emphasis from Day 1 of Spring Training.”

Good. It should be. But an emphasis has to become a habit. A habit has to survive a difficult game, a tight score and the pressure of October. Otherwise, the organization gets to announce its commitment every spring without ever being held responsible for whether that commitment lasts.

On July 5, 2024, after a loss to Boston, Boone said:

“We have to play clean baseball, especially when things are hard to come by. We’ve got to be better, period.”

I mean, no shit. Don't tell us, tell them! And while you're at it, make sure these players are doing what is needed! The context was maddening. Anthony Volpe failed to run hard enough from third to score before DJ LeMahieu was tagged at second. Because that final out was a tag rather than a force, getting home in time mattered. LeMahieu also could have prolonged the play with a rundown. The Yankees wasted an opportunity through poor execution and situational awareness.

Boone recognized the problem publicly. Recognizing it was the easy part. The harder responsibility was making that kind of baseball unacceptable—and producing a team that consistently demonstrated it understood why.

On July 8, 2024, CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa wrote:

“Simply put, they need to play cleaner baseball.”

Even the outside diagnosis had become familiar. There comes a point when “cleaner baseball” should stop appearing on the organization’s wish list and start describing the product on the field.

On February 14, 2025, Brian Cashman acknowledged the defensive problem:

“Defensively we were challenged in a lot of positions last year.”

He also said:

“I thought we were bad defensively.”

Cashman was discussing the offseason effort to improve run prevention after the 2024 World Series loss. He believed personnel changes would strengthen the defense and help the Yankees go further. That matters because this failure reaches above the manager. Cashman knew. The front office knew. The problem had been identified. Improving it was an organizational objective.

So nobody gets to act blindsided when fans demand answers about another October defensive collapse.

Then, in comments reported July 24, 2025, after another four-error game against Toronto, Boone said:

“Keep working at our fundamentals day in and day out and it will continue to get better.”

Read that again. Then think about last night.

The Yankees may conduct drills. Coaches may review video. Conversations may happen behind closed doors. We do not need to invent what happens inside the clubhouse to judge the effectiveness of the work.

The recurring failures are visible.

Whatever instruction and accountability exist have not produced a standard reliable enough to prevent another postseason embarrassment. That is the failure Boone and the front office have to answer for.

And I am tired of hearing their intentions presented as evidence of success. The same week as that Toronto debacle, Aaron Judge said:

“Going into this off day, we’ve got to refocus and tighten it up on defense.”

The captain could see it, too. At some point, all this tightening is supposed to hold. Instead, the Yankees keep arriving at the biggest moments with parts falling off.

Bleeding Yankee Blue was calling for change long before this latest disaster. On November 5, 2024, our senior managing editor, Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa, argued that the Yankees needed to move on from Boone and establish accountability after the World Series. Her criticism specifically addressed the team’s baserunning, fundamentals and leadership.

On July 24, 2025, BYB returned to the same issue in HOUSE OF HORRORS & LOSERS Jeana described recurring fundamental failures and challenged the protection Boone and the front office continued to receive.

The record is there.

I have been ahead of the curve on this argument, and BYB has kept making it when plenty of people preferred to dismiss the criticism as excessive. We were watching the habits. We were watching the excuses accumulate. We were asking why an organization with these resources continued to tolerate such unreliable execution.

Now, for those finally opening their eyes: welcome.

And shame on everyone who waved away the warning signs and treated concerned fans as the problem. You do not have to agree with every lineup criticism or bullpen complaint to recognize that repeated failures deserve more than another defense of the manager.

Being demanding about the Yankees is part of caring about the Yankees.

I care enough to say this plainly: Aaron Boone should be fired.

His public assurances have lost their credibility with me. A manager cannot keep promising improvement while his team repeatedly demonstrates the same vulnerabilities under pressure and expect unlimited patience...FOR YEARS.

