The World Series drought is now at 17 seasons.
On the heels of sweeping the American League East-rival Boston Red Sox in the AL Wild Card Series, the New York Yankees were swept by the fellow division rival Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Divisional Series.
Now what? FOX Sports MLB Studio Analyst and former Yankees superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez has some blunt advice.
A-Rod On Yankees’ “Philosphy” Issue
“They [the Rays] bless them [the Yankees] as a drum. They beat them in time, and took them in October. Something has to change. I’m not talking about people. I am talking about philosophy. There’s got to be a change in philosophy,” Rodriguez said of the Yankees’ postseason loss on Wednesday night.
“You won just one 27 titles. I’m not saying who should lose his job. It’s clear that I’ll do it. But [Yankees general manager] Brian Cashman has to surround himself with people who know baseball, who understand baseball and can appreciate both sides of the ball. In the game you don’t have to think where your time is on the line and nine positions, you don’t know who is playing five positions: first base, second base, third base, center field and right field, because Aaron the judge is out.
“If something doesn’t change, you’ll have the same outcome, and we’ve watched the same movie for a decade, and nothing changes. They’ll have an excuse that Judge wasn’t there, but Judge had nothing to do with that first inning in Game 2, which is one of the craziest innings I’ve seen. It’s getting late.”
Prior to the four-game streak in the last week of the regular season, the Rays, who won an AL-best 98 games, went 6-3 against the Yankees in the regular season.
In the first inning of Game 2, Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon committed an error at third base, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. He made an error on the throw that brought home the Rays’ run and Austin Wells was called for interfering with the catcher. The Yankees, who were held to one hit by Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 and lost 1-0, ended Game 2 with four errors.
In all, the Yankees scored just six runs and 12 hits in the series. They were without superstar right fielder Aaron Judge, who missed three months with a right rib injury and later suffered a calf strain roughly one week after his return.
Yankees Jeter’s ‘Prospective’
“You don’t play well, and sometimes when you don’t play well in football, everything gets magnified and you start dissecting what happened. In a regular season, you can’t get away with it. Over 162 games, you can have periods where you do badly and periods when you do well. People focus more on the times when you do well. In a regular season, you can’t get away with it. Over 162 games, you can have periods where you do badly and periods when you do well. People focus more on the times when you do well you do, but you can’t get away with it. Through 162 games, you can have times where you do poorly and times when you do well. People are going to capitalize on those,” Jeter said of the Yankees.
“You can make mistakes against the Boston Red Sox and still win those mistakes, but you can’t make them against Tampa. They got exposed a little bit, and that’s why you go home.”
Jeter added that his dynasty Yankees teams (late 1990s-early 2000s) “focused on all the little things,” could win without hitting the ball long and never “beat themselves,” while the Hall of Famer stated that “the Yankees beat themselves against the Rays.” For David Ortiz, the Yankees, “the culture” has been rejected, and “we need to start working on the small things.”
“Yeah, the game has changed a lot, and there’s a lot of different things going on in the game, but the culture is always going to be the culture. They’re far from where they used to be culture-wise,” Ortiz said of the Yankees.
Yankees’ 2026 Mixed Bag
New York won 93 games in the regular season behind arguably the best starting rotation in the game, a unit made up of potential 2026 AL Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler (al 1.95 ERA, a 215 ERA+ and seven wins above replacement). The Yankees staff was first in MLB in ERA (3.30), second in strikeouts (908), third overall in opponent batting average (.223) and tied for third in WHIP (1.14). Meanwhile, their bullpen was second in ERA (3.13) and fourth in ERA (1.22).
As for the Yankees’ work with the bats, he is second in the game with 223 home runs. First baseman/designated hitter Ben Rice had a breakout year, hitting 41 home runs, driving in 97 runs and finishing with a .534 slugging percentage, which was second in the AL. Children? They feasted or starved for a long time.
New York was 29th in hits (1,250), 26th in batting average (.235), 24th in on-base percentage (.311) and sixth out of 12 teams that reached the season with 739 runs scored.
As for future costs, the Yankees now have a $276.4 million cap hit for 2027, which is fourth in the game, per Spotrac. Chisholm, center fielder Trent Grisham, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and closer David Bednar are among the free agents.
Under manager Aaron Boone, the Yankees have made the playoffs eight-nine times, but won the AL pennant once, in 2024. They are 790-565 in the regular season and 27-30 in the postseason since 2018-26. Meanwhile, Cashman just wrapped up his 29th season as New York’s general manager.