The New York Yankees just can’t stop losing
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David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
I got a text the other day from a friend: “The Yankees need to re-sign Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon.”
It’s a running joke between us, a reference to the 2005 season, when the Yankees were 39-39 on June 1, not looking very good, and Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon popped up out of nowhere to bolster the pitching staff. Small went 10-0 and Chacon went 7-3, the Yankees won 95 games and the team made the playoffs, like it had the previous 10 seasons. Of course, my friend is a Red Sox fan, so it’s not so much a joke as his own personal and painful reminder that the New York Yankees always find a way. Always.
Except this season.
It became clear this weekend that the Yankees will not find a path to the playoffs in 2023 — and, in fact, might not even find the path to a winning season. On Sunday, they led the Marlins 7-3 entering the bottom of the ninth. Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle faced eight batters, got only one of them out, and the Marlins rallied for an improbable 8-7 victory. “The mountain gets bigger with every loss,” Holmes said afterward. “We have to put together some wins and string them together and get some momentum going.”
Unfortunately, a series in Atlanta followed. The Braves pounded the Yankees 11-3 on Monday, shut them out 5-0 on one hit on Tuesday and beat them 2-0 on Wednesday. That loss dropped the Yankees to 60-61. It’s the latest in a season they’ve been under .500 since 1995 (nine of the 26 players on the active roster were not yet born). “We’re not showing up, that’s what it comes down to,” Aaron Judge said after the blowout defeat on Monday. “We need to take some personal pride,” said manager Aaron Boone.
For once, the Yankees have no answers. Small or Chacon or Mike Tauchman or Matt Carpenter is not around to rescue them. The rotation is full of injuries. The bullpen is finally leaking. The offense is bad.
Some have rightfully pointed to the Yankees’ lack of left-handed hitting, a major strategic flaw in the roster. The Yankees are next to last in the majors in plate appearances from left-handed batters — despite the obvious reason to employ them and their status as a hallmark of Yankees success going back to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. (Yes, the Astros have the fewest, but the difference: Houston’s right-handed hitters are better.)
Most problematic: For the second time in three years, the overall offense just hasn’t been good. Among the regulars, only Judge and Gleyber Torres carry an OPS+ above league average. The Yankees were 10th in the AL in runs in 2021, first in 2022, 10th again in 2023. We all know what happened last season, but, shockingly, counting on Judge to remain healthy and hit 62 home runs every season probably isn’t a reliable master plan.
Since July 4, when they were 10 games over .500, the Yankees are 12-23 and have been outscored by 51 runs. Over the same period, they are 28th in the majors in runs scored and 24th in runs allowed.
“It’s been a slog,” a frustrated Boone told reporters on Monday. “It’s been a grind. It’s not been how we drew it up.”
They can forget the wild card. The Toronto Blue Jays, currently the third wild-card team, are 12 games over .500. If the Jays play .500 the rest of the way they would finish 87-75, so the Yankees would have to go 27-14 just to tie them — and they also have the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox to climb over. It’s not going to happen — and in fact finishing in last place in the AL East is more likely. But that’s not even the worst part of this year’s trajectory — it could be the franchise’s first losing record since 1992.
The Yankees’ 30-year streak of consecutive winning seasons is an astonishingly impressive achievement in the ultracompetitive business of modern sports. The New England Patriots under Bill Belichick (and with Tom Brady) had 19 consecutive winning seasons from 2001 through 2019. In the NBA, the longest active streak is a mere 12 seasons by, believe it or not, the LA Clippers. The San Antonio Spurs had a 22-year run from 1998 to 2019 but have now suffered four losing seasons in a row. The Pittsburgh Penguins own the longest streak in the NHL at 17 seasons. Even Alabama football has had four losing seasons since the Yankees last had one.
Not surprisingly, a growing percentage of Yankees fans are not only calling for Boone to be fired but longtime general manager Brian Cashman as well. If the team does miss the playoffs and finishes with a losing record, Boone’s seat no doubt will be hot, even though he has another year on his contract. That decision might rest more with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner than Cashman. Who knows, Steinbrenner might not want to eat Boone’s $2.75 million salary. After all, these Yankees now construct their business with some limitations on expenses — although let’s point out they still have the game’s second-largest payroll in 2023.