The players need consequences for repeated lapses. Those consequences should be deliberate and consistent: corrective work, changes in roles, and playing time earned through execution. A respected veteran should face the same expectations as a rookie. Talent should come with responsibility.

Boone also needs to be judged by that standard. So do his coaches. So does Cashman.

A replacement manager will need authority to enforce expectations. The front office needs new decision-makers who will challenge unsuccessful practices and judge the organization by what it delivers. Hal Steinbrenner has to demand that change instead of signing off on another round of reassuring explanations.

The Yankees of the late 1990s, carrying into 2000, won four championships in five seasons under Joe Torre.

That is the seriousness this franchise should be trying to recover, but with a clown like Boone... forget it.

It requires preparation, trust, execution and the willingness to confront failure. Players can feel supported while being held responsible. A manager can remain composed while insisting on standards. Torre’s success should remind the Yankees that leadership is measured by the team it produces.

Last night, Tampa Bay kept putting pressure on New York. The Yankees kept giving that pressure somewhere to go.

Boone cannot throw away this game, retrieve another familiar phrase and expect the discussion to end. The discussion should reach his office, Cashman’s office and ownership.

I have no faith that the Yankees will win a World Series under this leadership. They have given me years of reasons to reach that conclusion. Another October collapse only strengthens it.

Fire Boone. Bring new leadership into the front office. Give the next manager the authority and responsibility to make disciplined baseball a daily requirement.

And hold everyone to it! 

The Yankees have supplied enough statements about getting better. Their fans have earned the right to demand that they actually do it. The time is now, I am fed up.

SOME PEOPLE DO STICK UP FOR BOONE! THEY MUST BE STUDIED.

We've spent 9 seasons criticizing Aaron Boone. I think the only way we stop is when he is finally gone. That has to happen sooner or later, right? No one can live forever. That's what science has told us anyway. So since Baboonie isn't immortal and the Yankees aren't smart enough to fire him we can pretty much count on Baboonie doesn't go away because the Yankees finally fire him.

At this point, I can't imagine ever defending Baboonie. If I ever did, someone needs to have me examined because something is wrong with me. There's always at least one that goes against the grain though, right? Well NJ.com is defending Baboonie, you can check it out HERE. The closest I will ever get to defending Baboonie is to say that he did not hand pick Austin Wells to be the catcher of this team. He is stuck with him. Wells definitely screwed up game one, but given his track record it isn't a surprise.

Baboonie even went so far as to admit he screwed up. He gave him some tough criticism in his own Baboonie way so there is that. But why defend him at all? He doesn't need or warrant defending. If he actually won a championship the criticism would at least come with one gleaming moment of accomplishment that matters to all of us.

Instead, we have to listen to him defend dead weight like Wells and then strangely justify decisions not add Aaron Judge to the ALDS roster. I say strangely because he tried to use science to ssound smart and defend the thought process but it just falls flat. NJ.com went as far as to say Judge isn't close to being 100% yet....but one more week not rehabbing could get him there.

Come again? Seriously, am I the only one who thinks one week could be a difference maker? We've seen Giancarlo Stanton battle with an epidemic of strains for years now. One week never brought him close to 100% in the nine seasons he's been here. He's a constant walking strain! Baboonie has an example of the exact opposite thought process but the aging captain is somehow going to be different. It's Baboonie logic.

A Grade 2 strain takes 6 to 8 weeks to fully heal for all other professional baseball players not named Judge. When the ALCS starts on October 12th, Judge's rehab will be on day 26. That's not even four weeks IF the Yankees can even get there. I'm not against wishing for that once in a lifetime miracle....I just don't trust that Baboonie or the Yankees would recognize it happening.

So while anything is possible, I just don't understand defending Baboonie for anything, really. Anyone who does needs to be studied and possibly committed.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

HEY BOONE, DON’T SCREW THIS UP

The Yankees swept Boston, and I enjoyed every second of it. Now comes the harder part: beating Tampa Bay without turning their own dugout into the Rays’ greatest competitive advantage.

