‘What are we doing?’: Aaron Judge’s first year as Yankees captain ends without October
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Coley Harvey, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge was quiet.
When asked what he learned about his team during a difficult first year as captain, the five-time All-Star took a full 16 seconds before responding. From his locker at the far end of the New York Yankees clubhouse, Judge stood, his eyes scanning the room as his mind scanned everything that happened this year.
“Honestly,” the 31-year-old outfielder said, “this really tested everybody’s character. It tested my character.”
For the first time since Judge made his MLB debut in 2016, the Yankees’ bad days outweighed the good. On Sunday, whatever still-existing playoff dreams the team might have had were officially dashed when a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks eliminated New York from postseason contention. And throughout the Yankees’ final homestand, which ends Monday, Judge and his teammates admitted this has been a year they hope to never repeat.
“You kind of get tested at a time when things aren’t going your way, when guys get hurt, you’re not getting the call that you want, the ball’s not falling the way that you want it to,” Judge told ESPN. “It challenges you to continue to show up every day and compete. This just really tested guys. You’ve really got to want to be here. You’ve really got to want it and bring it every single day.”
The Yankees’ 2023 season ends Sunday in Kansas City. Instead of a postseason, as October begins, the Yankees will be taking vacations, going on fishing trips, spending time with loved ones, reconditioning their bodies and resetting their minds. They certainly won’t be playing for a World Series.
“When you come to New York, you’ve got to win. It’s about winning a World Series,” Judge said. “If you don’t win a World Series, it’s like: ‘What are we doing?'”
After getting as far as the American League Championship Series in three of the past six seasons, the Yankees will be at home in October for the first time since 2016.
Although there is a belief throughout the club that this season will ultimately be a minor blip, that doesn’t change the reality of what could’ve been.
“You take it very personally,” said manager Aaron Boone, whose job security after his fifth season in charge remains a question entering the offseason. “We have to own it, and I have to own it. We are the leaders of this team, and you’ve got to take the good with the bad.
“We pour a lot into this, 365 days a year, to be a championship-caliber team, and when we fall short of that … that’s tough.”
Nobody knows that better than second baseman Gleyber Torres, who was called up in 2018. For the first time in his career, he won’t be playing any meaningful games in October.
“How we play right now is just like, we don’t want that,” Torres said. “We want to play like how we were last year — just consistency every day.”
At this point, it isn’t surprising that this is the way New York’s season is ending. Injuries and offensive inconsistency have plagued the organization since early June, making this the year’s long-anticipated destination.
Ahead of Opening Day, though, there were vastly different expectations. On paper, the Yankees were an elite squad thought to be a serious AL contender. Coming out of spring training, ESPN’s panel of experts ranked them as MLB’s fourth-best team, with an 88% chance of making the playoffs and the highest World Series odds of any team.
For Judge, all that makes it even more frustrating that this happened on his watch — and while he was on the sideline for much of the season, missing 51 games with a toe injury.
“Not being out there for the guys every single day, and not helping them give us an opportunity to get to the postseason, that kills me,” Judge said. “Me getting hurt, I felt like I impacted the team and impacted their chances.
“That eats at me every night.”
The Yankees could be inclined to trace the start of their season’s demise back to June 3, when Judge crashed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium while chasing a deep fly ball. As his 6-foot-7, 280-pound frame ripped through the gated, chain-link portion of the fence, his right foot struck a concrete siding that runs along the very bottom of the outfield wall.
The full-speed impact resulted in a torn ligament in his right big toe, sending Judge to the injured list.
During that stretch, the Yankees also lost a number of other players to injuries and inconsistent performance. The 2022 All-Star battery of catcher Jose Trevino and pitcher Nestor Cortes went down with season-ending injuries. First baseman Anthony Rizzo suffered post-concussion symptoms from an incident in May and missed significant time, as did starting pitchers Luis Severino and Carlos Rodon, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton and other once-key Yankees — including Josh Donaldson and Harrison Bader — who aren’t even on the team anymore.
Though Judge’s lengthy absence from injury won’t be remembered as the only factor that led to New York’s downfall this season, to him, none of that matters.
