The 2025 Major League Baseball season has ended, with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the Toronto Blue Jays in a thrilling 7-game series. The season has not been short of excitement and shock. However, for the New York Yankees, the season has once again been dubbed a failure by most.
The New York Yankees, having been eliminated from championship contention after a 3-1 series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Division Series, have a lot of questions to answer as they head into the offseason. The Yankees, having won 27 World Series titles in their history, are famous for their fans’ attitude of “Win it all or bust”. Considering that they made the World Series last year and their roster this season included Aaron Judge, possibly the best batter in the MLB, they were considered contenders to win. Coming into the postseason, the Yankees had a record of 94-68, the 2nd best in the American League, tied with the Blue Jays. With teams like the Dodgers faltering in the regular season, only having a 93-69 record, it felt as if the Yankees’ best chance to win it all for the first time since 2009 was now.
As such, it was nothing but disappointment for their fans as they lost 5-2 to the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, losing the ALDS 3-1. And once again, they are left wondering why the Yankees still can’t win another World Series.
The blame has been thrown at many people within the Yankees organization. Some blame the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, who has held his position since 1998, for constantly building teams that aren’t worth their payroll. Under Cashman’s reign, the Yankees have won 4 World Series championships; however, many point out that 3 out of his 4 championships were from the 1998-2000 threepeat Yankees team, which was mainly built by previous GMs Gene Michael and Bob Watson. A 10th grader at BSGE who identified as a New York Mets fan said, “After all this time, the Yankees can’t see who is the problem? It’s clearly Cashman. He can’t build a proper team with the amount of money he’s being given.”
On the other hand, some blame the Yankees’ field manager, Aaron Boone. One member of the “Boone Out” crowd included a BSGE 8th grader, who said “Boone is clearly the main issue here. While we could have someone better than Cashman, Boone is out there on the field making all the wrong decisions and costing us games.” Some have even advocated for a change in ownership, including a BSGE 11th grader, who said, “The Steinbrenners are the ones to blame for all of this. Hal Steinbrenner has no idea how to hire proper people, and only cares about how many Yankee hats are sold worldwide. Yes, he does spend a lot of money, but when you look at the ratio of income to payroll, you will see that the Yankees are behind teams like the Mets and Dodgers.”
The cycle of blame continues. The big three of the organization are the ones that are constantly blamed: Aaron Boone, Brian Cashman, and Hal Steinbrenner. Holding the 3 key positions of field manager, general manager, and owner, it should come as no surprise that when the team falters, they are the ones to receive the blame.. But who is really to blame? Is it Cashman’s poor roster construction? Boone’s terrible on-field decisions? Or maybe it’s a combination of all three of their shortcomings? If the Yankees want to bring the Commissioner’s Trophy back to New York, they will need to answer those questions, and many more.