These Yankees—the misfits as I call them, the guys I’ve questioned all summer—have given us something worth rooting for. They handled the Wild Card round without Aaron Judge. Austin Wells contributed. Spencer Jones contributed. Suddenly, a lineup that too often looked like a collection of separate problems started playing like a team.

I want these misfits to win the whole damn thing.

That doesn’t mean Brian Cashman gets a summer’s worth of criticism erased by two October victories. I’m still tired of roster construction built around gambles, injury recoveries and the assumption that somebody will eventually figure it out. I still question the evaluations, the patience afforded certain players and the habit of selling hope as a strategy.

But the players have an opportunity now. Let them take it.

Tonight starts with Gerrit Cole. Game 1 begins at 6:30 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field, with Cole facing Drew Rasmussen. Tampa went 55–26 at home, so walking into that building and expecting Boston’s surrender to carry over would be a mistake.

Cole brings a 10–9 record, a 3.61 ERA and 131 strikeouts. Rasmussen counters with 16–5, a 2.67 ERA and 174 strikeouts. Those numbers should get everyone’s attention.

Cole is rested. Now he needs to be sharp. There’s unfinished business after Tampa eliminated the Yankees in the 2020 ALDS, but revenge doesn’t retire hitters. First-pitch strikes, command and keeping the ball in the park do. Junior Caminero, Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda cannot be allowed to turn every inning into traffic.

And against Rasmussen, the Yankees need useful at-bats. Make him work. Move runners. Take the available run instead of waiting for the three-run homer that might never arrive.

Then there’s Wells. I’ve criticized him plenty, and his regular-season bat earned those questions. I really don't think he's good, but maybe he's on a hot streak. He had a good Wild Card series, and he deserves credit. In Game 1 alone, he delivered two hits, drove in a run and scored another while helping the Yankees pitchers overwhelm Boston.

Trent Grisham? I appreciate what he can provide offensively. I’m still watching him in the field. Does he take the right route? Make the clean play? Keep an extra base from becoming an extra run? October defense has to withstand scrutiny, especially against a team willing to pressure every small mistake.

And is Aaron Judge even necessary in this series?

It’s a provocative question, but the roster decision deserves one. A healthy Judge makes this team better. A limited Judge returning from a strained right calf presents a different calculation. Entering today, his availability remained uncertain, with a possible pinch-hitting role under consideration.

If he can help, use him. If he cannot run or defend effectively, don’t rearrange a functioning lineup simply because the biggest name is available. The misfits just showed they can win together. Respect that.

Ryan Weathers’ potential addition to the ALDS bullpen presents another test. I’ve questioned the Cashman gamble there, too. Making the roster is one thing; being ready for a tight October inning is another. Boone needs to know the difference.

Behind Cole, Cam Schlittler is slated for Monday’s Game 2, with Carlos Rodón and Max Fried the likely options when the series reaches New York. Those Bronx assignments remain unconfirmed, but there is enough pitching here to make this a real fight.

Which brings us to the question every Yankee fan eventually asks:

Will Boone mess this up?

Will he recognize when his starter is finished? Choose the reliever suited to the inning? Let productive players play? Or will we spend tomorrow discussing a decision everyone could see going wrong before it happened?

Manage the game in front of you, Aaron. Give these guys their best chance.

I’m rooting for Wells to keep hitting, Grisham to make every play, Cole to own the opener and the kids to keep bringing life into this team. But, Rasmussen is tough... and the Rays are home.

Let the misfits win.

I’d love nothing more than to spend November explaining how they proved me wrong.

THE MISFITS OWNED BOSTON. PORTNOY CRIES.

The Yankees absolutely flattened the Red Sox, and I enjoyed every glorious second of it.

A 9–0 win in Game 1. A 9–2 win in Game 2. Eighteen runs to two across a two-game sweep. Boston showed up for October baseball and wound up participating in a Yankees batting demonstration. Somebody should have offered them continuing education credits.

