By virtue of the Blue Jays’ loss on Monday, the New York Yankees are once again playoff-bound, as they’ve clinched a berth in the MLB postseason for the third straight season and the ninth time in the last 10 years. Earlier this season, the Yankees won their 82nd game, securing a winning record for the 34th straight time. Their worst season since 1992 was 2014, when they finished 84-78. It’s been a remarkable run.
Of course, since it’s the Yankees — a franchise with an MLB-record 27 World Series titles — we have to also point out that the regular-season success has only translated to one American League pennant and zero World Series championships since 2009. That drought since the last World Series title is one of the longest for this franchise. They went from 1979 until 1996 waiting for one, along with 1963 through 1976.
Now, the Yankees still have a shot at the AL East title, as they entered Monday trailing the Rays by four games. There’s a four-game head-to-head series remaining, with the Rays visiting the Yankees Sept. 22-24, which includes a doubleheader in there.
As is often the case, the Yankees are one of the most prolific home run teams in baseball despite the likes of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton missing so much time due to injury. They are pretty reliant on the long ball, sitting in the middle of the pack in runs and OPS, while toward the top in dingers.
As for run prevention, the Yankees lead the majors in team ERA, even with lengthy absences from several starting pitchers.
With that said, here are three reasons New York is a real threat to win this year’s World Series.
1. Judge is back
Aaron Judge entered the season having won three of the last four AL MVP awards; injury held him to only 106 games in 2023, when Shohei Ohtani took home the honors. He missed between May 31 and Sept. 8 with injury this season, and he’s being eased back into the Yankees’ lineup, but there is no one else — perhaps other than Ohtani — who alters the complexion of a lineup in Major League Baseball like Judge does. His mere presence seems to make everyone else in the lineup better.
We didn’t necessarily need numbers to back up how much Judge changes things, but they bear it all out. The Yankees are 41-24 when Judge starts and 46-39 when he doesn’t.
The best part about Judge — who homered Monday night for the first time since his injury — returning with more than two weeks left in the regular season is that he has the chance to fully get back up to speed in time for the playoffs. With the big man at full strength in October, the Yankees’ lineup with Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice and Luis García Jr., among others, around him is awfully powerful.
2. Trio of aces?
We already discussed the Yankees having the best team ERA in all of baseball. In the playoffs, a rotation of three or four pitchers instead of five is all a team needs. The Yankees might well have a trio of aces heading into October.
Cam Schlittler is headed toward winning the AL Cy Young at age 25 and in just his second season in the majors. He leads the majors with a 1.95 ERA (216 ERA+) and he already showed last October how good he can be in the postseason with a 12-strikeout performance in an elimination game.
The Yankees’ previous Cy Young winner was Gerrit Cole in 2023. He returned this season from Tommy John surgery and isn’t posting gaudy numbers. He’s been more good than mediocre, though, and has a 3.48 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 77 ⅔ innings in his last 13 starts. He has had trouble with the longball in his last two games, so that’s something to clean up before the postseason.
And, of course, there’s veteran lefty Max Fried. He’s dealt with two injured list stints this season, but has a 2.73 ERA in 18 starts. He was a workhorse for the 2021 World Series champion Braves and has more than 75 innings of playoff experience.
The Yankees have an outstanding pitching staff overall, but it needs to be strong at the top to win the World Series. With this group, it could just be strong enough.
3. The AL field is weak
The AL West champion and final AL wild-card team look like they’ll barely be above .500, and even the AL Central champion could well fall well short of 90 wins. The playoff format means the four and five seeds are the top two wild cards and play one another in the first round before the winner advances to face the top seed in the ALDS. This means that, as things stand right now, the best three AL teams by record are going to eat one another before the ALCS.
The flip side of this is that the Yankees, for example, could take out the Red Sox in two games and Rays in five or fewer before facing an obviously inferior foe in the ALCS. As such, it can be viewed as an opportunity in the clearly weaker of the two leagues.
Could that set the Yankees up nicely for a 28th World Series title? It could, sure. It could also mean they lose in the Wild Card Series to the Red Sox in such a small series, which lends itself to fluky outcomes — plus, the Red Sox are a formidable opponent.
