At 53-43, the Yankees entered the All-Star break two games behind the Blue Jays in the loss column and four games up on a Wild Card spot. They have baseball’s ninth best record and second best run differential (+111). It has been a season of streaks, including a hideous 6-16 stretch from June 13th to July 5th. And yet, the Yankees are right there in the AL East race, even as flawed and imperfect as...
2025-07-14 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: Carlos Rodón is heading to the All-Star Game. He was added to the roster to replace Max Fried, who I guess won't be available to pitch Tuesday after starting tomorrow afternoon's game. Too bad. Fried pitching in (maybe even starting) the All-Star Game back in Atlanta after all his years with the Braves would have been neat. Rodón is starting tonight and should be okay to throw an inning Tuesday? We'll see.
ORIGINAL POST: We’ve made it. The f...
2025-07-11 10:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
In a move that had to happen, the Yankees DFAed DJ LeMahieu this afternoon. Sounds like Jorbit Vivas will come up to fill the roster spot. The Yankees moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. back to second base yesterday and installed Oswald Peraza at third base. That is clearly their best defensive alignment. "We'll get through it and we'll all be okay,” Aaron Boone said about DFAing the popular LeMahieu.
T...
2025-07-09 21:05:39 +0000 UTC View PostMax Fried and Jazz Chisholm Jr. will join Aaron Judge at the All-Star Game next week. Fried was a lock. I figured missing a month would take Jazz out of the running, but there are like 2.5 good infielders in the AL right now, so he made it. Fried was voted in by the players. Chisholm was a commissioner’s office pick. Carlos Rodón could sneak onto the roster as pitchers are replaced in the coming days. The Yankees have had multiple All-Stars every year since 1992, when Roberto Kelly was the...
2025-07-08 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: Joel Sherman says Cam Schlittler will make his MLB debut against the Mariners either Tuesday or Wednesday (Monday's an off-day), so the Yankees are pushing that button. I'll have more on Schlittler in Tuesday's post. He has a 2.82 ERA ...
2025-07-05 18:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostHeads up: It will likely be a short post Tuesday. It’s Fourth of July weekend, plus the week after next will be very busy between midseason grades, the draft, and whatever else. Then the trade deadline is two weeks after that. I’m gonna take it easy this weekend while I can. I’ll be on any breaking news, otherwise I’m keeping it short Tuesday and will lay low during the holiday weekend. Thanks as always for reading and your support. Let’s now get to today’s post.
1. ...
2025-07-04 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe “should the Yankees demote Jasson Domínguez?” poll is closed and two-thirds of you responded no. I’m among the no votes. There’s just no obvious replacement. He’s one of the four best outfielders in the organization and belongs on the MLB roster. Since that poll went live, Domínguez is 9-for-21 (.429) with two doubles. I expect a cut of your postseason share, Jasson. Anyway, I ...
2025-07-01 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The trade deadline is 6pm ET on Thursday, July 31st, so four weeks and three days away. The Yankees have a home getaway day against the Rays that afternoon, then they’ll play the Marlins in Miami that weekend. That opens up the possibility of someone having to be pulled off the team plane because they were traded after Thursday’s game, 2025-06-30 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: Our recent run of excellently timed nuggets and mailbag questions continues: Andy Martino reports Spencer Jones is being promoted to Triple-A Scranton. Time to see what his swing and miss issues look like against the best pitching he's ever faced, including guys with big league time. Jones had a walk-off single Thursday night (2025-06-27 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
On this date in 1962, the Yankees played the longest game in franchise history, a 9-7 win over the Tigers in 22 innings. Here’s the box score. The starters, Bullet Bob Turley and Frank Lary, combined to get seven outs. The two bullpens soaked up 41.2 innings. Time of game: 7:00. That is a lot of baseball. Let’s get to today’s post. It’s shorter than usual because I decided to break ...