“It just goes back to: You only get so many years to get a chance to play here in New York,” Judge said. “I just signed a long-term deal, so I’m going to be here for a couple more years, but there are guys we don’t re-sign or they’re going to be a free agent, and this could be the one chance to make a postseason or make an impact in New York. And I kind of take responsibility for that.
“Not giving them a chance to see what it’s like in a postseason in October in New York hurts. Them missing out on an opportunity like that, I take full responsibility for that. That’s on me. I’m the one going out there every single day. I’ve got to go out and show up and put our team in the best position.”
Boone was not surprised that his star player was laying so much of the fault of the season’s failures at his own feet.
“He’ll have games periodically during the season where he’ll have this great game and then not get a big hit in a big spot and he’ll be: ‘It’s on me. It’s on me,'” Boone said. “He just expects a lot.”
Despite seeing a dip in his batting average (from .291 to .268) since returning from the toe injury July 28, Judge has nonetheless been a welcome presence in the Yankees’ lineup down the stretch. With two series to go, he has 35 home runs, good for fourth in the AL.
Last week he became the first Yankee with multiple three-home run games in a single season. Both came after his IL return, helping assuage concerns about his recovery and reigniting hope for next season.
Judge will be back, obviously, as will ace Gerrit Cole, who capped what is expected to be a Cy Young Award-winning season by tossing an eight-inning two-hitter Thursday night — a performance in which he took a perfect game into the sixth.
“It’s disappointing that we’ve had the season that we’ve had, that’s for sure,” Cole said. “But regardless of if you’re in it or you’re not, as a professional, you’ve got to do your job. Sometimes you have to find different ways to get energy, or to focus in games that are maybe obviously a little less intense than they are if you’re competing for the division … [but] people are buying tickets, you’re getting paid a salary and honestly, it is still fun.”
Judge takes solace in the team’s rebound after the last time it missed the playoffs. The 2016 squad went 84-78, and, with a run for the division crown seemingly out of reach by that August, the club called up Judge and other young prospects. They finished fourth in the division — and then made six straight postseason appearances.
The message that Judge — the only current Yankee to have played in games for that 2016 team — received from veterans like Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia, Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran at the time was to keep doing the work. Keep improving.
“That was probably the most powerful lesson: Just because you made it up here doesn’t mean that the journey is over, that the work’s over, that the grind’s over,” Judge said. “Getting up here and seeing guys like Mark Teixeira, in spring training seeing Alex Rodriguez and Beltran. They’re future Hall of Famers, and they’re still working on their craft. Even at age 38, 39, 40.
“You’ve got to make adjustments. You can’t be satisfied. It’s just an eye-opening thing for a lot of guys that hey, the journey’s not done. Don’t be satisfied just because you get the call-up.”
It’s the same message that he, Cole and the few other veterans in this current clubhouse have passed on to the sizable group of young Yankees, like rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe and outfielder Jasson Dominguez, who made their debuts or got significant late-season call-up time this year.
“Throughout the whole year it’s been a wake-up call. And as much as we’ve stuck to our routines, there are things that we need to do differently to be better next year,” 28-year-old pitcher Michael King said. “It’s not a fun position to be in. We don’t like being here, and I’m hoping that all of us don’t like being here, and we’ll make that transition.”
That attitude is what gives Judge confidence in the team’s improvement next year. He credits the team’s ALCS appearance in 2017 in part because of how badly the squad wanted to erase the disappointing ending the year before. The 2024 group will need to follow suit.
“I didn’t like the taste of having everybody in the clubhouse, and when the last game was over, that was it,” Judge said. “Just having that taste and seeing the disappointment and seeing the veterans talk about it. I said, ‘I don’t want to experience this. I want to be playing the last game of the year all the way to the end.’
“So that’s one lesson we can take out of this. We’ve got a lot of improvements, and a lot of things we’ve got to work on and fix for the upcoming years. And the time for that starts now.”
Jack Eichel has signed an eight-year contract extension with the Vegas Golden Knights that carries a $13.5 million average annual value, the team announced Wednesday.
The agreement came just hours before the Golden Knights open their season against the Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas. The sides intensified talks as training camp opened, with both focused on getting a long-term deal secured ahead of the season.
