About Yesterday: Disaster

by Paul Semendinger

August 24, 2025

***

The Boston Red Sox crushed the Yankees 12-1 yesterday. It was just another in a long line of terrible Yankees games this year. The Red Sox have owned the Yankees this year, as have most of the good to better teams.

Let's face it, this is not a championship club. This has not been a championship club for a long time.

Quick Stats:

• Will Warren pitched only four innings giving up 5 runs

• Paul Blackburn gave up 7 runs in 3.1 innings

• Anthony Volpe made his 17th error of the season

• Anthony Volpe is hitting .208 on the season

• The Yankees have lost 8 consecutive games to the Red Sox

• The Red Sox have out scored the Yankees 19-4 thus far in this series

  
  

• I have an article coming at 2:00 p.m. that dives into the Yankees' 2025 season and demonstrates that some (of the few) positive narratives about this team's performance are very inaccurate. (Yes, the few good things that are even said aren't really true.)

The Game and My Take:

I consider myself very fortunate, I didn't watch the game. Yesterday afternoon we had a few of the SSTN writers over to have a little party and talk baseball and such. It was such a beautiful day outside that we never ventured indoors to watch the Yankees. The game was out of hand quickly enough that no one even asked to watch the latest debacle.

As the game progressed, Andrew Hefner kept us informed of the goings on as he watched some of the game on his phone. "You won't believe this..." was a common phrase. Throughout the afternoon, Andrew, Andy Singer, Ed Botti, Ethan expressed exasperation when discussing the 2025 Yankees.

I could go through the game's play-by-play from ESPN.com, and then write about it, but I'm not going to bother.

Here's the game summary: The Red Sox scored a lot of runs, the Yankees did not.

This team is an embarrassment. From the top down, there have been problems with the Yankees for years. Many make excuses for them. The time for excuses is over. It's been over for a long time. The supposed greatest franchise in the game's history needs to be better than this. The Yankees of today are not part of the team's championship legacy.

The problems with the Yankees are legion. We write about them. Former players note the problems. Some reporters note some of the problems. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. Other teams say out loud, "The Yankees beat themselves." The Yankees respond to that by awarding their manager with a new contract.

It is clear, crystal clear, and has been for years, that the Yankees' management including the owner is satisfied with the way the club is run. The Yankees make a ton of money. That's what seems to matter more than winning.

The 2025 Yankees have not fallen out of the playoff race only because the other teams near them also aren't good. The Yankees are not good team. The Yankees just aren't as bad as the other bad teams. That's not high praise. It's not praise at all. The fact that the Yankees have the audacity to try to sell fans on their championship legacy by playing as they do, and have for most of the Boone Era, is a shame. Day-by-day though, the fan base is showing, after years of this garbage, that they have had enough.

But there is more bad news to come.

From September 15 to the end of the season, the Yankees don't play any good teams. Because of this, the Yankees will probably make the playoffs. Brian Cashman will then state proudly that he had another "better than .500 season." The Yankees will state how they once again made the post season. The Yankees (and some in the media) will praise Aaron Boone for keeping it together for the end-of-the-season push. Some will also say, "If only Gerrit Cole had been healthy..."

The Yankees aren't very good at baseball, but they are the best at making excuses and justifying their less-than-satisfactory results. If they gave trophies for excuse making, the Yankees would be the perennial world champs. The shame is they have (and have had) the talent to be true World Champions. Instead the have a manager who has never developed and is out managed often. They gave a General Manager who never builds a complete team. And they have an owner that has, at important times, put the brakes on spending and getting the players the team needs. (Just imagine, as an example, if the Yankees had had the willingness, foresight, and guts to sign Bryce Harper.)

Without significant changes to the team, specifically the leadership, the coming off-season will play out exactly as it has the last many many years. The Yankees will cut corners, they'll leave areas of weakness unaddressed, and they will head into another season with a manager who isn't good at his job. The 2026 season will then play out as these last many have. There is no reason to expect different results, at all. Sadly, there is no reason, really, to get excited or enthused about anything related to this team until the owner steps up and does what is necessary. I, for one, am tired of the same old song and dance and excuse making.

This is the New York Yankees. Hal Steinbrenner should hold his employees and himself to a higher standard. A once proud franchise, once the greatest in all of sports, is nothing more than a perennial also-ran - good enough to compete for a wild card, but not good enough to win a championship. This is Aaron Boone's Yankees legacy. This is Brian Cashman's. And this is Hal Steinbrenner's.

What a shame.

Next Up:

The series ends tonight against the Red Sox. It's an ESPN game at 7:00 p.m. Carlos Rodon takes the mound for the Yankees.