That’s why fingers are also pointing in the direction of Cashman, the team’s GM since February of 1998 (who signed a new long-term deal this winter). The Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009, but let’s be fair here: While falling short of a title, the Yankees have had success in recent seasons, winning 99 games in 2022, 103 in 2019 and 100 in 2018. They’ve reached three American League Championship Series since 2017, losing all three times to the Astros.
Still, the majority of Cashman’s big decisions in recent years haven’t worked out, even if many of them were defensible at the time. Consider:
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Trading for Giancarlo Stanton before the 2018 season. It was too tempting to resist pairing Stanton, coming off a 59-homer season with the Marlins, with Judge, coming off his 52-homer rookie season. Stanton had a 38-homer, 4.4-WAR season in 2018 but has produced less than 1.0 WAR in four of the next five, including 2023, when he’s barely been above replacement level — for a $32 million salary. The ripple effect of the Stanton trade makes it sting even more: With Judge and Stanton, the Yankees stayed away from pursuing Bryce Harper when he hit free agency after the 2018 season, even though Harper grew up a Yankees fan and had a swing tailor-made for the short right-field porch. Since 2019, Stanton has been worth just 4.8 WAR; Harper has racked up 15.8.
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Giving Aaron Hicks a seven-year, $70 million extension in 2019 after one good full season in the majors in 2018 (and a good partial season in 2017). At the time, this made some sense since Hicks would be a potential bargain if he continued to play well. But he was an older player for a breakout season, turning 29 at the start of that deal. He battled injuries and played 100 games just once for the Yankees (hitting .216 in 2022) before they released him earlier this season.
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Signing DJ LeMahieu to a six-year, $90 million contract in 2021 even though he was entering his age-32 season. LeMahieu was coming off two excellent seasons, finishing fourth in the MVP voting in 2019 and then third in 2020 after hitting .364 and leading the AL in OPS in 50 games during the COVID season. A reasonable signing given LeMahieu’s production those two seasons, it was still risky given his age and, as we now know, a lot of players had fluky numbers in 2019 (due to the juiced ball) and 2020 (due to the weird short season). LeMahieu has been OK, but Cashman would probably like a redo on this one.
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Trading for Josh Donaldson in 2022. Another bet on an older player — Donaldson was entering his age-36 season in 2022 — that didn’t work out.
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The Frankie Montas trade last year. Montas had missed a couple of starts with the A’s with a sore shoulder, but Cashman traded for him anyway. He went 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA down the stretch, missed the postseason and will miss all of 2023 after shoulder surgery.
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Needing a center fielder last year — in part because Hicks was unproductive — the Yankees traded solid starter Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader, even though Bader was on the injured list at the time. Bader has missed about 50 games this season and been a below-average hitter, while Montgomery could have been used in the rotation.
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Signing Carlos Rodon to a six-year, $162 million contract. It’s obviously too early to assess the long-term value here, but the first year of the deal has been a washout so far, with Rodon winning one game in eight starts with a 7.44 ERA. He’s on the IL right now with a hamstring strain, although he could return next week.
Obviously, not every Cashman deal has backfired — most significantly, Gerrit Cole has been worth the money. In part, Cashman was pushed to gamble on some of those older players because the farm system hasn’t been productive enough. Deivi Garcia was supposed to a rotation stalwart by now, but he was placed on waivers last week (the White Sox claimed him). Luis Gil got injured. Others like Estevan Florial or Albert Abreu just didn’t develop as hoped. Many were scattered to the winds in various transactions — Ezequiel Duran, Garrett Whitlock, Luis Medina, Hayden Wesneski, Roansy Contreras, Kevin Alcantara, Thairo Estrada, JP Sears. The Yankees haven’t really been burned too badly by any of those guys, but what were the returns?
