Perspectives: April 14, 2025

by Paul Semendinger

April 14, 2025

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Many fans, including me are frustrated right now.

We want the Yankees to be great. Right now, they are not playing good baseball. They simply are not.

Yes, they have a winning record. Their first series was great. Since then, they have not played well. The only team they have won a series against (since the opening weekend) are the last place Pittsburgh Pirates. In short, they have lost more games than they have won.

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I know when I write articles like this, some want to ignore the main points, the big facts, and argue small things. Some readers get mad and angry. Some insult me, either directly or through innudendo. I get it. Fans are passionate.

None of that changes the fact of what the Yankees are right now. And right now, the team seems to be in serious trouble. The starting rotation is an empty shell, they are not scoring lots of runs to make up for that, and they're losing more than they're winning.

Can they turn it around? Of course.

Might this still be a magical season? Of course.

There is always hope. As fans we want to hope.

I hope and hope and hope for the Yankees to win. I like writing about wins. I'm tired of writing about a team that continually falls short for any number of reasons.

Writing about a winning team is much more fun than writing about a team that loses.

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Right now, I think any fan who looks at the team honestly has to be concerned. The Yankees do not have five good starting pitchers. They don't have four. They don't even have three. They have one - Max Fried.

One good starter does not a championship team make.

Maybe Clarke Schmidt will come back and be terrific. Maybe. But in two minor league starts (in Double-A), he hasn't even reached five innings in a game. Expecting him to come back and help right now might be asking for more than he can deliver. Let's hope he does come back and pitches well.

If Schmidt can do well and if Will Warren builds on his last game's success, then the Yankees' rotation will look a lot better than it does right now. Right now it's a huge weakness. That's just a fact no amount of wordsmithing or arguing or debating or anything else can change that.

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I noted this interesting approach from mnay fans and such before the season a few times, and it seems to be more and more the prevailing thought among Yankees fans regarding the 2025 team -

Most people did not say (before the season), and are not saying now, that the Yankees built a very good team or a strong team or are even a good team right now.

Most people who felt the Yankees would be good this year focused less on the Yankees and more on how bad the other teams in the league are. We saw less of, "The Yankees Are Real Good" and more of "Well, the league is bad, and among bad teams, the Yankees should do well enough because they're not as bad as the competition."

And they're correct. The Yankees are not as bad as much of the competition. That doesn't mean they're good. There's a big difference.

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I remember when the goal of the Yankees used to be to be the best. Period. They didn't try to be just good enough. They didn't want to be the best of a collection of bad teams. No, they wanted to be the best. Period. Sadly, those days are long gone.

As I have said for years, the Yankees' approach is to be just good enough to get into the playoffs and where they can hope to get hot and win. (That's what happened last year.)

As a fan, I find this approach to be tired, boring, and ineffective. It doesn't work. It hasn't worked. It is an approach has not led to a World Series Championship. And it is very doubtful it will. All is leads to is frustration.

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The last time the Yankees won the World Series was the last time they went all-in.

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Across their long history, in fact, the Yankees have only won the World Series when their commitment was to being the best. That's how legends are built. And that's how the franchise built its reputation and its vast wealth.

The Yankees success came because the Yankees wanted to be, and were, the best.

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As fans we're also reduced to making excuses for the team continually. Fans are blaming losses on injuries (but all teams should plan for them), the weather (but the teams that beat the Yankees played in the same weather), and more. There's always excuses.

I'd rather be a fan of a team that I don't need to make excuses for. I'd rather, simply, just watch them win.

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Carlos Rodon is a player that gets a lot of excuse making for him. "It was just one bad inning" or "If he had only located better with that one home run pitch." It's the same almost every single time he goes out there. He's great to a point and then he cannot maintain it.

Carlos Rodon is 1-3, 5.48. That's not good. Period. It's bad. Period. As a Yankee overall, he's 20-20 with an 4.80 ERA. As a Yankee his ERA+ is 85. That's just not good enough. No excuse making can cover for the fact that overall as a Yankee, Carlos Rodon has been a below average pitcher. That's simply a fact. I don't care how well he pitched in the second and third innings in any start or in many starts. The bottom line is that he's not getting the job done. There are a million excuses, but not enough wins or quality outings.

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I wrote this for the Quick Hit yesterday and it's all true:

Since beginning the season 3-0, the Yankees have gone 5-7.

Which part of the Yankees' season is more telling to the team they are... the 3-0 start (3 games) or the 5-7 streak (12 games)?

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The Yankees will probably be not bad enough to not make the playoffs (I say it that way because it's a truer statement than "The Yankees will be good enough to make the playoffs"), but this approach, again, isn't striving for greatness. Good enough never is. Good is the enemy of great.

And for the sport's most valuable franchise and the one with the richest and greatest history, the goal should always be to be great.

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I am enjoying watching the young players - Dominguez, Rice, Wells, Volpe...

I still have faith in Judge, Bellinger, Goldschmidt, Williams, and Fried...

But, this is not a complete team. There are a host of holes that need to somehow be addressed.

I hope the Yankees turn it all around. I hope they start winning. It would be more fun if the Yankees start winning.

This week, the Yankees are playing two teams they should be better than, the Royals and the Rays. It would be nice to see a host of wins....

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Let's Go Yankees.