Introduction 

Ahh the 2025 Yankees season, what a season it was. As a Yankees fan who has been a fan for the past 21 years of my life this season was very much a disappointment for a multitude of reasons but there the Yankees re also some successes along the way. With that I think that it is very important to look at both the success and the disappointments of the season. There is always things that you can improve on from season to season no matter how bad or good it was it is a good thing to keep growing. 

Successes

The Yankees finished the season with a 94-68 record good for 2nd in the AL east behind the 94-68 blue jays. This record was good for the best record in the American League. That is a big success. It is very difficult to win games in the MLB so to win that many games is a huge success. The starting pitching for the Yankees was very good last year even without Gerrit Cole for the whole season. The ace was the newly acquired Max Fried who did very good last year and helped the Yankees win a lot of games. Then our second Carlos Rodon did exactly what a number two is supposed to do and more. Clarke Schmidt and Will Warren did exactly what they needed to do to keep the Yankees in games. Luis Gil came in later in the season and did pretty good for the Yankees. But the big surprise for me this season was the introduction of Cam Schlittler who in the regular season did very the Yankees ll especially for a rookie starting his first ever games. And then in game three of the wildcard series against the Red Sox he pitched the best game I had seen from a Yankees starter in the postseason that I have seen. He pitched 8 innings of no run ball against the Red Sox in his first ever postseason start and that won us the game and the series over the Red Sox. 

Our trade deadline this season was very good. the Yankees  made a lot of moves that the Yankees  desperately needed to help us win more games. Some of those pieces like David Bednar and Camilo Doval the Yankees re much needed pieces that the Yankees  needed to add. Even Ryan McMahon, who is not the best hitter in the league by any means, added value to our team via his glove, something else that the Yankees  desperately needed during the season. I liked the aggressiveness from Brian Cashman, our GM during the deadline to get pieces that the Yankees  needed. Some of those pieces didn’t work out I mean no matter what you are taking a gamble but at least he tried to make something work and that is something you have to give credit for. Just because sometimes the trade doesn’t work out doesn’t mean that you should stop trying to get new pieces and seeing what is working and what is not working. 

Aaron Judge, the Captain of the Yankees was not only the best player on the Yankees but in my opinion was the best player in baseball. He took home the American League MVP last year after hitting .331, a .457 on base percentage, 53 home runs and 114 RBIs. A very good year from the Yankees best player was one of the sole reasons for why the Yankees  won so many games that year. There is nothing else that you can really say about Aaron Judge. He has been this good for years now and time and time again keeps proving his worth to the Yankees. The one thing that is a knock on Judge’s career thus far is his lack of postseason production and this year he really flipped that around performing his best in the postseason of his career keeping the Yankees alive in many games this season. 

Some of the other hitters this season did what they needed to do. These hitters include Cody Bellinger who had a very good season for the Yankees hitting over .270 and playing very good defense for the Yankees in the outfield. The newly acquired Trent Grisham had a very good season as the Yankees ll with the hitting over .240 for the Yankees and 34 home runs with the Yankees this year to round out a very solid year for the Yankees. Ben Rice hit over .250 and played very the Yankees ll at both 1st base and catcher when he was called upon. Paul Goldschmidt added a veteran presence and while he lost some of his power, his contact was very good, still coming up clutch in situations that the Yankees  needed him to come up clutch in. All of these hitters did very well for the Yankees and added some much needed offense with Juan Soto signing elsewhere in that offseason with the Mets. These performances very much helped the Yankees to win games this season and without them the Yankees  would not have won nearly as many games as the Yankees  did. 

The bad 

Now comes the harder part for while in many aspects this season was a success for Yankees standards from years prior this was very much a disappointment. In the previous season the Yankees made the world series and this season the Yankees couldn’t even make it to the ALCS. The Yankees did a lot of things right this season as stated above but they also did a lot of things wrong as will be discussed right now. 

The number one thing that the Yankees nt wrong for the Yankees was their relief pitching. As discussed before, the starting pitching was very good and would keep us in many tight games where the Yankees  needed our relievers to come in and close out the games. The addition of Devin Williams seemed like a great idea at the time as in Milwaukee he did very the Yankees ll. He was one of the best relievers in the league over there. As soon as he got to New York he was not the same he was walking a lot of batters and then having to aim the ball down the middle of the plate because he would fall behind in counts. He gave up a lot of hits and many leads during the season. Luke the Yankees aver, our star closer the previous season in the playoffs was not the same this year giving up a lot of hits, now injury may have gotten to him but it is suffice to say that he was not the same dominant pitcher as he was in the previous season especially in the playoffs. 

Defense, it is said in football that defense wins championships but this is true for almost every sport. Baseball is no exception to this defense may not be as flashy as offense is but it is just as important. The better defense you have the less your pitcher has to pitch and they can stay in the game longer. Our defense this season was not good by any means and it lost us many games. Having an error in a game is a big deal now imagine having 11 in a 10 game series against one opponent. The Yankees did that this season against the Blue Jays. That is just not winning baseball at all. Volpe and Chisholm lead the team with 19 and 18 errors from each. Those two are the anchors of our defense in the infield as one plays shortstop and the other plays second base. Now Chisholm did play third a lot but with McMahon there now he didn’t need to anymore. Regardless, these two leading not only our team but very near the top of the league is bad since your pitcher cannot trust you to play your position. They feel like they have to pitch perfect which then leads to more mistakes.  

Conclusion 

In conclusion the Yankees lack of defense and not very good production out of the relief pitchers we had was why this season ended the way it did for us. Losing games that you otherwise would have won with less errors. If we win even one of those games then we would have had the first seed and home field advantage in the playoffs. For next season the Yankees need to get another relief pitcher and work on their defense then the Yankees would be a lot better in the coming up season.