There’s something deeply satisfying about watching your biggest rival get sent home before its fans have finished explaining why this is finally their year.

And yet, somehow, Dave Portnoy came away concerned about the Yankees’ champagne consumption.

The Barstool founder and professional Boston grievance distributor posted this:

“The Yankees celebrating a wild card series win with champagne just shows how far that franchise has fallen. Very embarrassing.”

Dave, your team just got swept. Perhaps start the embarrassment inspection in your own clubhouse.

Now, before anyone mistakes me for the president of the Aaron Boone Appreciation Society, let me be clear: I’m a true-blue Yankees fan, and I thought the celebration after merely clinching a wild-card berth was ridiculously stupid.

On that principle, I agree with Portnoy. Making the playoff field shouldn’t have me wondering whether somebody accidentally ordered the World Series celebration package. Shake hands. Enjoy dinner. Save a few bottles for an actual accomplishment.

But eliminating the Red Sox in a playoff series? After beating them like that?

Pop the cork. I loved it.

There’s a difference between celebrating your invitation and celebrating after you’ve kicked your biggest rival out of the party. These Yankees earned a moment to enjoy themselves.

Look, champagne celebrations are routine when teams advance in the postseason. And Boston was good, and Boston’s strong second-half push ended with the Yankees sweeping them without Aaron Judge playing in the series. That’s a rough combination for a Red Sox fan trying to lecture anybody about standards.

Boston couldn’t beat the Yankees without their biggest bat, but Dave would like a congressional hearing on the beverages. Wonderful priorities.

And here’s the funny part: I’m defending a team in this 2026 Yankees club I still haven’t fully fallen in love with. I know, crazy right?

Look, it bothers me. These are my Yankees. I should feel more attached. Instead, too often I watch them with the emotional posture of a homeowner waiting to find out what the contractor broke.

A lot of that, for me, comes back to Boone. I think he’s a poor leader. I want a manager whose team looks prepared, focused and accountable. Too often, I’m left wondering whether the next explanation will make me more annoyed than the mistake did.

Then there’s the group itself.

They remind me nothing of the Core Four. I don’t get that feeling I associate with the 1978 Yankees, either. Those teams have a permanent place in my baseball soul. This bunch still feels like a collection assembled from three different rosters and a handwritten notice outside a hardware store...and you know I'm right. That's why I call them the New York Misfits.

Minor leaguers. Big leaguers. A couple of guys who look like they could finish framing your garage before heading over to the beer league. I half expect somebody to ask whether the postseason shares include mileage for the work van.

It’s a weird group. They haven’t given me that automatic emotional connection just because they wear pinstripes. I’m rooting like hell, but I’m still waiting for the moment when rooting turns into believing.

Well, destroying Boston was a pretty good sales pitch. For two games, these misfits gave me exactly what I wanted: winning baseball and a thoroughly miserable Red Sox fan base. I don’t need everybody to remind me of an old champion when they’re busy sending Boston home. Keep doing that and we can work on the relationship.

Portnoy, meanwhile, sounds like a guy standing outside a restaurant complaining that the people inside are enjoying dessert. Would I expect Boston to celebrate if the roles were reversed? Absolutely. And I’d hate watching it. That’s the privilege of being a rival fan. You can be aggravated without pretending you’re the commissioner of champagne.

The Yankees now move on to Tampa Bay, which finished with the American League’s best record and let's face it, they are a better team than the Yankees. Now, the Yankees are hoping to have Judge back for that series.  But I wonder, do we need him? This rag-tag group seems to be doing great.

Look, I want to see these misfits win again. Beat the Rays. Give me another reason to yell at the television in a way the neighbors can actually enjoy.

Maybe this oddball collection will grow on me. October has a way of making a fan sentimental about people he spent September threatening to trade.

For now, enjoy the win, BYB freaks. And Yanks? You earned this celebration.

And Portnoy? Shove it, buddy. Go back to Boston.

