Yanks Had a Good Season in 2025 — But Fell Short

October 19, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0
Aaron Judge hits 52nd homerun. Judge slashed 53-114-.331 in 2025, and won the batting title in the American League.

You read that headline right — the Yankees had a good season in 2025.

But fell short of the ultimate goal of a World Championship.

The Yanks won 94 games — tying for the American League lead for best record with Toronto. The Yanks beat Boston in a crucial 3-game Wild Card series. They lost to Toronto in a series where in game 4, Toronto threw their bullpen at NY — and everyone of 8 pitchers did well — no hickups. A bullpen the Yanks had roughed up earlier in the series.

That’s baseball, Suzyn.

Yanks Should Win Title Every 12 Years ON AVERAGE

Twelve (12) teams make the playoffs in a sport where anyone can win a short series. That means the odds of big market teams like the Yankees (and Mets and Dodgers and Philadelphia) who spend a ton on their roster to almost guarantee the playoffs — still face 12-1 odds in going all the way.

That means a title every 12 years ON AVERAGE. That means a team like the Yankees could make the playoffs every year for 20 straight years without winning a title — then win 2 in 4 years and they’d be right on target.

That is what is SUPPOSED TO happen.

Yanks Have Been in World Series 4 Times in 16 Years

The Yankees have made the World Series four (4) times in the last 16 years — if you count 2017 and 2019 when Houston cheated, and beat the Yanks in the 7th game each time.

The Good News About 2025 — Starts with Judge

Aaron Judge had a season for the ages in 2025 — with a 53-114-.331 (.457 OBP) slash line — winning the batting title. His All Time American League record for Homers in a season withstood the challenge of Cal Raleigh in Seattle who finished with 60. Judge should win the MVP but even if he doesn’t he got the batting title.

Judge batted .500 in the playoffs.

The Starting Pitching — and the Rise of Schlittler

More good news about 2025 was the emergence out of nowhere of Cam Schlittler as a top-of-the-rotation starter — with his 100-MPH easy-motion fastball with movement and his wicked curveball and off-speed pitches. He went 4-3 2.96 after coming up 2/3 through the season, and pitched an incredible game in the Wild Card series against Boston and a great game in the ALDS vs Toronto.

Max Fried (19-5 2.86) and Carlos Rodon (18-9 3.09) were 2 of the best 3 pitches in the American League in 2025 (the other being Garrett Crochet of Boston, who was 18-5 2.59 and will probably get the Cy Young).

Will Warren (9-8 4.44) had a terrific rookie season along with Schlittler. He showed moxie.

The Yankee starting rotation for 2026 looks excellent with Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil (4-1 3.32), and Will Warren — and Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt due back at some point. That is one heck of a starting rotation.

The Bullpen

The Yanks traded Nestor Cortes for Ace reliever Devin Williams in the winter of 2024-25 — and that was a sideways trade at first — Devin crashing in NY the first few months of the season blowing game after game — until he picked up in July, bombed again after the All Star break — then finally got in gear the last month of the year and thru the playoffs. At the end — in important September and October games, Devin was good.

Nestor Cortes (1-3 5.47) meanwhile pitched badly at 1st then went out with a torn tendon in his throwing arm.

In trading for Devin Williams the Yankee management obviously saw something about Luke Weaver they didn’t trust as far as being the Ace Reliever — and they turned out to be right. Weaver pitched great as the Ace Reliever early in the season when Devin Williams was demoted, but then pulled a hamstring and was never quite the same after returning just before the All Star break. He pitched great at times — but got hit too — especially in the playoffs.

And so the Yankee management trading for David Bednar at the trade deadline was another terrific. prescient move. Bednar became the Ace Reliever — and he’s under control for another year.

The Yanks also traded for Camilo Doval at the trade deadline — and he was less dependable than Bednar. Great stuff and under control for another year as well.

So the 2026 Yanks project to have David Bednar as the Ace Reliever again — and we’ll see if NY re-signs Devin Williams and/or Luke Weaver — both free agents.

Tim Hill had another great year for the Yanks. Fernando Cruz and his NASTY splitter was terrific most of the time. Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a lot — but had many tough outings to go along with good ones.

Bellinger and Grisham

After losing Juan Soto to the Mets in free agency during the winter of 2024-25, the Yanks went out and signed Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt. What a great set of signings that turned out to be.

Bellinger slashed 29-98-.272 (.334 OBP) and played phenomenal defense wherever the Yanks played him — mostly left field but also centerfield and 1st base.

Trent Grisham had a year — 34-74-.235 (.348 OBP) — while playing a Gold Glove centerfield and making like Jorge Posada with Clutch hits and HR’s and walks all season long. Until the playoffs when he batted .167 vs Boston (2-12 in 3 games) and .118 vs Toronto (2-17 in 4 games) with 0 HR and 0 RBI.

Rice

What a year Ben Rice had. Rice has a QUICK BAT. The 26-year-old lefty slashed 26-55-.255 (.337 OBP). Last year, in his rookie season, he looked great at first then went into a slump as he was fed strictly curveballs.

This year — he hit the curveball. He became a top-of-the-lineup hitter for NY — as a DH, 1st baseman, and also did a lot of catching. His weakness: he needs to be able to catch the ball at 1st base better. He made some good catches at 1st on throws in the playoffs so hopefully he can improve in this area.

