I'm Not Optimistic About 2026 Being A Championship Year

Dusty Writes
1 hour ago
5 min read

by Dusty Writes

September 2026

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I am not optimistic about the Yankees winning the World Series this season because almost all of their key players have very poor post season career statistics.

According to Baseball Reference these are the following career post season statistics:

Austin Wells in 72 at bats has a .153 batting average with only 2 homers and 7 rbi. He has struck out 28 times.
Jazz Chisholm JR. in 88 at bats is batting only .170 with only 3 rbi. He has struck out 23 times.
Cody Bellinger has 270 at bats and has batted only .211 with 10 homers and 37 rbi. He struck out 92 times!
Trent Grisham in 94 at bats is batting only .160 with 7 rbi. He struck out 38 times.
Aaron Judge in 246 at bats is batting .236 with 17 homers and 41 rbi. He has struck out 91 times!

Also, the better postseason players on the Yankees such as Giancarlo Stanton, will probably not be available to play in the postseason. Paul Goldschmidt, a solid post season career player, with a .277 batting average and 8 homers in 101 at bats, will also probably not get many post season at bats this season.

Although the Yankees have the best regular season pitching this season, as they lead MLB in ERA, their pitchers have been disappointing in the post season.

For example, Carlos Rodon in 8 post season games has given up 24 earned runs in 28.2 innings for a record of 1 win, 3 losses and a 7.53 ERA
Max Fried has a record of 2 wins and 6 losses with a 5.31 ERA in 76.1 innings and 14 games started. He also pitched 8 games as a relief pitcher. Fried, although he is a poor post season pitcher, is better than his stats say. In his 14 starts, he pitched very well in 6 of them, very poorly in 7 of the games, with 1 of the games being mediocre.
Will Warren, with only 1 game pitched, has an 11.57 ERA. in 4.2 innings.

On the other hand, Cam Schlittler has pitched very well in his 2 postseason starts. At this point, Schlittler is the only Yankees starter I have confidence that he will pitch a strong game in the postseason.

Gerrit Cole has good postseason stats, but they are very misleading. His career stats, 11 wins, 6 losses and a 2.77 ERA in 22 games started and 133.1 innings pitched seem very impressive.

But, most of Cole's post season success has been against the teams with lower payrolls who are not great offensive teams. He is 3-0 vs Tampa Bay, 1-0 vs Kansas City and 4-0 vs Cleveland. In must win games, he has been very disappointing. In these must win games, there have been ace pitchers who dominated. Cole has been far from dominant in those games.:

In the 2013 NLDS, in the winner take-all game 5, Cole pitched only 5 innings, gave up 2 runs as the Cardinals won 6-1. Adam Wainwright pitched a gem, a complete game win, allowing only 1 run. Cole threw only 75 pitches, while Wainwright threw 107 pitches.
In the one game wild card elimination game in 2015 vs the Cubs, the Cubs defeated the Pirates 4-0. Gerrit Cole pitched only 5 innings, and gave up 4 earned runs. Jake Arrieta pitched a complete game shutout, striking out 11 batters, and threw 113 pitches.
In the 2020 ALDS vs the Rays, in the deciding game 5, the Rays eliminated the Yankees with a 2-1 win. Cole pitched only 5.1 innings and allowed the tying run to score, and left the game with the score 1-1.
In the 2021 AL one-game wild card game, the Red Sox eliminated the Yankees with a 6-2 victory. Cole pitched only 2 innings and gave up 3 runs and was outpitched by Nathan Eovaldi, who got the win.

In 4 winner-take-all games, Cole has pitched a total of only 17.1 innings, giving up 10 runs, for an ERA of 5.26.

Cole has an 0-2 record in his career vs Boston in the post season, pitching very poorly both games. Hopefully, if Cole pitches against Boston in the post season this season, he can get a win.

Rafeal Devers, when he was a Red Sox, dominated Cole. What was disappointing as a Yankees fan, was the game vs Boston in which the Yankees led 1-0. With no one on base and one out (early in the game) Cole intentionally walked Devers, because he didn't want to pitch to him. That was very surprising because Cole was basically saying he didn't have confidence pitching to Devers. The intentional walk started a Boston rally as the Red Sox won 7-1.

In the 2024 World Series, in Game 1, Cole pitched well, pitching 6 innings and giving up only 1 run. The Yankees led 2-1 after 6 innings. But Cole left the game after throwing only 88 pitches! Did Boone decide to take Cole out of the game, or did Cole tell Boone he had nothing left in the tank? The Yankees blew the lead and lost the game.

In Game 5, with the Yankees needing a win to keep the series going, Cole pitched great but his defense gave away 5 runs with 3 major misplays. Cole however, failed to cover first base on a grounder to first, which also played a big part in the Dodgers comeback.

Cole has won a Cy Young Award, two ERA titles, and has led the league in wins, win percentage, and in ERA+ twice. He probably is going to the Hall of Fame. Cole, however, despite his great accomplishments, has never won a World Series. He has never had that legendary big-time post season game, such as Andy Pettitte's Game 5 , 1-0 win vs John Smoltz in the 1996 World Series. He hasn't come through big time in elimination games such as Adam Wainwright and Jake Arrieta.

In last season's elimination game in the wild card series vs Boston, Cam Schlittler pitched 8 scoreless innings as the Yankees eliminated Boston. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has pitched in only 2 postseasons and already has pitched legendary games. In last season's post season, he pitched 2 consecutive complete games! After his win in Game 6 of last year's World Series, he pitched Game 7 with no days rest in relief, pitching 2.2 innings to win Game 7, in one of the highest pressure-packed games in world series history.

Yamamoto in his 2 world championship postseasons, has a 7-1 record with a 2.25 ERA. and is already a post-season legend.

Madison Bumgarner may be the greatest World Series pitcher in history. In 5 World Series games, he has a 4-0 record, with one save. In 36 World Series innings pitched, he has given up only one run for an ERA of 0.25 !

Can Gerrit Cole dominate for just one postseason and win just one World Series so he and Aaron Judge can finally win that elusive championship?