This probably sounds more dire than it is. No matter what happens the rest of 2023, the Yankees will find a way to reshape things for 2024. A rotation with Cole, Rodon and Nestor Cortes is a good starting point, assuming better health from Rodon and Cortes. The lineup needs an overhaul, though, and the Yankees will still be on the hook for $64 million in salaries for Stanton, LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo (who knows what he’ll be able to contribute given his struggles with post-concussion syndrome). As it was at this year’s trade deadline when the Yankees debated looking for help, the free agent market is thin on hitters — well, you have Shohei Ohtani, but few insiders in the game forecast that happening.
But, that’s all for the offseason, along with the futures of Boone and Cashman. There’s plenty at stake for Yankees fans and Yankees haters alike in these final 41 games: Will the streak come to an end?
Seven of eight first-round series in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs have begun, and No. 8 gets rolling on Tuesday.
The Battle of Florida between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers begins anew (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), with both clubs looking like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender if they can survive the intrastate showdown.
Cats-Bolts is the third game of four Tuesday on the ESPN family of networks, following New Jersey–Carolina (6 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Ottawa–Toronto (7:30 p.m., ESPN2), and preceding the nightcap, Minnesota–Vegas (11 p.m. ET, ESPN).
What are the key storylines heading into Tuesday’s games? Who are the key players to watch?
Read on for game previews with statistical insights from ESPN Research, recaps of what went down Monday night, and the Three Stars of Monday Night from Arda Öcal.
Matchup notes
New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes
Game 2 (CAR leads 1-0) | 6 p.m. ET | ESPN
Game 1 sure did not go as planned for the Devils. A win at the legendarily loud Lenovo Center would’ve been stretching it, but losing Brenden Dillon, Cody Glass and Luke Hughes to injury was not an ideal outcome either.
They’ll hope to rebound Tuesday before the series shifts to Newark. Closing the shot attempt differential might help, as the famously possession-savvy Hurricanes held a 45-24 edge on shots on goal in Game 1.
For years, the knock on Carolina was that it lacked that one goal scorer who could get the Canes over the hump in the playoffs. Many observers thought the Canes had acquired such a player in Mikko Rantanen in January. Ironically, it was the player Carolina acquired in its subsequent trade of Rantanen to Dallas — Logan Stankoven — who scored two goals in Game 1. Will he add to that total in Game 2?
Of note heading into Tuesday’s game, the Devils have come back to win a playoff series after losing the first game 11 out of 26 times (42%); that figure drops to 20% if they fall behind 0-2. The Hurricanes have won six of their past seven series after winning Game 1.
Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs
Game 2 (TOR leads 1-0) | 7:30 p.m. ET | ESPN2
The atmosphere was intense for Game 1, and the Maple Leafs’ “Core Four” led the way: Mitch Marner (one goal, two assists), William Nylander (one goal, one assist), John Tavares (one goal, one assist) and Auston Matthews (two assists) each filled up the scoresheet. A continuation of that output will obviously help Toronto overwhelm its provincial neighbor.
Slowing down the Maple Leafs could depend on discipline, according to Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk. “We took too many penalties, they scored on [them] and that’s the game,” Tkachuk told reporters after Game 1. “So that’s on us. We’ve got to be more disciplined.”
The Sens will also need to capitalize on their chances. According to Stathletes, Ottawa had five high-danger scoring chances in this game, and produced only two goals.
Florida Panthers at Tampa Bay Lightning
Game 1 | 8:30 p.m ET | ESPN
This is the fourth time that the two Sunshine State franchises have met in the postseason, and all four of the meetings have occurred since 2021.
In each instance, the winner of the series has gone on to reach the Stanley Cup Final — Lightning in 2021 and 2022; Panthers in 2024 — while the 2021 Lightning and 2024 Panthers won it all.
Unsurprisingly, Nikita Kucherov is Tampa Bay’s leading scorer against Florida, with 25 points (five goals, 20 assists) in 15 games. Aleksander Barkov is the Panthers’ leading scorer against the Lightning, with 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 15 games.
The two teams split their meetings in the regular season, with the Lightning winning the most recent, 5-1 on April 15.
