Perspectives: That's A Wrap!

By Paul Semendinger

September 29, 2025

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Well, that's that. The 2025 season is over. It was a wild ride. It started fun. It ended fun. In the middle, it was a disaster.

But, bottom line, the Yankees are in the playoffs. The team's destiny is in its own hands. This should be a fun ride. I am very confident that the Yankees will advance deep into the postseason. I have hopes that we will be celebrating a World Championship here.

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For 2026, I would love for the Yankees to play a more consistent brand of baseball. These long periods where they play terrible baseball are simply not fun. At all. There is a problem somewhere because those long periods of bad baseball happens almost every season. The team is doing something wrong.

The bad play for the middle stretch of the season forced the Yankees to go pedal-to-the-medal to finish. If they had won just one more game they would have won the division. When people say in April and May, or even June or July, "One game doesn't matter," they're wrong. This year they were very wrong. That one game is forcing the Yankees to play a Wild Card series now.

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I also do not buy the excuse that an umpire cost the Yankees first place. No. That's too easy of an excuse. Fans never remember when their team benefits from bad calls that change games. If one were to go back, game-by-game, there were times when the Yankees benefitted from bad calls. That's the nature of the sport.

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The Yankees began the season with a record of 35-20 through May 28. They were on pace to win 103 games.

They then went through a period where they went 26-35 from May 29 through August 8. That was a 69 win pace for a full season.

Then, remarkably, they went 33-13 (including going 11-1) to finish the year. That's 116 win pace. Remarkable!

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I have read that some people don't believe the Yankees went through a mid-season "swoon." They certainly did. To deny how bad they were from late May through early August is to deny reality. What happened, happened. The Yankees were a bad team for a long period this season. That's just a fact. No amount of wordsmithing or arguing will change that fact.

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But, in the end, the Yankees are in the playoffs. They are doing something right. Somehow, they kept it together and now they are in the postseason again. The Yankees deserve a great deal of credit for reaching the postseason.

As I have been saying all month, Aaron Boone, the manager, deserves much of the credit for keeping the team together. He might have steered the ship into the stormy seas, but he also got them out of them.

The manager matters. The arguments that the manager doesn't matter are silly, at best. Teams follow the personality of their managers, just as every organization follows the personality of their leaders. This is obvious on its face. Of course. And Aaron Boone, whatever faults he has, has led the Yankees, through it all, to another postseason.

Maybe Boone's greatest strength is what he does behind the scenes - they way he supports the team, the way he keeps the players on an even keel, the way he handles their concerns and problems and whatever else comes up. He is doing something right.

It is clear and obvious that I have not been a big fan of Aaron Boone. But, I also have to be intellectually honest. And I can draw no other conclusion than the fact that he did a great job. The Yankees finished extremely well and are now in the playoffs. It'll be another season of postseason baseball in the Bronx. Aaron Boone got them there.

Aaron Boone has brought the Yankees to the playoffs in 7 of the 8 seasons he has been the Yankees' manager. The results speak for themselves. They just do. When looks at Aaron Boone's body of work in the regular season, the amount of wins, the trips to the postseasons... it is clear that he is doing something very right.

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Brian Cashman also, in the end, did well. I have written, often, that I thought Cashman was a great general manager at the start of his career, but I also felt that the last many years were not great for him. (And they weren't.) It seemed like he lost his touch.

In 2024=25, he seemed to find it again.

Every deal he made was not a masterpiece, but he brought in Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, and David Bednar. Last year he brought in Jazz Chisholm and Trent Grisham. Those six players have been key members of the Yankees' success this season. Credit for bringing them in and building this team goes to Brian Cashman.

In the end, the much maligned Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman had successful seasons in 2025. They did it. They get the credit. They deserve the credit. Again, it would be intellectually dishonest to deny them the credit they rightly deserve.

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I do not think it is a coincidence that the Yankees went 38-21 after they acquired Ryan McMahon. They needed a real third baseman. Once they finally got one, once they finally had a player who knew all of the nuances of the position based on a lifetime of playing there, the Yankees played a much better brand of baseball. I know some people always want to debate with me when I state that players cannot simply be moved around the diamond and expected to perform at a championship level, but the results speak for themselves.

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On Saturday night I saw a professional jazz band in concert. This band had a tremendous tenor saxophone player who played numerous solos. Yet, when it came time for an alto sax solo, a different saxophone musician stepped up. I'm sure the tenor sax guy could play the alto sax. I'm sure he could play it at a level that would impress all who would listen. His unique and special skill though is the tenor sax, not the alto. The lay person can't see or hear the nuance or note the difference between the way these men play such similar instruments, but professionals can - just as professionals in baseball can see the difference in the ways players who are not third basemen (or any other position) handle that position in relation to someone who is more skilled there. This is true for all skilled professions. And in includes professional baseball players.

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As great a season as Brian Cashman had, if the Yankees had addressed third base over the winter, the odds are they would have won more games. Even one more win would have made the difference. I hope he keeps this in mind when building the 2026 team. The Yankes should head into 2026 with a complete roster ready to win and play consistent baseball from the start and through the season.

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I am very optimistic about the Yankees chances this postseason. The World Series championship I have been hoping for seems within reach. I actually think the Yankees can do it this year.

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Brian Cashman also deserves credit for building to next year because much of this Yankees core should return in 2026 meaning the window of opportunity, which seemed to be closing fast, looks to be opening wider. A core of Ben Rice, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, and Will Warren with the hopes that Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe hit their stride in 2026 speaks to what should be again be an exciting season. All that being said, I hope that the discussions for 2026 come after the World Championship and parade down the Canyon of Heroes.

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Let's Go Yankees.