The 2023 season is one that is absolutely dreadful for the New York Yankees. For the first time in decades, the club is playing for less than .500 in mid-August, which is partially attributable to their seven-game losing streak.
Because yes, a rare underperformance from Gerrit Cole today saw the club drop for a seventh game in a row. The final score was 8-1 in favor of the Red Sox.
This means that the Yankees currently have a 60-63 record. The plateau of 100 wins this season is now unattainable, and barring some most miraculous miracle, that of 90 seems quite unlikely as well.
A 30-9 record by the end of the campaign is a tough scenario to imagine, shall we say.
Clearly the club is no good. Beyond the injuries, the rotation (besides Gerrit Cole) is abysmal and the batting lineup (besides Aaron Judge) is even worse.
Awarding a ton of points and not scoring any is often not a winning strategy.
On the other hand, that does not prevent Aaron Boone from continuing to believe in his club. He chatted with his guys yesterday and he feels the tide is about to turn.
Anyway, he didn’t shoot today.
I confess that I do not think that Boone is solely responsible for the failures of his team, and it is obvious that he was not going to fire red balls on his guys, but at a certain point, he has to harden his tone a strand.
It takes good links with his players to manage, of course, but we must not fall into complacency either. Again, I don’t think the outcome would be drastically different with another manager, but the message needs to change at least a bit.
Anthony Volpe, he thinks the club must try to find a little fun and energy. There seems to be a slump right now and the energy needs to change, even though the guys are still working hard.
With the Yankees continuing to sink, however, we can expect to see young prospects in the organization make the jump to the Majors this year. The club will almost certainly not make the playoffs, so we have to start looking to the future.
But despite everything, that does not prevent Boone from continuing to believe in his club. And one wonders if he’s trying to hold on to it because he’s starting to smell like hot soup…
