miami marlins | twilightdawning

The New York Yankees led (in every sense) by their captain, Aaron Judge were quick off the mark in 2025. By the end of March, they were 3-0 and a game in front of the rest of their division. By the end of April, they were 18-13 and had increased their lead to one-and-a-half games.

Obviously, there had been many changes since their disappointing perfomance in the 2024 World Series.

Some of these had been by choice – some because they had been outbid on free agents they would have liked to re-sign.

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So, the Yankees June slump has come and gone. And the July trading deadline has come and gone too.

Sadly, things don’t break down into nice monthly intervals in the real world or in the sports world.

So, between the beginning of the month and the 9th of this seventh month, the Yankees won 1 and lost 6. Between then and the 26th, the Bronx Bombers went 5-7. Finally, it did appear that they had turned the corner in the last 5 days of July with a 5-0 sprint to end the month.

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In May, the Yankees were probably tied with the Philadelphia Phillies as the best team in baseball. They were certainly the best team in the American League.

In June, it all began to collapse around them, On the month, they were only 14-13 (compared to 21-7 in May). More remarkably and significantly, in the second half of June they were 4-9.

Aaron Judge and Luis Soto remained strong, but what had gone wrong?

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And so we turn our attention to the Yankees pitchers. The starting rotation has had some necessary changes. The bullpen has changed beyond recognition.

Obviously, the major need is to cover for the absence because of injury of Gerrit Cole. He’ll be out until June.

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The Yankees settled into their groove right from the beginning of the season this time out. By the end of March, they were 4-0 and in first place in the American League East.

By the end of April, they had slipped back to 2nd in the division, but only by one game behind the Baltimore Orioles.

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The Yankees needed to see a massive improvement in their performance in July, Instead, they went 10-15 on the month.

The Yankees wanted to narrow the gap on the teams ahead of them in the wild card race. Instead, they slipped out of contention and finished the month in fifth place in the American League East.

The logic had been that psychologically the Yankees were struggling without their captain, leader, and best player, Aaron Judge. His time out of the team went on and on and it was the 28th of July before he returned.

But the Yankees need to be more than just a one-man club, however significant that absentee was.

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The New York Yankees seemed to begin to turn a corner in July and their results improved – particularly in the second half of the month.

It is difficult to analyse exacly why but strangely the results started to improve when many of their first choice roster members became unavailable and were replaced partially by untried players and partially by journeymen, perhaps spotting one final opportunity to breakthrough.

Some of those regulars were unavailable because of conventional injuries. Others were forced into isolation by positive Covid tests which hit the roster in ever-increasing numbers.

On the face of it, having to subtract Aaron Judge from the selection of available outfielders and add in Greg Allen, who in four previous stints in the Major Leagues (with Cleveland and San Diego) had managed to hit around .230, was not a recipe designed for success – but somehow the energy and enthusiasm of the new faces seemed to work.

Let’s survey the statistics of the offensive players in the month of July…

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(Normally I would have far more coverage of Spring Training than I have this year but with Easter coming early, my other preoccupations have prevented that. My apologies to my regular readers).

If you would have asked me at the end of the 2017 which position the Yankees would sign someone new for in the off-season, my prediction would not have been rightfield. Rookie of the year, Aaron Judge, it seemed had that all stitched up.

Also, if you’d asked me who after Judge was the least likely player to leave, one of my first choices would have been 2b Starlin Castro who impressed so much at the plate and defensively and proved a fearsome double play combination with Didi Gregorius.

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twilightdawning

A writer's thoughts – mainly about music, sport and theatre. Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, live shows, New York Yankees

Tag Archives: miami marlins

The New York Yankees in March / April – Part One – The Batters (2025)

The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2024)

The New York Yankees in June – Part One – The Batters (2024)

The New York Yankees in March / April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

The New York Yankees in March / April – Part One – The Batters (2024)

The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2023)

The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2021)

The New York Yankees in Spring Training – An Overview – Part One (2018)