The extension begins in the 2026-27 season, and Eichel will be 38 when it ends. He will be the third-highest player in terms of AAV in the league, following Kirill Kaprizov ($17 million) and Leon Draisaitl ($14 million) going forward.
Eichel, 28, was entering the final year of an eight-year contract that carried a $10 million cap hit, a deal he originally signed with the Buffalo Sabres, who drafted him.
Buffalo traded Eichel to the Golden Knights in 2021.
The deal stemmed from his desire to get an artificial disk replacement (ADR) to correct a neck injury, a procedure that never had been done on an NHL player and therefore was considered a risk. Eichel’s agent, Pat Brisson, helped facilitate the trade.
The Golden Knights allowed Eichel to get the surgery, which was such a success that several other NHL players have had it.
The U.S.-born center helped Vegas win its first Stanley Cup in 2023, scoring 26 points in 22 games during the playoff run.
“On or about four years ago, Jack was getting the first ADR surgery for an NHL active player,” Brisson told ESPN on Wednesday. “He is a pioneer. Vegas stepped to the plate and helped the process occur. They’ve since won the Cup. It’s a great place for him, and he’s really happy with the decision.”
Eichel is one of the six players already named to Team USA for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The Golden Knights are expected to be Stanley Cup contenders, especially after adding winger Mitch Marner this summer. Eichel and Marner are expected to play together on Vegas’ top line in its opener against the Kings.
The agreement takes another big name off the list of what could have been a star-studded free agent class next summer. Connor McDavid re-signed for a two-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers earlier in the week, and Kaprizov inked an eight-year deal with the Minnesota Wild ahead of the season.
The 2025 MLB playoffs are here — and for some teams, October is going to last a lot longer than it is for some others.
We start with the wild-card round, where the Cincinnati Reds became the first team eliminated from postseason contention — on the very first day of October, no less — with a two-game series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The next day, the Cleveland Guardians lost their series to the Detroit Tigers, the San Diego Padres fell to the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox were knocked out by the New York Yankees in a trio of Game 3s.
In the division series, the first team to go: those same Yankees, who were defeated by their American League East rival Toronto Blue Jays in four games.
What’s next for the teams and towns that won’t be celebrating a World Series parade this fall? As each contender is eliminated, ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Alden Gonzalez and David Schoenfield will list that club’s key free agents and biggest offseason questions and make their predictions for the long, cold winter ahead.
Teams eliminated in division series
Eliminated by: Blue Jays
Key free agents: 1B Paul Goldschmidt, CF Trent Grisham, RHP Luke Weaver, RHP Devin Williams, OF/1B Cody Bellinger ($25 million player option)
Biggest offseason priority: With Bellinger almost certain to opt out after an under-the-radar 29-homer, 5-WAR season, and Grisham coming off a shocking 34-homer season, the Yankees will have not only two big hitters to replace but a hole in center field. Jasson Dominguez is not the answer there given his poor defensive metrics in left field, so there might be pressure to re-sign either Bellinger or Grisham, with Bellinger the more desirable player given that Grisham had hit under .200 in the three previous seasons. Bellinger’s ability to play first base is a big plus, although Ben Rice will likely take over there on a full-time basis. Outside of Kyle Tucker, the rest of the outfield free agent class is pretty thin, however, so the Yankees will have competition for Bellinger’s services.
The other option is to hand center field to Spencer Jones, the 6-foot-7 slugger who hit 35 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A. Although he also struck out 179 times in 116 games, he leaves a lot of questions as to how the bat will translate to the majors. Despite his size, he’s a good athlete (he also swiped 29 bases) with the instincts to remain in center field.
The Yankees have finished seventh in the AL in runs allowed three seasons in a row. How can they improve that figure in 2026? Well, they played all of 2025 without ace Gerrit Cole after his spring training Tommy John surgery, so getting him back will help. Luis Gil, coming off his Rookie of the Year season, didn’t make his first start until August. Cam Schlittler started the year in Double-A and ended it with a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts in the majors, living off 98 mph heat. Max Fried and Carlos Rodon will be back after winning 37 games, and while Clarke Schmidt had TJ surgery, Will Warren adds even more depth. The Yankees might project as the best rotation in the AL.