Your team can pick you up. They’re free.

SWEEP DREAMS IN THE BRONX!

The fat lady is singing and it's OVER! Boston can go back home and drink some Samuel Adams and start making their reservations on the golf course. As my boss likes to say, "it sucks to suck" and boy does Boston suck.

Losing is never easy but it hurts even more when the Yankees don't have Aaron Judge on the roster and they still spanked the Red Sox! That could've been an advantage for the Red Sox because we have all seen how different this team can be when there is no Judge but Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger stepped up and took care of business.

But that didn't matter. Even without Judge, the Yankees out scored Boston 18-2 and the starters had a miniscule 0.73 ERA. Cam Schlittler and Max Fried shut Boston down! It's the second year in a row the Yankees stomped Boston in the Bronx. The Yankees outplayed Boston in every aspect of the game. It's one thing to not be at full strength, and both sides arguably had some holes but the Yankees had more holes. The Red Sox had a door to walk through, but they couldn't make it happen. It was shut in their faces! Boston was lifeless and they had plenty of mistakes mixed in that it was their own downfall. Chad Tracey made some interesting decisions this series, and it didn't pay off. Now the Red Sox need to do a lot of self reflection. They didn't look like the same team that was breathing down the Yankees neck the second half of the regular season.

When the Yankees hit and pitch on all cylinders this team CAN beat anyone. If the Yankees continue to play the way they did in this series, they can beat Tampa in the ALDS, but they have to be consistent. They have to carry this into Saturday and they can't get complacent. 

So for now, I am going to enjoy this moment. We've been waiting to see this team click on all cylinders like this. It's a nice victory, but Tampa is next. The work is not done yet but it feels freaking fantastic to beat Boston. How SWEEP it is!

To the Boston fan who heckled me in the breakroom yesterday....I am lookin for ya! Watch out.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

COLE SHOULDER: DID THE YANKEES JUST DEMOTE THEIR ACE?

I'm not gonna lie, I am nervous about this Wild Card series. There are so many question marks with this roster right now. It's playoff time, so any unknowns add another monkey wrench to this season. This is the last thing we need when we are battling the Red Sox again.

We have several players in limbo right now. Everyone is waiting to hear if Aaron Judge is going to play in this series at all. But he's not the only person in limbo. The Yankees have decided to give the ball to Cam Schlittler for Game 1, read more HERE. 

The Cy Young hopeful is getting the ball against his hometown team in a spot that Gerrit Cole has held for six seasons. There's no doubt that Schlittler has earned it with his 14-6 record and 1.95 ERA, he's been the very definition of an ace, especially as Cole has worked his way back this season. Schlittler may have the number one spot not, but Cole didn't slide in behind at number two.

The Game two starter is Max Fried, not Cole. Yup, you read that correctly. Cole will get the ball for Game 3, if necessary. He will be the last chance for the Yankees to move forward. Earlier this month we asked GERRIT COLE-APSE: IS HE STILL AN ACE? after a rough outing. We all knew one day someone else would come up the ranks and change the rotation, especially after Cole missed all of last season.

Now we have Schlittler to set the tone for the series and no Carlos Rodon as a starter, even though he has been reliable and effective lately. It's a good problem to have, when you have a strong rotation that you don't have enough slots for all of your starting options. It's not something we are used to writing about. It's nice to have a strong rotation in a short series. It should be a big advantage for the Yankees, but a weird one when your once ace in Cole, would be pitching as number three. It's not something I would've even thought was a possibility.....but here we are.

This is a big series, and the Red Sox have been chasing us for months now and they want some revenge after we beat them in the Wild Card series last season. There's a lot on the line, and the Yankees look very different this time around.....I don't like different in the postseason. This better work.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

STOP SELLING ME THE 2026 YANKEES. LET THEM EARN IT FIRST.

I love the Yankees. That is precisely why I am tired of being told how much I am supposed to love this 2026 Yankees team.

