In trying times, it can be hard to remove emotion from the equation to make a fair assessment. The Yankees have lost 14 of 18 and at times have looked listless or even careless, with points of concern almost everywhere you look. I’m here to try and suggest that the situation is not as dire as this recent run would suggest.
First and foremost, for all their struggles, the Yankees remain well-positioned to fight for the AL East, trailing the Orioles by just three games in the loss column. While that isn’t great, it’s certainly damn good for a team that has lost 11 of its last 14. While the Yankees are no longer anywhere near the pace they were on just a couple of weeks ago, their torrid first 70 games put them in position to weather a terrible stretch.
Baltimore didn’t go through these same level of struggle, but they did have a 4-8 run in mid-June. That has also helped the Yankees remain within striking distance in the division.
Now, all of this is for naught if the Yanks carry on this trend of playing like the 2024 Chicago White Sox, but there are other positive signs to point, beyond the simple fact that this team is still very likely to make the postseason.
It was fun seeing this team survive and thrive without Gertit Cole in the rotation, and a less taxed Cole might be a good thing in October, but they now need him to be That Guy. Perhaps the biggest concern in the last two weeks wasn’t even the losing streak, but how Cole looked in his second start of the year.
The Yankees ace got bombed by the Mets, and showed the kind of diminished velocity that leaves a pit in your stomach. Well, the velo came back last time out against the Blue Jays and things looked somewhat in order as he out-pitched Kevin Gausman and secured the win on a season-high 92 pitches.
A big part of why Cole’s top performance is needed ties into my second point that warrants optimism. The primary reason why this team was able to sustain Cole’s absence so gracefully was the outstanding work of Luis Gil. The right-hander looked so good he was bound for some regression, particularly with his high walk rate.
The Yankees lost Gil’s last three starts and had no shot in two of them as the right-hander was roughed up to take his ERA from 2.04 to 3.41. Gil was never a 2.00-ERA true talent pitcher, but he’s also not going to throw out stinkers every other start forever. If he can get his fastball going again, he should improve in the coming weeks.
Gil isn’t the only current Yankee struggling who’s likely to bounce back in some capacity or another. Carlos Rodón was having a strong season, and has also been particularly bad recently in a way that’s unsustainable long-term, as the Yanks lost his last four outings in which he allowed a total of 24 runs. Rodón’s arm still looks live, and he unveiled an altered pitch mix last time out, a solid start against the Reds. He too should be better than he’s been over the last few weeks.
Last but not least, while the Yankees have gotten some pretty pitiful production at the corner infield slots this year, that simply means it should be possible to improve externally, even in a seller’s trade market. A half-decent corner-infield bat isn’t the most difficult thing to find, not in a world where high-octane arms and up-the-middle talents are at the top of most team’s wishlist. With their current roster state, the list of first or third basemen who would provide an instant improvement is long.
Ideal or not, the Yankees don’t need to add huge difference-makers to this lineup, not with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto leading the charge. This team still has the top-end talent; it just needs the supporting players, such as Gil and Rodón, to regress positively, and to plug a couple of replacement-level holes on the roster. The team is still in a fine position, and if it can just survive this dreadful stretch, they can still find themselves on the other side in title contention.