The Yankees are up against their biggest postseason challenge in years, and Aaron Judge’s legacy is on the line. The captain had his 50-home run season and became only the third player in MLB history to win a batting title and hit at least 50 homers in the same year. But the question still stands: Can Judge finally do what Yankee legends do in October?
This season, the team faced a lot of problems. The Yankees lost Juan Soto to the Mets in free agency and lost two straight home games to Detroit by a combined score of 23-3. After that, they won 14 of their last 17 games. The Yankees finished 94-68 thanks to the additions of ace Max Fried, All-Star Cody Bellinger, and breakout performances from Ben Rice and Trent Grisham. The turnaround included important wins over Boston at the end of the season, after losing eight in a row to their rivals.
But analyst Joel Sherman made it clear how hard things are for the Bronx Bombers. “The stigmas are on the table now,” Sherman stated on The New York Post Sports YouTube channel. “There is not going to be a soft AL Central touch to begin here. The two teams that they had trouble beating this season, and the reason they didn’t win the AL East, were the Red Sox and the Blue Jays.”
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Sherman even emphasized the Yankees’ pattern of postseason failures: “They’re going to have two players who get under their skin. This is going to be about the two Alex’s.” He talked about how the Yankees lost to Alex Bregman’s Astros three times in 2017, 2019, and 2022, and Alex Cora’s Red Sox three times in 2017, 2018, and 2021.
Sherman noted the troubling trend: “They’re really good at beating AL Central teams at this time of year. And then they don’t beat bigger teams from the AL East and AL West. Can Aaron Judge rise at this time of year? He had another historic season, and what is missing from his Hall of Fame resume? He’s going to the Hall of Fame. What’s missing from any attempt to get on Yankee Mount Rushmore is a big October and rings. That’s how the Yankees are defined.”
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Sherman remembered the 2018 ALDS loss to Boston, when Judge’s problems were a sign of how badly the team was doing: “The Yankees tied the series 1-1 in Fenway. He played New York, New York on the way out. They didn’t win another game.” The analyst posed the critical questions facing this playoff run: “Can they beat a 2024 problem that they couldn’t deal with the Red Sox and the Blue Jays? Can they win a recent historical thing, can they beat somebody who could flex a little bit also?”
The way ahead requires excellence. Before playing the top-seeded Blue Jays, who beat them six times in seven games at Rogers Centre during the regular season, the Yankees must beat the Red Sox. There are three playoff rounds between the Yankees and their first championship parade since 2009, and Aaron Judge is still trying to make his mark as a Yankee great.
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The Yankees have to deal with these historical demons and questions about their legacy, but they also need to make quick tactical decisions. The makeup of the playoff roster could be just as important as getting over past mistakes.
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Yankees face roster crunch ahead of the Red Sox showdown
The decision of who to put on the roster goes beyond strategy. The New York Yankees are getting ready to host Boston in the Wild Card series, and management has to make tough decisions about who gets a spot in the playoffs on one of the deepest rosters in the American League.
It looks like backup catcher J.C. Escarra is going to be cut from the team. Since August 12, the third-string catcher behind Austin Wells and Ben Rice hasn’t played in a Major League game. Brendan Kuty of The Athletic looked into Escarra’s case: “It wouldn’t be outrageous to think the Yankees would carry a third catcher. Escarra is a better defender than Rice, and the Yankees might trust him more late and with a lead.”
Kuty ultimately sees Rice’s offensive contributions tipping the scales. “But his inclusion seems unlikely,” Kuty noted. “Rice has been good enough, and the Yankees might not want to take his bat out of the lineup once it’s in.” In his first year, Escarra hit .202/.296/.333 with two home runs and 11 RBIs in 40 games, moving back and forth between the Majors and Triple-A.
The Yankees have more pressure going into this series because they went 4-9 against Boston in the regular season. Management has until the day before the series starts at Yankee Stadium to turn in the final roster.