There is a difference between rooting for the uniform and swallowing every story the organization wraps around the men wearing it. I want them to beat Boston on Tuesday. I want them to win the World Series. But I am not going to pretend that 93 wins erase what I have watched for six months, or that a postseason berth turns every underperformer into a folk hero. A ticket to October is an opportunity. It is not a personality transplant.

The Yankees have won despite losing Aaron Judge for most of the season. That is real. Cam Schlittler and the pitching staff have given fans plenty to admire. Ben Rice has hit 41 home runs. There are players here who have earned their applause, and there is a reason to believe this club can win a short series. But a record cannot make me feel something the baseball itself has not made me feel.

And too much of this Yankee baseball has felt like a sales pitch interrupted by strikeouts.

Look, I'm about to go on a ramble, but that's why you come to Bleeding Yankee Blue, right? There is a difference between winning and believing. I know that doesn't make alot of sense, but let me explain.

We start here. Remember 1996? Derek Jeter hit .314. Bernie Williams hit .305 with 29 homers and 102 RBIs. Paul O’Neill hit .302 and drove in 91. Joe Girardi, the catcher nobody marketed as an offensive savior, hit .294. The club hit .288, scored 871 runs and struck out 909 times. It won the World Series.

Through 161 games this year, the Yankees were hitting .235, with 739 runs and 1,480 strikeouts. They had hit 223 home runs, 61 more than the entire 1996 team. Those are different eras with different league-wide offensive conditions; raw averages alone do not settle which lineup was better relative to its competition. They do tell you what it has felt like to sit through an inning. In 1996, a hit could become another hit. In 2026, you can spend a lot of time waiting for one swing to redeem a parade of empty at-bats.

The ’96 club had imperfections. O’Neill did not hit in that postseason the way he did in the regular season, and Girardi was no slugger. That is the point: nobody needed to pretend they were something else. You knew what those guys brought, you watched them bring it, and eventually they delivered the last win of the year. Affection followed the work.

This 2026 organization seems to want the affection up front. So, in short, stop telling me who to love.

Look, Anthony Volpe was a neat story to initially. Local kid. Homegrown shortstop. It practically wrote the promotional copy itself. Then the games kept happening. In 56 big league games this year, before his August demotion, he hit .240 with one home run. The Yankees handed shortstop to George Lombard Jr. That was an admission, in the language that matters most, that the old plan was not good enough. And thank god they made this decision.

Volpe did decent in Scranton. He hit .264 with an .906 OPS in 37 games, came back when Jazz Chisholm Jr. was hurt, and hit a grand slam in his return. I cheered the hit. I still refuse to be told that one big night settles three years of arguments about his bat. Volpe once again, and predictably, hasn't done a thing since.  Look, the bottom line and the point I am trying to make is a fan can wish a player well and reject the insistence that he is a cornerstone before his performance says so.

That is where the marketing grates. The Yankees can promote a young player. Of course they can. But they cannot schedule a fan’s emotional attachment like a bobblehead giveaway. When the image gets ahead of the player, every commercial, every reassuring quote, every invitation to believe feels less like celebration and more like an instruction to ignore your own eyes. And I think that's what bothers me most about this 2026 team. Much of it is like fake news.

Look at Austin Wells. Wells presents the same problem without the hometown fairy tale. He was batting .186 after Friday’s game. You can tell me about his defense and the demands of catching, and I will listen. You can tell me catching is hard, and I will agree. But you cannot ask me to watch a regular in the Yankees’ lineup struggle to get above .185 and act as though this is a minor aesthetic complaint. Girardi hit .294 for the 1996 champs. Nobody needed a brochure explaining why a hit from the catcher mattered.

The criticism belongs with the people who keep assembling and endorsing the roster, too. Wells did not draft himself. Volpe did not make himself the face of a campaign. The front office and the manager decide how long a bet gets to occupy the lineup and how they explain it to the people paying to watch.