2025-06-24 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The outfield logjam has not taken care of itself. In a miracle of miracles, the Yankees have stayed healthy on the position player side other than poor Oswaldo Cabrera (stayed healthy in-season I mean, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton had their preseason injuries). These position logjams usually resolve themselves, but this one hasn’t. Every day one of Cody Bellinger, Jasson Domínguez, or Trent G...
2025-06-23 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostEarlier this week the Lakers were sold to Mark Walter, lead owner of the Dodgers, for $10 billion. He’s not even getting the arena. It’s $10 billion just for the team. It’s the most ever paid for a sports franchise by nearly $4 billion (the Celtics sold for $6.1 billion in March). Very few sports franchises compare...
2025-06-20 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: Good timing today. MLB just announced that Guardians manager Stephen Vogt and Joe Torre will be on Aaron Boone's All-Star Game coaching staff. Torre has spent more time around the Yankees in Spring Training in recent years, including in the dugout and going out to the mound to make pitching changes. Pretty cool that he'll be at the All-Star Game in Atlanta, where he has ties (player from 1966-68 and manager from 1982-84).
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ORIGINAL POST: 2025-06-17 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Twenty years ago yesterday George Steinbrenner and the Yankees officially announced plans for the new Yankee Stadium. The financing, the site, all that was finalized. The wheels were put into motion. I definitely miss parks of the old ballpark. The atmosphere was better (the atmosphere at the new park is underrated) and I miss walking up the tunnel to see the field. All these new stadiums have open concourses and you don’t get magical moment anywhere anymore, and it sucks. What I don’t mi...
2025-06-16 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe Old Timers’ Game will return this year. Bob Klapisch says it will be a softball game, not baseball, and that’s fine with me. The Old Timers’ Game has not been played since 2019 (in part due to the pandemic). Klapisch says Derek Jeter said he wouldn’t attend Old Timers’ Day if the Yankees insisted he play in the game, so they s...
2025-06-13 10:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: The Yankees announced Giancarlo Stanton is starting a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset today. That's a nice surprise. I'm not sure how many rehab games he'll need, but he's been taking live at-bats in Tampa for over a week. Maybe Giancarlo will be back for this weekend's series in Boston? We'll find out soon enough.
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ORIGINAL POST: The YES Network debuted the YES drone Friday night and got some pretty sweet shots in and around ...
2025-06-10 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostAaron Judge is 2-for-2 in AL Player of the Months this year. He won it for April, and earlier this week, it was announced he won it for May as well. I thought the May award would go to Cal Raleigh, but Judge it is. The captain hit .364/.453/.798 (236 wRC+) with 11 homers last month. Some Player of the Month facts:
Judge has won five of the last seven and nine of the last 19 AL Player of the Months.
He’s won Player of the Month 11 times in his career. Only Barry ...
2025-06-06 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOn this date in 2003, George Steinbrenner named Derek Jeter the 11th captain in Yankees’ history, and the first since Don Mattingly. The timing was odd. It wasn’t just that it happened in the middle of the season, it happened with the Yankees in Cincinnati and in the middle of a nine-game road trip. They did not return home until June 10th, so a full week passed before Jeter could be announced to the Yankee Stadium crowd as team captain. As soon as the Yankees named Aaron Judge captain, t...
2025-06-03 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe Yankees played their 54th game of the season Tuesday night, so the season is officially one-third plus one game complete. I give them an "A" for the season to date. They’re not perfect, no team is, but the Yankees are damn good, and I think pretty clearly the best team in the AL East. Here’s where the Yankees ranked heading into Thursday’s off-day:
3rd in runs scored per game
5th in runs allowed per game
1st in position player WAR
Nothing official yet, but it looks like the 2027 All-Star Game will go to Wrigley Field. The Cubs last hosted the All-Star Game in 1990, so they’re overdue, plus they recently completed a big $575M renovation. Toronto hasn’t hosted an All-Star Game since 1991 and the Rogers Centre renovations were just finished, so the Blue Jays will probably get one soon, and I...
