NEW YORK — Imagine a world where the scaffolding of the Yankees’ success has collapsed. Nothing is working. Nothing feels right. One loss blurs into the next with no end in sight.
The Bombers’ five-game losing streak, a season high, isn’t going to keep them out of the playoffs, but the vibe is nevertheless terrible.
The question on everyone’s mind: What’s gone wrong with this team?
Manager Aaron Boone said, “we have to play better” but that sounds more like a plea for help than a solution. The Yankees have surrendered first place in the East to the Rays, which makes next week’s four-game series in St. Petersburg all the more important.
The Yankees aren’t in danger of becoming the free-falling Mets. But the series of setbacks, including Monday’s 7-3 loss to Detroit, reveal just how fragile the Bombers are when a few key components go offline.
Here’s what’s going wrong:
LIFE WITHOUT AARON JUDGE
The Yankees actually went on a five-game winning streak soon after the captain went on the Injured List with a fractured rib. For that, Boone could thank Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger.
But both sluggers are practically invisible now. Rice is batting .103 in his last 10 games. He has exactly one RBI in that span – a home run.
Bellinger is 5-for-41 in his last 12 games and zero RBIs.
“Obviously, I need to be better,” he said. “I am not playing as well as I can … I have to produce.”
Former Yankee slugger and current YES analyst Paul O’Neill pulled Bellinger aside during batting practice on Monday to offer this nugget:
“I see (Bellinger) drifting forward, which is why I’d like to see him use a leg kick,” said O’Neill, the American League’s batting champion in 1994, “It’s what I did to help my timing. It forces you to stay back.”
Bellinger admitted, “we’re both tall and tall guys tend to jump too far forward,” but brushed aside any sort of experiment.
“I’ve never had a leg kick in my whole life, you know,” he said. “I’m not going to implement a leg kick.”
BRUTAL DEFENSE
Remember how the Dodgers mocked the Yankees for their sloppy play in the 2024 World Series? It wasn’t just the Dodgers who felt that way. The entire industry believed the Yankees’ defense would ultimately crack under pressure.
That same criticism is again valid. After allowing 20 unearned runs in the first 74 games, the Yankees have yielded the same number in the last 10 – including eight in the four-game sweep at Fenway over the weekend.
Even Bellinger, arguably the game’s most gifted leftfielder, has been affected. He dropped Dillon Dingler’s fly ball in the corner in the fourth inning, which helped the Tigers to a 7-0 lead that effectively ended the game.
Bellinger sheepishly admitted, “I just closed my glove too soon.”
The sloppiness didn’t end there. In the very next at-bat, Hao-Yu Lee’s fly ball to shallow right resulted in a horrific collision between Jazz Chisholm and Jasson Dominguez.
Neither defender swerved to avoid each other. Instead, Dominguez’s elbow caught Chisholm’s flush on the jaw. He crashed to the ground and remained there for several moments while being attended to by the Yankees’ trainers.
Dominguez ruefully said, “I called (Chisholm) off but the crowd was too loud. He couldn’t hear me.”
Chisholm walked off the field under his own power and underwent concussion protocol. The Yankees didn’t update the second baseman’s condition after the game.
ALL THOSE STRANDED RUNNERS:
Remove Judge, Bellinger, Rice and – to a lesser degree – Paul Goldschmidt, whose average has dropped 17 points this week, and there aren’t many bullets left in the Yankees’ chamber.
The Yankees are batting .175 in the last 10 games. According to the YES Network, the Bombers are 6-for-65 with runners in scoring position.
They’ve been stymied recently by Detroit’s Casey Mize (10 strikeouts), Boston’s Sonny Gray (no-hitter into the eighth inning) and Boston’s Payton Tolle (seven shutout innings).
What the Yankees need, of course, is Judge’s massive presence in the lineup. It’s not just about protecting Rice in the No. 3 spot; it’s the pervasive threat that the Bombers’ most powerful hitter generates.
Pitchers are terrified of Judge’s potential for late-inning home runs that break hearts. The Yankees faked it for a while, but the illusion has now been broken.
A WOBBLY ROTATION
The Yankees are lucky to have Cam Schlittler as a temporary ace. He’s the only starter they could trust tonight to oppose Tarik Skubal, the Tigers’ superstar No. 1.
But the Bombers were hoping Gerrit Cole’s miracle comeback from Tommy John surgery was indeed real. Cole was – and still is – the Yankees’ most accomplished asset at the top of the rotation.
But Cole has allowed 17 earned runs in his last 25 innings, and says, “the performance on some of the pitches just hasn’t been good.”
The trickle-down effect has been undeniable: the Yankees have had one quality start in the last 10 games. Ryan Weathers didn’t help matters by getting knocked out in the second inning on Monday, allowing five runs.
THE VIBE
It says a lot that the ticket buyers voted with their feet on Monday. A migration of thousands started heading for the exits by the seventh inning.
The Yankees were just as lifeless as the crowd. Nothing feels the same lately. Judge’s return will likely mean a huge shift in organizational momentum. But who knows when that will be?
The club said Judge would undergo new imaging on the fractured rib within four weeks after his diagnosis on June 4.
That was 26 days ago and no one’s said a word about Judge’s progress.
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