The bullpen obviously didn’t have its best season, but the reinforcements Brian Cashman made at the trade deadline — David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Jake Bird — will help the depth in 2026. Still, you could see a move here, maybe re-signing Weaver, who has been a durable, valuable arm the past two years.
Offseason prediction: With most of the roster set, it shapes up as one of the least active Yankees offseasons in years. While last year the prediction was re-signing Juan Soto (a swing and a miss), let’s go with re-signing Bellinger while working Jones into the lineup. With Marcus Stroman and Aaron Hicks (yes, they were still paying him) coming off the books, that’s $28 million in savings. Goldschmidt made $12.5 million in 2025. DJ LeMahieu has just one year left on his bad contract. The pitching is in good shape. Jose Caballero gives them an excellent utility player who can play anywhere. Yes, it was another bitter ending for Yankees fans, and 2009 looks like a very long time ago, but the Yankees will enter 2026 among the clear favorites in the AL, especially if Cole can return to where he was before the injury. — Schoenfield
Teams eliminated in wild-card series
Eliminated by: Dodgers
Key free agents: RHP Nick Martinez, RHP Emilio Pagan
Biggest offseason priority: Flipping their home run differential. The Reds badly need middle-of-the-order power, the kind that will better align their lineup with the long-ball-friendly vagaries of Great American Ballpark. The Reds gave up 25 more homers than they hit in 2025, postseason included, the fifth-worst differential in the majors. That differential was minus-18 at home. The Reds have the pitching they need to win the NL Central, but they need a major uptick in firepower to support the arms. With Martinez’s salary coming off the books, Cincinnati has a wide-open payroll, which — one would think — means lots of flexibility, whether it’s a free agency splurge or a high-impact trade.
Is it time to really unleash this rotation? The Reds have collected quite a collection of high-upside young pitchers. Some of them have established themselves in the majors — Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott. Abbott had a career season in 2025, but Greene still hasn’t paired his dominance with season-long durability. Lodolo produced 28 mostly excellent starts but has plenty of room to grow in his innings count. Then you have Chase Petty, Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder, along with the veteran stability of Brady Singer. The ideal for 2026 would be for manager Terry Francona to push this group of seven for a full season and perhaps lighten up a bit on the innings management side of the equation. This has the potential to be among MLB’s best rotations.
Offseason prediction: The Reds will get aggressive. No, they won’t go wild, of course, but besides having a contention-worthy rotation and a star in Elly De La Cruz who is edging toward his prime, they have a 66-year-old future Hall of Fame manager in Francona who isn’t going to be around forever. — Doolittle
Eliminated by: Tigers
Key free agents: OF Lane Thomas, C Austin Hedges, RHP Jakob Junis
Biggest offseason priority: The term “Guards Ball” caught on during Cleveland’s unlikely second-half run. It was fun to watch and even inspiring. It’s also not generally how championships are won in baseball these days. The Guardians need more firepower on offense, and while there are a lot of promising bats in the system, maybe for once the team will splurge on a middle-of-the-order anchor? Yeah, that’s probably wishful thinking.
What will Cleveland get from its young hitters? It’s not hard to imagine some of the Guardians we saw on the playoff roster getting better — Kyle Manzardo, CJ Kayfus, Johnathan Rodriguez, Jhonkensy Noel. It’s not hard to see Chase DeLauter becoming an AL Rookie of the Year favorite. Given his numbers at Triple-A, it’s a little harder to see Travis Bazzana being part of the Opening Day mix, but it’s not difficult to envision him making a leap during the 2026 season. The crucial question the Guardians have to answer is: What will this group do to lift the offensive profile of a lineup led by Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan? The Guardians won a division title despite scoring more runs than just two other teams. That’s not a sustainable formula.
