This time last year, the New York Yankees said they would run it back. Sure, plenty of teams say that in every sport because they like their mix of players, but this front office and coaching staff really outdid themselves this time around. Seriously guys, take a bow. You managed to have almost the EXACT same season two years in a row. You started off red hot as usual, took your yearly sabbatical in July, turned it on in September and beat the Red Sox in the Wild Card round before getting embarrassed on national TV by a division rival, who celebrated on your field. If you guys had managed to extend the agony of watching you play baseball one more day, you would have handed the fans a carbon copy of the same crappy product from a year ago.

They’ll tell you in the end of year press conference that it was a game of inches. That if Bellinger’s fly ball to the track in game two or Volpe’s near homer actually left the yard in game three, that it would have been them celebrating in this ALDS instead of the Rays. But not even a bad Jeffrey Maier impersonation could save them from themselves. They’ll dust the old records off the shelf and play the hits again when they tell you, “It’s a crap shoot in the playoffs.” Members of the local media have spent the last few days piling on them and speaking the actual truth about this regime and the team it puts on the field. But don’t worry, they’ll get their marching orders from 161st and River by the end of the week and begin toeing the line. Don’t bother calling The Michael Kay Show to demand Cashman and Boone’s dismissal if you don’t have a full rolodex of candidates that Hal Steinbrenner can interview, otherwise expect to be yelled at and to be called a whiny malcontent of a fan by the organizations top “Yankee Boy,” his term not mine.

Maybe this is a prisoner of the moment reaction, but I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way. The 2026 season was the biggest failure of the Cashman/Boone/Judge era of this franchise, and really, I don’t think it’s particularly close. Sure the 2018 and 19 squads won more ball games, and the 2024 team actually made it to the World Series. But this iteration of their attempt to win the first ring since 09 actually had pieces that could get them over the top. The starting pitching and bullpen were excellent from the first day to the last day of the season. Ben Rice is a star in the making with a swing perfectly curated for Yankee Stadium. Hell, even youngsters George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones brought youthful energy and athleticism to a roster in desperate need of it.

Yet the issues with this team were obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes but they were essentially quadrupled down on by a front office so arrogant they can’t see what is right in front of them. Trent Grisham was lightning in a bottle last year, there was no great reason to bring him back, yet he was tendered a contract in the hopes of getting a comp pick back until he signed the tender and returned to the team turning in a season unworthy of roster spot in single A, let alone the Bronx. Give “Grish” credit though, he saw the bit through to the end, with one last lousy effort at bat to end the Yankees season…sure glad we tried for that comp pick though Cash!

Jazz Chisholm and his “style” of play was an obvious issue from a year ago. Yet he was back again despite having actual trade value in the winter, and he only talked his way into the worst contract year of all time. The bullpen as well as it performed needed real help in the form of further acquisitions, yet no arms were added in the name of waiting for the possible return of internal solutions, which mostly never happened. They didn’t have a major league catcher or third baseman on the roster, yet none was added to bolster the lineup and defense.

Yet after laying out all of these easily identified issues that are at play, Brian Cashman is about to get an extension to be the General Manager of this team as he approaches the 30-year anniversary of his gaining the job. There is no question that his 28-year run in charge has seen plenty of successes on and off the field, but after what was his worst performance in sometime, no one could justify his return with a straight face. It’s been time for a change in approach and leadership, and this offseason should present the chance for it to take place, in the wake of another postseason embarrassment.

While making a change in the front office would the biggest agent of change we could ask for as fans, the low hanging fruit would be removing the manager. I have to give it to Aaron Boone, no one in Yankee history has managed to stay in the job as long as he has and have so little success. Sure, he’s won plenty of games and a pennant, but he’s useless come October unless they are playing the Twins, A’s, Royals, or Guardians. Oh, the damage one ultimately meaningless home run can to a franchise…he didn’t have the decency to help them win it all in 03 like Bucky Dent did in 78. In many ways 2026 was Boone’s best season in the dugout, as he kept this team on the tracks in the face of adversity that continued to rear its ugly head. But the lack of sound fundamentals that have dominated Boone’s tenure in the job were there once again to help sink the team in game two.

Boone’s spent his whole life in baseball. His father was a successful player and manager, his grandfather was a major league player, his brother was a major league player. He knows right from wrong, that I have no doubt about, but he is accepting of the crap his players put on display and always has been since getting in the job. He is not a leader, and his roster is devoid of leadership, the opposite of the winning formula from the 90’s. Torre was an expert man manager, and his players were self-starters who held each other to a standard that was consummate with success. I’m sure they’d hire another analytically inclined skipper to replace Boone, but the next manager of this team needs to hold this them more accountable. Pat Murphy leans on the numbers in Milwaukee plenty, but if you’ve watched baseball the last few years, you’d know he runs a tight ship, and his team is better for it.

Speaking of his players, let’s get to them, because they are not free of blame in this. Let’s be honest, most of this group was somewhere between frustrating and completely unlikable in 2026. The same flawed group took the field every night, full of bravado because they get to wear the uniform that others actually deserved to don in the past. The ringleader of this group of cosplayers is a captain who is so mad with power that he feels he can dictate his own injury situations and recovery plans. Aaron Judge is desperate to win a championship, and that is admirable compared to some of his compatriots, but his behavior this season was totally unbecoming of the title of captain. From getting injured and hiding just how bad it was so he could play through it, to orchestrating his rushed return to the lineup and re-injuring himself before the playoffs and then throwing a tantrum because a doctor wouldn’t clear him was comically bad. He, like Boone, is accepting of the nonsense that goes on in this organization and if he isn’t going to be out there playing because of his own silly mishandling of a situation then he is no help to them at all, especially as he undermines the manager he claims to “love.”

If there was an “original sin” of this entire soon to be wasted era in team history, it was trading for Giancarlo Stanton. I readily admit I have been a Stanton defender over the years, mostly due to his clutch hitting in the playoffs and him being one of the few people on the roster that tries to enforce a standard that aligns with winning. But the truth of the matter is that Stanton didn’t solve their needs back in 2018 and his inflexibility/unavailability has only served to hurt them further since adding him. He has clogged up this roster at the DH spot and eaten up payroll in an era where the team has danced a delicate line when it comes to going over the luxury tax threshold. It’s a move that has had cascading negative effects for years and it was fitting that they sent him up there for an at bat in the eighth inning with the season on the line after he hadn’t played in a game since April. True to form against a tough righty, the big went fishing to punch out.

So now what happens? Where do they go from here? We all know what should happen, but Hal Steinbrenner almost certainly won’t take that course of action so it’s pointless to keep talking about it. A serious franchise and owner would clean house and overhaul the areas of weakness on and off the field so they can hit the ground running whenever the impending lockout hopefully ends. But since that’s not them they won’t admit that they wasted a golden chance to win it all in 2026, they’ll let the bad players headed for free agency go and spend that money on more equally flawed guys. They’ll run it back with the same lousy losing manager and mostly overrated collection of players, have another 90+ win season and I’ll be sitting here writing another one of these postmortems when they lose in the ALDS again, disappointed but not surprised. Because that’s who they are. Prove me wrong Hal.

I want to thank you all for joining me on this Yankee journey once again. This season was quite the interesting one to cover and as mad as I am right now, I’ll miss them and our national pastime when the lockout costs us games in the spring. Here’s hoping some real change occurs and we’re back on the field playing again sooner than we think. At least we won’t have to watch Grisham and Chisholm next year…right?

Until then, stay tuned for more content here on the Breakdown. Check out our Instagram feed for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Check out our friends on the The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.