Another year, another post-season disgrace for the New York Yankees. The 2025 season comes to an end after a blowout by the Toronto Blue Jays in a 3-1 series. A soggy performance by a scrambling defense and a flailing offensive lineup (sans Aaron Judge) are all that fans are left with as they gear up to watch the reigning Dodgers play the Jays on Friday, Oct. 24. A 16-year World Series drought seems outlandish for a team with such deep pockets and opportunities on the free market but somehow continues to be true. The Bronx Bombers have been blessed with the brilliance of star player Aaron Judge leading a team of Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, (currently injured) Gerrit Cole, and highly anticipated young Jasson Dominguez, yet have no left field strength and a crumbling defense that seems to show its cracks at the times it matters most.
As brilliant as these players seem on paper, they are unable to perform under the intense pressure of the postseason. Rather, a series of poor managerial decisions seem to plague every deciding game. Aaron Boone, the general manager, is returning for the 2026 season to the dismay of every Yankee fan. Another 2025 postseason failure leaves the Bombers without a World Series and with an aging group of athletes battling injuries. Judge is 33, Stanton is 35, Bellinger is 30, and Cole is 35. For context, the prime age for a professional baseball player is between 25 and 29. This is not to say that retirement is in the books for these geriatric men with Judge closing out the 2025 season with a 1.145 OPS (on-base plus slugging), the highest in the league by a significant margin. The closest he got to finally claiming the World Series title during his decade-long run with the Yankees was in 2024 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The World Series loss is generally attributed to a disastrous defensive effort in game five with Judge fumbling a routine fly ball to center by the Dodgers’ Tommy Edman, Cole failing to cover first base, and Volpe pulling Chisholm Jr. off the bag to try to catch the lead runner on third. A 5-0 Yankees lead quickly turned into yet another Freddie Freeman highlight reel, with a line drive at the top of the fifth gaining two runs for the Dodgers and a downhill performance for the Bombers from there. Unfortunately, mistakes happen. Judge had not made a single error in the regular or the post season prior to game five, Volpe made a risky decision in an attempt to keep the lead and Cole succumbed to his age. Be that as it may, the Bombers were doomed from game one. The Yankees 3-2 lead at the Dodgers home was quashed at the bottom of the 10th, setting the tone for the rest of the series. “I liked the matchup,” Boone said when asked about the appalling decision to put Cortes, who hadn’t pitched a game in over a month, against the hottest hitter, Freddie Freeman. The latter sunk the ball into the stands for the first walkoff Grand Slam in MLB history, crushing any Yankees fans winning hopes and setting the stage for the next four games.
Boone has been at the heart of most blunders regarding the lineup. “Giving the young ones a chance” can only go so far when you are managing one of the wealthiest franchises in America, or so one would think. Anthony Volpe, drafted in 2019 to the Yankees, has had an “unlucky” 2025 season–going 0-4 in the regular season against the Nationals, 0-3 against the Red Sox, leading the AL in errors, and missing nine games owing to a torn labrum. Boone’s blatant refusal to sit a struggling player jeopardizes a team that has the ability to win, time and time again. On the left field, the Yankees placed 22-year-old Jasson Dominguez– recognized as one of the worst defensive players in the league with negative defensive runs saved– continuing the curse that left the Yankees scrambling after Brett Gardner left in 2021. Joey Gallo’s horrific run in the Bronx isn’t even worth discussing, and the boos echoing through the stadium during roll call are forever etched into my memory.
The talent is clearly not the problem on this Yankees team. The problem is a series of poor decision making–keeping Volpe in when he’s struggling, playing Chisholm Jr. when he’s made three consecutive defensive errors, and choosing to match Cortez with Freeman–that keep the Bombers on the losing end of games that should have won.
On the bright side, this team has potential for the next season. Judge’s continuous success proves his worth as a legend, and Rice has clear capability as first baseman. Cole’s recovery from Tommy John surgery is eagerly awaited, and Dominguez’s shift to center field will likely be a much better match for his skill set. Boone’s inability to recognize a cold player and create lasting amendments will only hurt this team. It is time to clean house with the Yankees’ deep pockets and finally fill the empty space reserved for that World Series ring Judge has been eyeing for the past decade.