Offseason prediction: The Guardians, with prospects on the way and the roster full of players under team control, won’t do much in the offseason. They certainly can afford to with so little future guaranteed funds tied up — a big pillow contract to someone like Ohio native Kyle Schwarber would be amazing — but it’s not likely. So, take heart, Cleveland fans, and enjoy the Guardians’ still-spewing fountain of youth. — Doolittle
Eliminated by: Cubs
Key free agents: 1B/2B Luis Arraez, SP Dylan Cease, SP Michael King ($15M mutual option), CL Robert Suarez ($8M player option), 1B Ryan O’Hearn, OF Ramon Laureano ($6.5M club option), INF Jose Iglesias, RP Wandy Peralta ($4.45M player option), C Elias Diaz ($7M mutual option), SP Nestor Cortes
Biggest offseason priority: Cease and King will venture into free agency, and the Padres will have to replace them in the rotation. San Diego will have Joe Musgrove back in 2026, but he’ll be coming off Tommy John surgery. Yu Darvish will still be there, but he’ll be in his age-39 season, having accumulated fewer than 100 innings each of the past two years. The depth beyond them, outside of Nick Pivetta, is suspect. First base will also be a priority unless the team brings Arraez back.
Will they spend again? The Padres lost their local-television contract in 2023, then missed out on the playoffs despite fielding arguably the most talented team in franchise history. Shortly thereafter, Peter Seidler, their beloved, free-spending owner, died. The Padres dropped the payroll by roughly 30% the following year. A 25% increase followed in 2025, putting them at roughly $215 million. Where will they go in 2026? It’s hard to say. But Manny Machado‘s salary will keep increasing — from $13 million in 2025 to $21 million in 2026 and $35 million thereafter. If they want to keep surrounding him with talent as he ages, they’ll have to keep spending.
Offseason prediction: The Padres will pay six players — Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Darvish, Musgrove, Machado and Pivetta — a combined $120 million in 2026. The team’s success will come down to the production of those players — along with Jackson Merrill and Mason Miller, who are still not in their prime earning years. But A.J. Preller will look for ways to acquire a front-line starting pitcher and will get creative if he has to. Last offseason, he landed Pivetta on a deal that paid him only $4 million in 2025. This offseason, that front-line starter might have to come via trade. — Gonzalez
Eliminated by: Yankees
Key free agents: 3B Alex Bregman (opt-out), RHP Lucas Giolito ($19 million mutual option), OF Rob Refsnyder, RHP Dustin May, LHP Steven Matz
Biggest offseason priority: Re-signing Bregman if he opts out … and improving the starting pitching depth. Bregman had a solid season, hitting .273/.360/.462 around an injury, but aside from the numbers he also brings fire and leadership to the team. It’s also possible Bregman will opt back in at $40 million per season (for 2026 and 2027), but he had a good enough season that he’ll probably opt out. Yes, Marcelo Mayer is a possible replacement — especially if the Red Sox direct that money instead to the pitching staff.
Giolito had a solid season as a low-volume starter in his return from Tommy John surgery, so there could be mutual interest there on a longer deal. But outside of Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and perhaps rookie Connelly Early, who looked good in four late-season starts, the projected rotation is unsettled.
Will the Red Sox trade any of their outfielders/young players? It’s still a crowded outfield picture with Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu (plus Masataka Yoshida, signed for two more years, as a DH option). It played itself out this season as Abreu and Anthony both missed time with injuries, while Rafaela played some infield. But Rafaela is such a wizard in center field, you’d like to keep him there. Throw in Mayer and Kristian Campbell, and the Red Sox have a deep group of young players who could be used to acquire pitching help. Craig Breslow refrained from trading anyone at the deadline, but let’s see what he does this offseason.
Offseason prediction: I think the Red Sox will play it safe and bring back a similar roster, starting with re-signing Bregman. They could then slide Mayer to second base. That still would leave four outfielders plus Campbell, who started the season with a lot of helium after making the Opening Day roster, but his defense at second wasn’t good, and he didn’t rip up Triple-A after getting sent down. If anyone is the odd man out, it’s probably him, so he’s the one most likely to get traded. Bringing back Giolito — assuming he’s healthy after missing the postseason with an elbow injury — also makes sense, as he wouldn’t break the bank but would fill a need. If he’s deemed too risky, a veteran such as Merrill Kelly or, if the Red Sox want to spend bigger, Framber Valdez or Shane Bieber, makes sense. — Schoenfield
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