As I sit here at late on Tuesday night, I feel compelled to do one from the heart. Typically, that comes from a good place, where I write a story that I pour my heart into and end up feeling better about things after the fact, even if it’s me writing about a painful sports moment…this isn’t one of those times. Instead, this piece “from the heart” comes from a place of pure frustration because the display of baseball I just watched is enough to make one ready for football season. I haven’t written about our baseball locals for a bit as we have been tied up doing a lot of football preview work here at the site, but this loss was bad enough to bring me out of hibernation.

Tuesday night’s 9-5 extra inning loss to the Guardians was nothing short of disgusting. You might say I’m making too big a deal of this one, but I’d counter that by saying that no one is making a big enough deal about losses like these. This team may be 20 games over .500, but they also have about 15 “worst loss of the season” losses in 2024. Heck Tuesday night’s loss was the second dreadful loss in a row, as the Yankees showed a stadium full of little leaguers how not to play baseball in a brutal Sunday night 3-2 extra inning loss to the lowly Tigers. This teams utter lack of fundamentals is best defined by guys like Trent Grisham and Gleyber Torres, who somehow think they have a right to put forth a weak effort while putting in some terrible on field performance.

Of course, that attitude and lazy style trickles down from their manager, who aside from constantly reminding you that “it’s all right in front of them” like he’s trying to sell you a car, took the time Tuesday to argue with Jomboy about Anthony Volpe. For what it’s worth, I’m not asking Boone to bash his own player to the media or bench Volpe going forward, but the Yankees actively moving the goal posts on Volpe, who has largely disappointed this season is reminiscent of their poor handling of Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres. You can never question Boone or Cashman, everything they do is great, the team is great, and the organization is great. To paraphrase Mike Francesa, “if you have great players and great coaches” then why are you still playing like garbage? And don’t claim they’re playing better; they’re coming off going 8-7 in a fifteen-game stretch against teams with a losing record in the heat of pennant race.

The bats have gone cold and the Yankees answer, in the most Cashman/Boone move possible, is to immediately re-insert Jose Trevino’s lack of offense instead of sticking with Austin Wells, the only guy who has hit in the last two months not named Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. He may be playing well and improving, but why give a young player a chance when you can force in a veteran who can’t hit or throw, those are only two of the base level requirements to play baseball. Why play DJ LeMahieu, who has been terrible all year outside of a week, over young Ben Rice who looks like he could be of assistance with more playing time? Why would you not acquire a starting pitcher to improve your staff and account for an injury, one that happened Tuesday night against Cleveland when Luis Gil exited early? Why wouldn’t you go out and trade for a closer when you have the league leader in blown saves, a man who should have even more than his embarrassing count of ten.

The simple and short answer to all these questions is that the Yankees are run by egomaniacs who have become accepting of incompetence and losing play and in a losing culture (winning teams don’t act or play like this). Their cult of personality used to be centered around an owner who did whatever it took to win, even to the point of crossing lines and being unhelpful to the franchise. Now instead it is built around a general manager who insists on being right all the time. and has been here for too long while riding the coattails of his past successes and a manager who has no business being in a major league dugout. Don’t let their record fool you, this group doesn’t have the mental edge or on field ability needed to avoid wasting a pair of generational seasons from their best players. All in a day’s work for manager Dell Griffith, I’m sorry Aaron Boone, although you’d have to forgive me for feeling like I’ve been stuck on a six-year road trip across the mid-west with a chatty Cathy doll.

I don’t sit here and root for these things to happen. I don’t enjoy them losing so I can say I have been right about Boone the last few years. I love this franchise, and I want to see them back where they belong more than anything in the world. But I am not going to sit here and not call it like I see it. Ultimately it is up to them, from the GM on down to prove us all wrong and avoid the fate that has befallen them several times under the current regime. They’re already working their way through the usual poor second half with a deadline full of half measures…all that’s left is the embarrassing elimination at the hands of the Astros. Put up or shut up, stop telling us about what you’re going to do and go get it done for a change. After all, it’s right in front of you guys.

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