New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton reacts after striking out in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In a span of about an hour on Thursday, the Yankees announced acquisitions of relievers David Bednar, Jake Bird, Camillo Doval and infielder Jose Caballero, giving them seven trades since July 23 when the frenzy started with importing Ryan McMahon.
By all accounts it was a good haul and left the Yankees getting good publicity and comments with the hope the moves would contribute to a team making a deep run in the playoffs.
While it still could happen, the immediate aftermath proved the Yankees continuing to be their own buzzkill with the latest evidence occurring during a nightmarish sweep against the Miami Marlins.
The Yankees were swept in front of a combined crowd of 101,845 at Miami’s ballpark. A majority were there to watch the Yankees do what they were supposed to do which was win the series.
Except nothing is going according to plan for the Yankees at least not lately. Once they were 35-20 and 42-25 and now they are in a fight for their playoff lives.
Since getting out to 35 wins in 55 games, the Yankees are 25-32. Since getting 42 wins in 67 games, they are 18-27.
In other words, it is an extended run of streakiness and killing good any good buzzes.
One example is winning four of five following an 18-2 loss in Los Angeles only to lose two straight against the Red Sox. Another is sweeping the Royals and then getting blanked for 30 innings and scoring six runs in a six-game losing streak.
Another buzzkill was winning six of ten to stay in first place and then get outscored 56-34 during a second six-game losing streak highlighted by plenty of offense but hardly enough pitching and a skid that knocked the Yankees out first place.
The latest buzzkill is what is unfolding now.
When Cody Bellinger homered three times in an 11-0 win over the Chicago Cubs, the Yankees were on a five-game winning streak. Starting with two losses to Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga heading into the All-Star break, the Yankees are a middling 7-11.
It’s enough to knock the Yankees into third place in the AL East and into the dangerous spot of playing a wild-card series on the road. Of course, that might not be the worse thing since the road teams are 16-10 in those games since the format was introduced in the 2022 season.
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone walks on the field during a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Still, it is a spot the Yankees would like to avoid, and they may to do something like win 30 of their final 50 games. That would get them to 90-72 and it may not be enough to win the division though the Blue Jays are not as hot as they once were when they won seven of eight at home over the Yankees.
This weekend did little to give Yankee fans a reason to believe this version is doing anything beyond the first round of the postseason at best.
In perhaps a scenario that observers might think would only happen to the Yankees, Friday’s first game after the perceived successful trade deadline was one that would go into the vault of “Yankee Classics” if the YES Network showed losses other than Mariano Rivera’s final game in 2013.
On Friday, they Yankees held a six-run lead and a five-run lead only to win up losing 13-12, which is a tight NFC East defensive struggle score.
It was not just the Yankees blowing a massive lead and wasting scoring 12 runs for the ninth time this season, resulting in their first loss when scoring that often since Aug 18, 1996 in Joe Torre’s first season when the Yankees slumped in August and let their lead to slip to two games.
Overall the Yankees have 12 such losses and nine of the previous defeats occurred in seasons that ended without a World Series title. The only exception besides the 1996 loss was a 14-13 14-inning loss at Detroit on Sept. 9, 1932 in a game that dropped the Yankees’ record to 96-41.
In other words, the Yankees had done more than enough to establish themselves as the dominant force in baseball and for all the noise at Yankee Stadium, the buzz is trending in the wrong direction after all three of the relievers allowed runs and blew leads and the newest position player made a costly error.
The next day was even worse when the Yankees managed two hits, saw 118 pitches and took two hours, 23 minutes to drop a 2-0 decision to the Marlins. While the offensive woes certainly were a storyline, so was the bad baserunning decision by Jazz Chisholm Jr., whose aggressiveness left him doubled off a pop-up to second base.
It was one of those plays that can’t happen but it did, just like Austin Wells getting doubled off Wednesday by heading to the dugout following a bunt try by Trent Grisham, though he was bailed out when the Yankees won.
The last game of the series was a 7-3 loss where you can cite Luis Gil still dusting off the rust from missing four months with a lat strain and only facing minor league hitters off a mound until Sunday. The Yankees could live with it if they actually won the previous two games but after a sweep to an improving team, they are in a 50-game sprint for their postseason lives amongst other things.
