The 2026 Yankees made it to the postseason thanks in part to some lessons taken from their last championship team in 2009.
Several rookies -- most notably Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. -- helped provide a lift during a season in which the Yankees spent much of the year without veterans Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, among others. The comfort level that the Yankees' rookies now experience when they reach the big leagues traces its roots back more than a decade.
In 2009, the Yankees brought CC Sabathia to New York because of his talent on the mound, but also -- just as important -- because of his unifying presence in the clubhouse. In the years that followed, he became the team leader who took the torch from Derek Jeter and the Core Four teams.
Sabathia, who came up to the Majors at a time when rookies were sometimes hazed and made to prove they belonged, vowed to be a more welcoming force when his turn came. That was never more evident than in 2017, when Sabathia and fellow veteran Brett Gardner threw their arms around rookie Judge, who helped lead the Yanks to Game 7 of the ALCS.
“I think me and Gardy saw right away that he was our best player, and we just gotta let him be the captain,” Sabathia said. “We saw right away the special talent that he was and his impact on the clubhouse.”
A decade later, Judge is officially the team captain and has taken his leadership role to heart, helping to welcome Jones, Lombard and other rookies into the mix.
“He’s captain for a reason,” Jones said last spring. “He’s looking out for everybody.”
Times have evolved. Jeter used to joke that as a rookie he didn’t speak to anyone unless he was spoken to. Decades earlier, Mickey Mantle received the cold shoulder from Joe DiMaggio, the man he would eventually replace. The best way for a youngster to impress those around him was to put his head down and go to work.
While on-field ability is still the biggest factor in having young players ready to take the Major League field, their comfort level in the clubhouse has become increasingly important.
When Joe Girardi took over as Yankees manager before the 2008 season, he made sure to have rookies and veterans mixed together in everything from hitting groups and defensive drills to team bonding outings. Girardi worked closely with his bench coach Rob Thomson and Chad Bohling, who headed up their mental skills department, to group the players in the most meaningful way possible.
“I just remembered the first time I walked into a big league clubhouse [in 1989], how intimidated I was, and I didn’t want players to feel that,” Girardi said during an interview with MLB.com in 2024. “I wanted them to feel comfortable when they walked into that clubhouse, because they might have the game-winning at-bat that night.”
Lombard homered in his Major League debut on Aug. 4, perfectly demonstrating that comfort level after soaking up knowledge from the veterans in Spring Training.
“It's been so much fun,” Lombard said last March, pointing to Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger as players he leaned on. “Just the amount that I've gotten to learn and the experiences just being around the guys every single day.”
Jones has been one of the Yankees’ most productive hitters with runners in scoring position. Standing 6-foot-7, he’s actually eye-level with Judge, but Jones has looked up to him for guidance since the Yankees selected him in the first round of the 2022 Draft.
“The guy is in everybody’s corner, and he’s been in mine for the last handful of years,” Jones told MLB Network Radio earlier this month. “For a young player, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Decades ago, rookies were put through the paces because veteran players feared the kids were coming for their jobs. Now, the idea of helping a team win has taken priority.
“I’ve always felt that the Minor Leagues are the lifeline of your organization, because there are going to be injuries,” said Girardi, now an analyst on the YES Network who will work the Red Sox-Yankees AL Wild Card Series for NBC. “And if you really want to win, they have to be included and feel part of what’s going on.”
The culture shift is a big reason why the Yankees won 93 games in the regular season, aiming now for bigger things as the postseason gets underway Tuesday night.