Yankees searching for answers after another season falls short of standard

This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK – It has become an annual event, as much a calendar fixture as Manhattan's Village Halloween Parade or the New York City Marathon. The end of the Yankees’ season brings a prominent player to the center of the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, where he declares the season “a failure.”

Most recently, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice shared those duties. Across previous years, it has been mostly Judge, with appearances from Giancarlo Stanton and Brett Gardner. Before that, Derek Jeter assumed the spokesman role after a playoff loss.

The show has run for 17 years now, longer than most Broadway productions. And that’s the problem: while the Yankees still speak each spring about expecting to win the World Series, their results haven’t matched that optimism.

When Judge and George Lombard Jr. lingered in the dugout after the American League Division Series, watching the Rays begin a celebration that would continue with Frank Sinatra blasting in the visiting clubhouse, they were witnessing the second-longest title drought in franchise history (tied with 1979-1995).

“None of us are satisfied. I’m not satisfied,” Judge said that night. “I can guarantee you, everybody in this room wearing pinstripes next year is going to come out ready and prepared, and take it to the next level.”

The roster will change before the Yankees regroup for another swing. Their prominent free agents include second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., outfielder Trent Grisham, closer David Bednar and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

But several voices with championship pedigrees suggest the Yankees need more than routine roster changes. Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, for example, said he believes the club would benefit from connecting more with the players who established the previous winning culture.

“[Judge] was like, ‘There’s a standard that’s set here, and we didn’t meet that standard,'” Sabathia said on the Uptown Sports podcast. “No disrespect, but they don’t know what that standard is. You know why? Because there’s no one in there keeping that standard. Once Gardy left, it’s been a wrap.

“When I first came, it was Ron Guidry, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph. It was not only the Core Four; it was those guys too. So you knew what the standard was, because the standard was sitting in the [expletive] room right next to you. The guys ain’t there no more.”

Anthony Rizzo, who wore pinstripes as recently as 2024, acknowledged that Judge and Stanton’s injuries didn’t help. But despite excellent pitching, the bats never showed up against Tampa Bay. The Yankees never led in any of the 27 ALDS innings.

“If you talk to people there, Yankees fans, people on the inside – they almost think it’s insanity,” Rizzo said on his ‘Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered' podcast. “Like, we just keep on doing the same thing every year and we don’t win. That’s insanity; that’s the definition of insanity, if you think it’s going to change.”

Alex Rodriguez, in his role as a FOX analyst, suggested a change in organizational philosophy is necessary.

“If something doesn't change, you're going to have the same results,” Rodriguez said. “We've been watching the same movie for over a decade, and nothing changes. … It’s getting late.”

Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner has not spoken publicly since last November, when he expressed frustration with the team’s playoff baserunning and said it would be “ideal” to lower payroll from the $319 million figure they finished 2025 with.

They trimmed that figure, though their estimated $308 million payroll remained the Majors’ third-highest, according to Spotrac, behind only the Dodgers ($339.32 million) and Mets ($346.74 million).

Steinbrenner noted then that the Mets missed the postseason entirely despite having a higher payroll, a point that remained true again in 2026. Yet the Yankees’ success in regularly delivering 90-plus wins and qualifying for postseason play cannot be considered the finish line. That has never been the goal they’ve set.

On the day Judge’s contract was formally announced in late 2022, Boone nudged his new captain and promised they’d deliver a championship together soon. Instead, there have been too many nights like the one last week.

“You go through a lot as a group and then it's just a sudden end,” Boone said. “It's the worst fricking feeling in the world.”

When Boone was hired before the 2018 season, general manager Brian Cashman remarked that he valued stability, pointing to a dozen years with Joe Torre (1996-2007) and a decade with Joe Girardi (2008-17). Cashman said he expected Boone to spend a decade in the position.

Boone is under contract through 2027, which would be his 10th season. Cashman’s contract expires this winter; he has held the position since 1998. While ownership has not commented on Cashman’s status, industry reports suggest Steinbrenner has no desire for a change.

If that’s so, the question – and challenge – heading into another offseason is whether these Yankees can produce a different outcome while retaining much of the same leadership, philosophy and structure.

Judge said there is still “a standard to win a championship,” noting, “It’s black and white. There’s no gray area.” He urged the front office to “do what they need to do” to help them over that hump.

“They give us a winning team every single year, but that’s not good enough here in New York,” Judge said. “We’re the Yankees. You’ve got to go out there and chase championships and go all-in every year.”