Volpe

It was a tough year for Anthony Volpe — who slashed 19-72-.212 (.272 OBP) and led the American League in errors with 19. Volpe had a patch of poor fielding that had Yankee fans booing him. But he pulled out of that funk and played a tremendous, slick shortstop defensively in September and the playoffs.

But Volpe’s hitting woes continued — he would get hot for a few games, then plummet into another slump. He was a whiff machine against Toronto in the ALDS — and heard the boos.

Volpe had surgery for a labral tear on his non-throwing shoulder after the season ended. He had a NASTY fall on a play in April that fans forgot about.

“I think now that yes it was effecting him, because he had to have the surgery,” said Brian Cashman after the season ended. “He didn’t have the season that we expected, that he expected. The surgery when they opened him up — the cleanup was more severe than the MRI would result. Do I think it now was more of an impact that we thought it was — probably.”

Volpe is still only 24. Most MLB hitters make the grade at 26, so there is still time. But his window is closing. Bo Bichette is a free agent this winter — but Bichette is considered a poor defensive shortstop and is already 31 — most shortstops are moved out to another position by 33.

The Yanks have shortstop George Lombard Jr. coming as their next greatest thing since sliced bread — but he is a year away. NY may still go with Volpe at short for one more year?

“He’s 24 years old,” said Cashman in the post-season interviews. “I don’t think the NY stage is too big for him; he’s still finding his way. You see players that eventually figure it out as they go down the line. You watch NFL these #1 pick quarterbacks that franchises put everything in — shortstop is kind of the quarterback position in baseball — you see players that you expect a lot early on — but they don’t live up to (their expectation) — suffer growing pains — and they wind up in a different environment and now they are leading their teams.”

The Martian and the Outfield

Jasson Dominguez aka The Martian had a very good year — slashing 10-47-.257 (.331 OBP). That is not a bad average in this era of historically low batting averages. The Martian showed he could put the bat on the ball on a consistent basis, and was Lightning quick on the bases. He stole 23 bases and was caught only 5 times.

The Martian’s defense was iffy in left — but he is still learning the position. His power will improve with age; he is only 22 and is more advanced than Bernie Williams was at 22.

Boone had very good words to say about The Martian in post-season interviews:

Spencer Jones had a smashing year in AAA and AA — slashing a combined 35-80-.274 (.362 OBP) at Somerset and Scranton with 179 K’s (less than the year before in A ball). He is a standout defensive centerfielder.

“I think he’s put himself in the conversation where it’s a fair question for you to ask,” said Brian Cashman when asking a question of whether Spencer Jones would make the opening day roster in 2026.

Big G

The year started with the news that Giancarlo Stanton might miss the season with injuries to the biceps of both arms. But instead he played a good part of the season as a most-of-the-time DH, and even played outfield for 10 games when Judge was injured in August. Big G slashed 24-66-.273 (.350 OBP) in 249 at bats and 77 games at age 35.

Jazz and McMahon

Jazz Chisholm Jr. had a terrific season for NY, slashing 31-80-.242 (.332 OBP) with tremendous energy, base-stealing speed and pretty decent defense at 2nd base. Ryan McMahon played a Graig Nettles esq defense at 3rd after being picked up at the trade deadline.

Catcher

Austin Wells disappointed at the plate the first 3/4 of the year — at one point he had the lowest batting average in the American League against off-speed pitches. But his hitting picked up in September and the playoffs. The 25-year-old Wells finished slashing 21-71-.219 (.275 OBP). Wells had more homeruns than the year before in similar at bats, but the batting average was 10 pts lower, and the OBP was 40 pts lower.

Defensively — Austin Wells looks as good as Thurman Munson did in his prime: tremendous handler of pitchers, excellent catching skills, and a quick release to 2nd to throw runners out. Overall — the future is still bright for the Yanks at catcher.

The Off Season

The Yanks have some decisions to make:

Re-sign Cody Bellinger (age 29)? Or try to sign Kyle Tucker (22-73-.266 (.377 OBP))? Tucker is 28 and was having a terrific year but had a horrible August.

Re-sign Devin Williams or Luke Weaver? Or build the setup men to the bullpen with other guys?

Re-sign Trent Grisham? Or let Spencer Jones have at centerfield with Cody Bellinger (if they sign him) as the insurance?

Go with Anthony Volpe for another season at shortstop while George Lombard Jr. arrives late in 2026 — or sign someone like Dante Bichette — who could move to 3rd base?

The Manager

Aaron Boone‘s decisions can often times be head-scratching. But two things have swayed our opinion in his favor:

  • Writing up every Yankee game, we listen to every post-game interview — when people like Meredith Marakovits do a great job asking him questions about decisions he made in the game. Almost 100 percent of the time, Boone makes sense as to why he made a decision, whether it be a righty-lefty matchup, etc — oftentimes bringing up things we hadn’t thought about.
  • Former Yankee Clint Frazier revealed this year how the Yankees work — there is an analytics team that is constantly watching and coming up with latest information on matchups that they send to Boone on a silver platter. It is up to Boone to make the decision on what to do. This is the way an organization should be running in this era of Statcast, advanced stats, and AI.

Boone is a good interview on the post game interviews. He is steadfast and seems to call it like it is. So I can see why the Yanks keep him as manager.

Yanks Are a Well-Run Organization

Whatever they do this offseason — I trust the Yankee organization will make good decisions. Brian Cashman and the management team have proven over the last 20 years that most of the time, they get it right. The Yanks are one of the best run organizations in baseball — no matter what most fans say. Most fans do not get probability theory nor understand what 12 teams making the playoffs means.

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