2025-05-26 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostFour years and two days ago, the Yankees turned a ninth inning 5-4-3 triple play against the White Sox. It was the first of three triple plays in a month’s time (videos). The Yankees have not turned a triple play since and they had not turned a triple play in the seven years prior to those three. They’ve bunched a lot of historic stuff together in a short period of time lately, no? The triple plays in 2021...
2025-05-23 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIt feels like Name That Yankee is almost hostile toward viewers now. Like the YES Network folks heard people complaining, didn’t like it, and made it even harder. It was Kevin Elster (17 games as a Yankee) on Friday and Stan Jefferson (10 games as a Yankee) on Saturday. I’m all for challenging questions but come on man. I’m ready for trivia to return. I’ll come up with the questions for $10,000 per game, plus expenses. The offer is open-ended. Here now is Tuesday morning’s post on M...
2025-05-19 16:47:58 +0000 UTC View PostI did not need another reason to detest Rob Manfred, but he gave me one anyway. Ignoring the Pete Rose of it all, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 Black Sox threw a World Series. You would think throwing a World Series would be a zero tolerance item, but nah. It has been a long time since the commissioner was an act...
2025-05-16 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostNestor Cortes, Wandy Peralta, and Luis Severino are three of my favorite Yankees’ pitchers of the Aaron Judge era, and they’ve combined to give up 22 runs in 6.2 innings against the Yankees this season. Good looking out, guys. The Yankees are in “every series is two great wins and arguably the worst loss of the season” mode right now and hey, that’s a 108-win pace. I’ll take it. Here is Tuesday’s post on Monday because my days of staying up late to finish posts after West Coast ...
2025-05-12 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post16 years and one day ago, Alex Rodriguez returned to the lineup following his March hip surgery, and hit a home run on his first pitch of the season. Here’s the video. The Yankees were 13-15 at the time and had lost their previous four games. A-Rod returned, homered, the Yankees won the game, and then had the best record in baseball (by six games) from that day forward. It wasn’t all A-Rod, but his return ...
2025-05-09 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostSorry today's post is late, I accidentally scheduled it for 6pm ET instead of 6am ET. My bad.
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The Yankees debuted an Austin Wells inspired breakfast burrito over the weekend (he’s still ranking them). The Wells Favurrito is available in sections 110, 217, and 321 during day games and includes s...
2025-05-06 11:12:00 +0000 UTC View PostI never do this, but I have two tickets I can't use for tonight's game. They're in Section 405, which is the upper deck in right field. Literally the last section at the end. If you want them, they're yours, no charge. Email me at RABmailbag at gmail dot com. First person to email me gets them. The weather stinks and I don't know if they'll actually play, but hey, free tickets (which you can always exchange for a later date if they do get rained out.)
UPDATE: 2025-05-05 20:05:07 +0000 UTC View Post
One last reminder in case anyone missed it: Annual memberships are open. Go to Patreon settings > Memberships > View Details, then change “billing frequency” to annual if you prefer to pay for a year upfront rather than get charged each month. It makes no difference on my end. Whatever’s best for you. Here now is today’s post.
1. Weekday thoughts. The rational half of my b...
2025-05-02 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostWe had a rainless rainout Saturday. The Yankees postponed the game nice and early, before everyone began their trek to the Bronx, and I appreciate that. But then it didn’t rain. Well, no, it did rain eventually, but not until 7pm ET or so, well after the scheduled first pitch. The Yankees played through a monsoon with the Giants two weeks ago, then got rained out against the Blue Jays with no rain. No one gets the weather right all the time, not even the pros, but whoever called Saturday’...
2025-04-29 10:00:28 +0000 UTC View PostReminder: Annual memberships are now open. Go to Patreon settings > Memberships > View Details, then change “billing frequency” to annual if you prefer to pay for a year upfront rather than get charged each month. It makes no difference on my end. Whatever’s best for you. Let’s get to today’s post.
1. Weekday thoughts. The Yankees went 8-5 during the just completed 13 da...
2025-04-25 10:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post