Minnesota Wild at Vegas Golden Knights
Game 2 (VGK leads 1-0) | 11 p.m. ET | ESPN
The underdog Wild set a physical tone to the series in Game 1, outhitting the Golden Knights 54-29, but the hosts emerged with a 4-2 victory. Tomas Hertl, Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden (two) were the goal scorers for Vegas, and Matt Boldy was responsible for both Minnesota goals.
Howden, who had never scored double-digit goals until his 23 this season, earned praise from coach Bruce Cassidy after Game 1. “He didn’t change his game,” Cassidy told reporters. “He played physical. He’s part of our penalty kill. He’s always out when the goalie’s out, typically one of the six guys we use a lot because of his versatility. He can play wing. He can take draws as a center. He’s been real good for us all year and good again tonight.”
Sunday’s game was the NHL debut for 2024 first-round pick Zeev Buium, who just finished his season with the University of Denver. He played 13 minutes, 37 seconds and finished with one shot on goal.
Arda’s Three Stars of Monday
The greatest goal scorer in NHL history just keeps finding the back of the net. He had two goals, including the overtime winner, as the Caps take Game 1 3-2 despite a valiant third period effort from Montreal to send it to the extra frame.
Connor had the game-winning goal in the third period for the second straight game, as Winnipeg takes both games at home for the 2-0 series lead on the Blues.
Further proof that the Oilers are never out of the game, McDavid helped erase a 4-0 deficit with a goal and three assists, despite the Oilers falling 6-5 late in a thrilling Game 1.
Monday’s scores
Capitals 3, Canadiens 2 (OT)
Washington leads 1-0
Much of the regular season was spent focused on Alex Ovechkin‘s “Gr8 Chase” of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record, and he scored historic goal No. 895 on Sunday, April 6. It turns out, Ovi likes the spotlight. The Capitals superstar opened the scoring in the game, and bookended it with the overtime winner — his first ever, believe it or not — as the Caps survived a thriller in Game 1, following Nick Suzuki‘s tying goal with 4:15 remaining. Full recap.
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Alex Ovechkin’s OT goal wins Game 1 for Capitals
Alex Ovechkin’s second goal of the game is an overtime winner that gives the Capitals a 1-0 series lead vs. the Canadiens.
Jets 2, Blues 1
Winnipeg leads 2-0
Game 1 between the two clubs was tightly contested until the Jets took over in the third period. That trend took hold again on Monday — the score remained tied into 1-1 the third period, when Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor scored at the 1:43 mark, and the Jets were able to hold the Blues off the scoreboard for the duration. Connor’s linemate Mark Scheifele assisted on the game-winner and opened the scoring, giving him a league-leading five points this postseason. Full recap.
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Kyle Connor scores clutch goal to put Jets ahead in 3rd period
Kyle Connor extends Winnipeg’s lead after a clutch goal early in the 3rd period vs. St. Louis.
Stars 4, Avalanche 3 (OT)
Series tied 1-1
The series that every observer thought would be the closest in the first round didn’t look that way in Game 1, as the Avs ran over the Stars en route to a 5-1 win. Game 2 was much more in line with expectations, as the two Western powerhouses needed OT to settle things. Colin Blackwell was the hero for Dallas, scoring with 2:14 remaining in the first OT period. Full recap.
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Colin Blackwell comes up with big OT winner for Stars
Colin Blackwell sends the Stars faithful into jubilation with a great overtime winner to tie the series at 1-1 vs. the Avalanche.
Kings 6, Oilers 5
Los Angeles leads 1-0
Monday’s nightcap was a delight to those who like offensive hockey and were willing to stay up late. The Kings roared out to a four-goal lead late in the second period before Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl scored to pull within three with six seconds remaining. The two teams traded goals to start the third, before the Oilers notched three in a row to tie up the festivities with 1:28 remaining on Connor McDavid‘s first of the 2025 playoffs. L.A.’s Phillip Danault sent his club’s fans home happy, scoring the pivotal goal with 42 seconds left. Full recap.
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Kings retake lead on Phillip Danault’s goal in final minute
Phillip Danault restores the lead for the Kings with a goal vs. the Oilers in the closing moments.
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