The World Series drought is now at 17 seasons.
In the wake of defeating American League East rival Boston Red Sox in the AL Wild Card Series, the New York Yankees were swept by fellow division rival Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Divisional Series.
now what? FOX Sports MLB Studio analyst and former Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has some cutting edge advice.
“They (the Rays) beat them (the Yankees) like a drum. They beat them during the season and swept them in October. Something has to change. I’m not talking about personnel. I’m talking about a philosophy. There has to be a philosophy change,” Rodriguez said of the Yankees after their loss at Rayend on Wednesday.
“You’ve won 27 titles in a row. I’m not saying anybody should lose their job. Let me make that clear. 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. It’s unthinkable in a game where your season is on the line and out of the top nine, you don’t know who’s playing on base. first, who plays base five, third base, center field and right field because Aaron Judge is out.
“If something doesn’t change, you’re going to have the same results, and we’ve seen the same film for over a decade, and nothing changes. They’re going to use the excuse that the ref wasn’t there, but the ref had nothing to do with that first down in Game 2, which is one of the craziest plays I’ve ever seen. It’s getting late.”
Before a four-game series in the final 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 made an error at third base, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a throwing error that brought in a run for the Rays, and Austin Wells was called for catcher’s interference. The Yankees, who were held to one hit by Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 and down 1-0, would end Game 2 with four errors.
In all, the Yankees managed just six runs and 12 hits in the series. They were without superstar right fielder Aaron Judge, who missed three-plus months with a right rib injury and then suffered a calf strain roughly a week after returning.
Jeter’s Yankees prospect
“They didn’t play well, and sometimes when you don’t play well in the postseason, everything gets magnified and they start analyzing the things that happened. In the regular season, you can’t run away from it. Over 162 games, you can have bad times and good times. People tend to focus more on when you’re playing well, but they like when you’re playing well. Rays, you can’t make mistakes because they’re going to take advantage. them,” Jeter said of the Yankees.
“You can make mistakes against the Boston Red Sox and still overcome those mistakes, but you can’t do that against Tampa. They got exposed a little bit and that’s why they’re coming home.”
Jeter added that his Yankees dynasty teams (late 1990s-early 2000s) “focused on all the little things,” could win without hitting the long ball and never “beat themselves,” while the Hall of Famer stated that “the Yankees beat themselves” against the Rays. For David Ortiz, the Yankees’ “culture” is off, and “they need to start paying attention to those little 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 a long way from where they used to be culturally,” Ortiz said of the Yankees.
The 2026 Yankees mixed bag
New York won 93 games in the regular season behind perhaps the best starting rotation in the sport, a unit highlighted by potential 2026 AL Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler (he led the AL with a 1.95 ERA, a +215 ERA and seven wins above replacement). The Yankees starting staff was first in MLB in ERA (3.30), second in strikeouts (908), third outright 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 WHIP (1.22).
As for the Yankees’ at-bats, they were second in the sport 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. The issue? They were feast or famine with the long ball.
New York was 29th in hits (1,250), 26th in batting average (.235), 24th in on-base percentage (.311) and sixth among 12 teams to reach the postseason with 739 runs scored.
As for future spending, the Yankees currently have a payroll of $276.4 million through 2027, which is fourth in the sport. for Spotrac. Chisholm, center fielder Trent Grisham, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and closer David Bednar are among their pending free agents.
Under manager Aaron Boone, the Yankees have made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons, but have won the AL title just once, doing so in 2024. They are 790-565 in the regular season and 27-30 in the postseason from 2018-26. Meanwhile, Cashman just completed his 29th season as New York’s general manager.
