So far, the 2020 MLB season has not been a memorable one for the New York Yankees. They’ve dealt with an absurd number of injuries, with DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Tommy Kahnle, and now Gio Urshela spending time on the IL.
When players have gone down in previous years, the team has always had the “next man up” mentality. However, that isn’t working in 2020 as the Yankees have lost 11 of their last 16 games.
Right now, they are tied for second in the AL East with the Toronto Blue Jays and are on the postseason bubble. This season, the top two teams in each division get into the postseason, as well as the top two teams that are in third place or worse in each league.
If the postseason were to begin today, the Yankees would either have the sixth or eighth seed in the AL, dependent on tiebreakers. If they won the tiebreaker, they would be sixth but eighth if they lost it. The team still has 10 games left to play against the Blue Jays.
Right now, it’s the Minnesota Twins that would have the seventh seed in the AL. They are in third place, but just a half a game back of the White Sox along with the Indians in the central division.
Oakland leads the west, with the Astros two games back of them. In third place is the Mariners, seven and a half games back with postseason aspirations running low.
Right now, the Yankees need to turn things around if they want to make a run this year. If any other team passes the Yankees in the American League except for the Blue Jays, the team will fall out of the postseason picture.