It is my opinion that Brian Cashman has had years to build a club whose weak spots do not keep arriving as familiar surprises. His defenders can point to 93 wins and a playoff berth, and they are entitled to. He also deserves credit for talent that has helped this team survive Judge’s injuries. But that is not the end of the accounting. A general manager does not get graded only on whether enough of his bets hit to reach a Wild Card Series. He gets graded on the holes fans could see coming, on the cost of carrying them, and on whether October exposes them again.

How many seasons are fans supposed to watch the Yankees sell potential where production is required? How many times are they supposed to hear that a struggling regular is close, that a new piece might be the answer, that the next stretch will show what this club really is? Hope is part of baseball. Hope cannot be the entire roster-building strategy of the New York Yankees.

And do not confuse this complaint with a demand for nine .300 hitters. I am asking for a front office to look honestly at its own team, then speak with the same honesty to its fans. When a player is not producing, adjust. When a prospect has not become the star you promised, stop selling the promise as an accomplishment.

Aaron Boone has guided an injury-hit club to October. That matters. Players appear to trust him, and his handling of the staff has helped the Yankees keep winning. He has also made harder lineup choices this year; the demotions and changing roles show he might finally understand how to manage, but for me, I still don't truly see it. My problem is the gap between the action and the public language. Boone’s reflex is to protect his players, reassure everybody, and find the sunny side of another ugly night. I can understand why players appreciate that. Fans who just watched the same failed at-bat for the hundredth time are allowed to find it maddening. Leadership means more than absorbing criticism for the clubhouse. It means making the standard unmistakable.

Joe Torre’s calm felt like control because the club on the field kept backing it up. There was also accountability. Boone’s calm, at its worst, feels like a press conference held in a different ballpark from the game I just watched. There are nights when I want a manager to say plainly what every fan saw: this was not good enough, and the people who keep getting chances must earn the next ones.

That does not mean humiliating Wells or Volpe. It means refusing to treat honesty as disloyalty. When it comes to Boone, there is no accountability. It's called coddling.

Now, Willie Randolph knows what a champion looks like. He lived through the Bronx Zoo, coached the 1996 champions, spent time with this year’s club in spring training, and sees camaraderie and pitching that he believes can carry the Yankees to a title. I respect the firsthand view. He also said his teams were sharper fundamentally.  

The Bronx Zoo was not just a collection of personalities and good chemistry. The 1977 and 1978 Yankees won consecutive World Series. Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Ron Guidry, Randolph and the rest did their talking amid the circus by beating the people in the other dugout when the season was on the line. Randolph is entitled to see a resemblance in the room. I am entitled to say that the resemblance is incomplete until this 2026 team does the job.

I also wonder what, exactly, we are being asked to compare. The Bronx Zoo label was born from actual chaos, conflict, talent and championships. This team has an expertly managed image and an offense that can disappear for innings at a time. Calling them equal because they get along and have a deep rotation is like saying a movie poster is as good as the movie. Let me see the ending.

Here's my thing; the uniform is enough reason to root, but it's not enough reason to pretend. Does that make sense? 

I will be there on the couch for the first pitch against Boston. I will celebrate every Rice homer, every Schlittler strikeout, every Lombard play and every unlikely contribution from Volpe or Wells. 

But I am done letting the Yankees tell me that skepticism is a failure of fandom. Loving this team means caring whether the standards match the sales pitch. It means remembering the difference between a player with a great story and a player who has done the job. It means demanding more from Cashman than another clever explanation and more from Boone than another comforting one.

93 wins are real. So is the exhaustion of watching the organization try to sell us devotion to players who have not earned it yet. The 1996 Yankees earned theirs one at-bat and one October win at a time. The Bronx Zoo earned its place in history with championships.

These 2026 Yankees? They have a chance to change the conversation. Good. Let them. But until they do, stop asking me to fall in love with the advertisement. I am watching the games dude. I see everything.

That's my take.

--Robert Casey
Chief & Head Writer, Bleeding Yankee Blue