Column: State of the Yankees heading into Game two of the Queens Subway Series

NEW YORK — The Yankees are in the midst of one of their worst stretches of baseball since 1990 with no signs of change coming any time soon. As the Yankees dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole in the AL East, I wanted to take a moment and go over some of the things I have observed from this team (good and bad) over the past few weeks.

After losing the 2024 World Series in five games to the Dodgers, one of the Yankees big focuses this offseason was fundamentals and playing cleaner baseball. For the first few months of the season, that was true. Since going up to Fenway Park a few weeks ago, the Yankees fundamentals have been abysmal to say the least. Errors — both mental and physical — have poped up at least once per game lately, often in big spots leading directly to Yankees losses. Whether it’s Volpe throwing away simple double play balls or Jazz making overthrows from third base, the Yankees are giving batters extra outs and with those extra outs, the opposition are making the Yankees pay for their mistakes.

This is less on the team and more on the people in charge of the team. The sole fact that the Yankees are openly aligning their defense around DJ LeMahieu — who should not be a starter for a legit contender — is a huge issue. The Yankees infield is much better with Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base and DJ LeMahieu at third base than the way it is now. Manager Aaron Boone said the other day that they would “talk through that stuff”. It does not look like much will change with the defensive alignment, at least until the Yankees hopefully acquire a third basemen at the trade deadline.

The Yankee bullpen has been a real weak point over this recent stretch, but since Sunday, it has been even worse, and borderline unusable, posting a 10.50 ERA over the past seven games, and taking the loss in the past five. This is also the first time in franchise history that the Yankees bullpen has taken a loss in five straight games. That is absolutely insane.

“Some of those guys have been leaned on heavily.” Aaron Boone said to reporters on Wednesday. “It’s on me, I got to do a better job of getting those guys in positions where they can be successful.”

I want to focus specifically on the last part of the quote that I italicized, pertaining to putting relevers into situations where they can be successful and call Aaron Boone on using Luke Weaver on Friday with two outs in the eighth inning. After Tim Hill faced three batters, the Yankees called on a struggling Luke Weaver — who threw 20 pitches and struggled on Thursday — to get one out with a one run lead. Weaver would go on to walk Pete Alonso and give up a go-ahead two-run home run to Jeff McNeil and take the loss on Friday. For a pitcher who has been struggling as much as Weaver has since returning from the IL two weeks ago, and probably too soon, was that really the best spot for him.

“Just that last bit of execution, which is the fine line between being dominant and giving up some damage…” Aaron Boone said, referring to Weaver’s performance over the past week. “Fully trust in him to get through that”

“I said I’ve been feeling good, that just might be a lie now, I don’t know.” Luke Weaver said when asked about how he feels since returning from the IL. “It’s hard to make sense of what’s going on”

It’s not just Luke Weaver who is riding the struggle bus in that bullpen, but also Mark Leiter Jr, Ian Hamilton and Jonathan Loáisiga have all shown signs of struggles.

The one positive — Scott Effross, recalled from AAA Friday, pitched a clean eighth inning and actually looked pretty good while doing so. His fastball topped out at 89.6 MPH, while his sweeper topped out at 78 MPH. It would be a huge boost if Effross would be effective, and most importantly for him, healthy.

Regardless, the Yankees need at least two high-leverage, hard throwing, high velocity relievers at the deadline. Fun fact, the Yankees have the softest throwing bullpen in baseball, and sometimes, you need velocity to get other hitters out on a consistent basis.

The Yankees mindset might be all wrong. It seems way too often that the Yankees accept losing too much and are just ok with it, chalking it up to that’s just the game. While it is true, losing is a big part of the game, that does not mean just roll over and take it like this team does.

“That we’re the best team in the league,” Jazz Chisholm told reporters Aaron Boone told the team after Thursday’s loss. “We knew we were going to hit a speed bump. Just block out the noise and go out there when we get back home in New York and do what we do.”

This is more than a speed bump. This is almost a month of just bad baseball and the Yankees can’t seem to get out of their own way. Instead of being angry with losing almost every day, the Yankees are told they are the best team in the leauge. Were they told that from the same person who in 2022 showed the Yankees videos — when down 3–0 in the ALCS to the Astros — of the 2004 Red Sox coming back against the Yankees, as well as calling David Ortiz to talk about it as well? How about address the losing culture and say it needs to stop and the players need to play better.

“I look forward to you telling me when Volpe crushes it offensively this year for us,” Brian Cashman said following the 2023 season to Joel Sherman of the NY Post. “you’ll say, hey man I guess your development program did a good job.”

I got news for you, Volpe is the complete opposite of a star for the Yankees right now. Volpe leads all AL shortstops in errors with 12, regressing from what he was last season and the season before defensively.

Anthony Volpe has also struggled a lot at the plate this season. Volpe is batting .228 this season, and while his is walking a lot more, he is not using his speed near as much as he did when he first came up in 2023. Volpe has also left an MLB-Leading 152 runners on base this season. For a team that is struggling with RISP, this should tell part of the tale. Volpe’s inability to have an average bat is costing the Yankees big time. Volpe has been a huge net negative for the Yankees in 2025, and it might be time to look at some other options.

I wanted to end on a high note, and that is undoubtedly Jasson Dominguez. Dominguez is batting .400 over his past 15 games and has been a much needed spark to the Yankees offense. Dominguez is making things happen, both by hitting and getting on-base, but also by stealing bases and wreaking havoc on the basepaths. Dominguez had his second multi-homer game of the season on Friday against the Mets, including a leadoff shot to try and set the tone early. If I were Aaron Boone, I would not move Dominguez from the leadoff spot. Dominguez has all the qualities of a leadoff hitter, from putting the ball in play, to working deep at-bats, and having speed and power, Dominguez should be the obvious pick — at least against right-handed pitchers — going forward, giving more of a shot to have baserunners on for Judge.