The Cold Realities of the MLB Season Have Finally Hit the New York Yankees

By Djack

The New York Yankees got slapped in the face with the cold hand of the baseball Gods this past week. A terrible west coast road trip that was filled with blown leads, injuries, and the realization our pitching staff can't maintain the level of play they've been providing for the entire season. Injuries, rough road trips, and players underperforming are all apart of the 162 game grind, fortunately the Yankees were able to avoid this for the first 10 weeks of the season. Unfortunately, an avalanche of these issues have swamped the Yankees all at once, and for the first time this season the Yankees are worrying some of their fans. The same fans that hopped on the bandwagon after we began dominating the division, but still, the point I'm trying to make is still the same.

The biggest issues the Yankees have right now is health and the lack of quality pitching they're getting from their "ace" Masahiro Tanaka. The pitching staff was what worried fans coming into the season, however they had been exceptional up until this west coast road trip. C.C. Sabathia looked like a new man that had completely reinvented himself to start the season, talks of him making the all star team were starting to sprout, then of course he goes down with a hamstring injury that'll keep him out until after the all star break. Match that with more injuries to our starting lineup and the Yankees are a much easier lineup to maneuver around. Aaron Hicks, who has taken off this year as a delightful surprise for our offense and defense, went down with an injury on the west coast trip, and he shouldn't be out for too long, but you never know. Greg Bird, the guy that was supposed to bat third for us this season, has been out with a foot injury for almost two months now, that certainly escalated quickly. Who knows when he'll be back and if he'll be able to produce like he was expected to when the season began. The cherry on top to all the injuries the Yankees have run into lately was when Gleyber Torres was diagnosed with a torn UCL that will require Tommy John surgery. It's his non throwing elbow so it isn't too worrisome for his future, however the Yankees could've used him in August and September when they are trying to make a playoff push.

The biggest difference between when the Yankees were crushing everyone to now when they're losing to some of the worst teams in baseball is their pitching. When we are playing our best baseball the starting pitching and bullpen have been outstanding for us. Along that west coast nightmare they were both pretty atrocious. Pineda is untouchable at home, but is pretty much awful on the road, it's actually remarkable how much his stats vary from when he's at home and when he's on the road. Severino has been great, so I can't get on him. Montgomery is young and is learning how to pitch in the big leagues with every start, so I can't get on him either, especially since he's been pretty good for us this year. As for Tanaka, I have no words, the guy might be a lost cause at this point. On the mound you can see the body language he is displaying and it's not pretty. The guy has zero confidence in his stuff and as a pitcher that's pretty much everything. I really don't think Tanaka is hiding an injury, I just think he got shelled a couple times and now he just has no faith in his ability to pitch anymore. You rarely see this happen to a pitcher of his caliber, but what other answer is there? He's gotta figure this out or the Yankees have to stop putting him out there. Tanaka is basically a guranteed loss when he takes the mound at this point. Now, C.C. is down for at least a few weeks so the Yankees need another starter, which worries me beyond belief. We already needed starting pitching to begin with ,now with the injuries and Tanaka being God awful, we need more than one solid starter if we wanna continue to compete.

I'm not going to panic yet, we've been too good for too long this season to let a little losing streak discourage me. It was a west coast road trip that the Yankees were thrown into after a long streak of tough divisional games with no rest inbetween, fatigue played a factor at some points I'm sure. Baseball is a season of streaks, just gotta hope your team has more winning streaks than losing streaks, something the Yankees have done a great job of this year, so let's not jump the gun getting all crazy that our season is completely falling apart. We still got Judge, Sanchez, Didi, Holiday, and Castro all raking, Chapman is back to give the bullpen a major boast, and Ellsbury is also starting his rehab assignment. Time to get back on track in the Bronx tonight with a win over the Angels. Still in first place after a 6 game losing streak, yeah I'm not worried whatsoever.


Do you think the Yankees are in trouble? If you do tell me why in the comment section. If you aren't worried, tell me why in the comment section.