Whicker: Yankees like one of George Steinbrenner's big ships -- hard to turn around
New York Yankees fans aren’t happy with the defensive play of SS Anthony Volpe
August 12, 2025
By Mark Whicker
Canadian Baseball Network
What’s wrong with the Yankees? That’s not the right question. The answers are obvious, and the issue isn’t new. The underlying assumption is faulty, too. Just because they spend doesn’t mean they’ll win, a lesson we should have learned by now.
To back up, the Yankees are still in the American League playoff mix, but they have been passed by both the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox in the East, and they are only a game and a half ahead of the Cleveland Guardians.
Their pitchers are ninth in ERA. They haven’t finished a season that low since 2005. They led the division by seven games on May 28. Since then, they’re 21-31, and they’re hitting .199 in August and .216 since the All-Star break.
In the past 30 days, their WHIP (walks and hits allowed per innings pitched) is the worst in the league, and their ERA is second-worst. According to Fangraphs, the Yankees are minus-26 in runs saved, and the misadventures of shortstop Anthony Volpe have brought boos from the stands and agitated responses from manager Aaron Boone, who is in his eighth season and still chasing his first world championship.
After last year’s five-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, which featured a grisly surrender of a 5-0 lead in the final game, L.A. scouts said the game plan was to pressure the Yankees at all times, knowing their fundamentals would crack.
You can’t accuse the Yankees of executive complacency. During the winter they picked up Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt for offense and signed premium lefthander Max Fried, whom the Braves, pointedly, never offered a long-term deal. The Yankees gave him $218 million for eight years, and Fried’s yearly wage soars to $29 million in 2027.
Closer Devin Williams makes a mound exit ….
They also traded for Devin Williams, the Brewers’ closer. On May 25 Fried was 7-0 with a 1.29 ERA. He has now lost four of his past five decisions and his ERA has swollen by a half-run in a month’s time. That, combined with Gerrit Cole’s elbow surgery, has loaded the burden on Carlos Rodon, who hasn’t had a quality start in a month.
Clarke Schmidt was their most reliable starter until he, too, went down, with a Tommy John operation that might cost him 2026 as well. Williams admitted, “I stink,” after his latest hiccup, a game-losing homer that he fed Houston’s Carlos Correa. In doing so he aligned himself with the opinions of the fan base, and with reality. He has a walk rate of nearly four per nine innings, and his ERA is 5.60. Again, the best chance to close is provided by Luke Weaver (0.809 WHIP), but you need runs to find those chances.
Goldschmidt, a Comeback Player of the Year candidate at one point, has a .621 OPS since the break and is hitting .228 against righthanders. Bellinger has been fine, but the Yankees still yearn to find a sidekick for Aaron Judge, who might not be the MVP favourite anymore but would win the Slash Line Triple Crown if the season ended today and also leads the league in runs, walks and intentional walks (27, two more than any other team in baseball).
General manager Brian Cashman doggedly tried to fix the bullpen at the trade deadline. David Bednar, in from the Pirates, struck out the last five Rangers he faced to raise hopes, then walked Houston’s Christian Walker with the bases loaded, although he stopped the trouble there and the Yankees won. Ex-Giant Camilo Doval had already loaded the bases for Bednar. Cashman also traded for Colorado’s Jake Bird, who lasted two games before a banishment to Triple-A.
There is constant grumbling about Boone, who won 100 games in each of his first two years, but, despite the perception, he is only the Yankees’ third manager since 1996. If Boone makes it into 2026 he’ll be the first Yankee skipper to survive eight seasons without a world championship. He resolutely refuses to criticize his players publicly, which is smart but doesn’t always fit with what the fans are seeing. He’s not the problem, but if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs, someone may find another solution.
Beyond all that, the Yankees’ struggles are not breaking news. Since 2001, they have played in four World Series and won one. The Red Sox and Giants have won three, and the Cardinals, Dodgers and Astros have won two. The Astros, in fact, have played in five.
If you could buy World Series trophies, which is the popular assumption, the Yankees would need an annex to display them. In all but two years in this century they have had at least the third-highest payroll in baseball. They are third this year at $288 million. From 2000 through 2013 they were first, primarily because they were loaded with veterans.
But even though their best teams shopped frequently at Free Agents R Us, their essence was always homegrown, with Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada as the nucleus. The Yankees don’t grow players like that anymore. Hardly anyone does. The holdovers ruled the clubhouse and dictated the terms.
“They were always in the right place, mainly because Jeter always was, and made sure they were,” said a scout. “They don’t do that anymore.”
When those Yankee alums and the others reconvened for the Old-Timers Game last weekend, Rivera, 55, tore his Achilles. Hard to blame Boone for that one; Rivera was playing centre field at the time.
The Yankees beat the Twins Monday night, with three solo home runs and a nice start from Will Warren. They stood one win away from winning their second series since July 20.
As shipping executive George Steinbrenner always knew, the bigger ships are the hardest to turn around, and you don’t hit fastballs with your wallet.