When the New York Yankees failed to qualify for the MLB playoffs in 2023, it sparked an embarrassment and rage within the organization that led to their most successful season since winning the World Series in 2009.
Oct 26, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) reacts after striking out in the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during game two of the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
General manager and senior vice president Brian Cashman made the splash of all splashes when he traded for Juan Soto, and the revitalized Yankee lineup, along with their quality pitching staff, led the team all the way to the 2024 World Series where it came up short against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But now Soto is gone, spurning New York in free agency in favor of a megadeal with the New York Mets, taking his talents back to the NL East and to the Yankees' crosstown rival.
Now, this roster more closely resembles the group that sputtered to an 82-80 record in 2023 than the one that vanquished some postseason demons last year.
To Cashman's credit, he internalized that the team can't look exactly like it had this past campaign, so he made some notable moves to differentiate this group from last season, solidifying first base with Paul Goldschmidt, adding pop and outfield defense with Cody Bellinger and adding top-end skill and depth to the starting rotation with Max Fried.
But is it enough to offset potential injuries and regression from some top players?
In a piece making bold predictions for all six divisions in Major League Baseball, Will Leitch of MLB.com predicted the Yankees will miss the playoffs as the stunner for the AL East.
"That’s the sort of sentence you type and then feel like you should duck afterward," Leitch wrote of the prediction. "But it’s not that crazy of a notion. First of all, it’s possible that every other team in this division will be improved from 2024. The Red Sox may have had one of the best offseasons in the sport, the Orioles’ youngsters, the Blue Jays are all-in for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s final season of club control and the Rays have Shane McClanahan back and all sorts of young talent emerging, as usual."
Leitch goes on to note that there are question marks in the lineup with Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu already sorting through injury concerns.
If Judge were to miss any time at all, the lineup would resemble one struggling to make the Wild Card than one contending for a World Series.
It's still an unlikely doomsday scenario, though.
New York has always been quite good when Judge is on the field, and the top-end talent present on this pitching staff with Gerrit Cole and Fried leading the rotation and Devin Williams and Luke Weaver forming a formidable one-two punch out of the bullpen are likely to power enough wins to keep them in the hunt for a playoff spot throughout the season.
