The 2025 New York Yankees are top five in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS, as they lead all of baseball in team WAR on FanGraphs.
Yet, when you look up at the standings, they’re four games out of the American League East and have lost six of seven games to the Toronto Blue Jays in the last month alone.
The Red Sox swept them, the Blue Jays swept them, and they’ve gone a combined 4-12 against those two teams who hold playoff spots and present immediate threats to the Yankees.
Why is a team who, by all metrics, better than both struggling to handle them?
Four errors last night, seven errors in three games, and the Yankees once again find shoot themselves in the foot in a game they had to win.
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Last night wasn’t new for the Yankees; it was definitely worse than usual with four errors and a hideous misplay from Cody Bellinger in right field that was listed as a triple.
During the offseason, Brian Cashman criticized the team defense in 2024 and spent this offseason focused on improving it, they wanted to make sure the routine would be routine for this group.
That has not been the case for the Bronx Bombers; they have continued to make boneheaded mistakes in big games both on the bases and with their gloves.
What happened in the World Series should have haunted the Yankees; they gave away Game 1 due to a misplay from Juan Soto in right field, a groundball missed Oswaldo Cabrera, and a relay throw that Gleyber Torres couldn’t handle.
We all know what happened in Game 5; Aaron Judge drops a routine flyball, Anthony Volpe misplays a groundball, and Gerrit Cole doesn’t cover the bag when Anthony Rizzo fields a grounder.
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The Yankees had a 3.83 ERA and the Dodgers had a 4.80 ERA in those five games; those errors likely cost the franchise its 28th World Series title, and less than a year later it will likely cost them the American League East.
Aaron Boone yelling at, criticizing, or reassuring the fanbase of their anger won’t change that if we’re being honest, but the fanbase does have a right to ask why this keep asking.
Not all fans try to approach criticism with logic, there’s truth to the statement that fans and media alike tend to stretch the truth in anger or frustration.
With that being said, the Yankees have to know that fans and journalists will look at what’s changed from last year and what has not.
The Yankees have a different second baseman, third baseman, first baseman, left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder than they did in Game 5 of the World Series; they do have (mostly) the same coaching staff.
If you ask me? I don’t think this is a strictly Aaron Boone issue. Anthony Volpe has gone from one of the top defenders in the sport in Outs Above Average to near the bottom of the board at the shortstop position.
DJ LeMahieu’s time at second base and Jazz Chisholm’s time at third base was a flop, a decision made because Oswaldo Cabrera got hurt on a freak accident in Seattle.
What’s also true is that the team didn’t properly address the infield, and you can claim that lack of depth did as much harm as the Cabrera injury.
The lack of a clear answer about the defensive inconsistency will continue to draw questions from the fanbase and the media, whether it’s fair or not.
When players around the league mock your defense and baserunning and your response is making 10 errors in seven games against the team who you blew a seven-game lead in the AL East to, why should that narrative go away?
Just as the Yankees have lost these games in Toronto on their own doing, making gaffes on the bases and booting routine plays, they have let a narrative become irrefutable.
It’s been nearly 10 months since the World Series, and the Yankees still have the same issue that they vowed to correct all offseason.
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