Perspectives: The Team We All Love...

by Paul Semendinger

June 21, 2025

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This happens every year. It's a cycle.

We go through this every single season, and then every off-season. It basically goes like this (I'll begin at the end):

• The Yankees fail to win the World Series

• Yankees leaders express shock and say, "Our job is to win it all."

• The Yankees make a signing or two, and maybe a trade, but they don't address all the areas of concern regarding the team as they build for the next season (Note these are things that fans and writers can see for miles away)

• The whole time the fans and writers say, "The Yankees haven't finished the job."

• A Yankees leader then agrees and says, "We're not done. We know we have more to address."

• But, the Yankees don't address those needs

• The owner then says, "I'm spending too much money."

• The season starts and the Yankees, because they do have talent and some big stars, play good, or pretty good, or even very good baseball for a period of time

• Then they don't

• The Yankees go through a protracted slump where they play horrible baseball for an extended period of time

• The manager can't explain why the team is losing so much

• Eventually they turn it around, but much of the joy is lost in watching a team that simply falls apart and seems to have no idea how to play fundamental baseball

• In the end, the Yankees fail to win the World Series (and the cycle begins again)

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When I (and so many others) point out that the Yankees didn't address a position (and usually it's more than one position) in the off-season, some fans argue and say, "You're so wrong." There are fans that will always make excuses for the Yankees.

But, over time, most often, what we claimed turns out to be correct. Over the years we have noted when:

• The Yankees didn't have left handed power or

• The Yankees didn't have any left handed starting pitching or

• The Yankees didn't have a MLB quality third baseman or

• The Yankees needed an outfielder...

• Or a leadoff hitter...

• On and on.

  
  

This happens every single year.

It has been very clear, year-after-year, that the Yankees have not gone all-in to begin a season. They just have not. Any fan who is being honest knows that. To debate the point is just being silly or argumentative. (And some fans like to argue, but that arguing does not change the facts.)

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The Yankees then try to come up with creative solutions to address the areas of weakness. In the end, these don't work. Some recent examples have been:

IKF was not an outfielder.

Austin Wells is not a leadoff batter.

Brett Gardner, especially in his last years, was not a middle-of-the-order hitter

Jazz Chisholm is not a third baseman

On and on...

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The Yankees also happen to be the team that continually talks about its tradition, its championships, and the many World Series it has won. They sell this idea of greatness as much as they sell hot dogs, buckets of chicken fingers, and beer at the stadium.

The problem is they haven't been the World Champions in 15 years. The Yankees are selling an old story, one that isn't even relevant to young fans. They're also selling what can best be described as a false story. Yankee Stadium is not the home of champions. The old stadium was. The new one? It's the home of a team that has won one championship in 15 seasons. That is not impressive.

In fact, even worse, the Yankees have won only one World Series since 2001.

It is is clear, it is factual, it honest to say that the Yankees of today do not symbolize greatness. The Yankees of today are not a championship organization. No one can honestly argue that they are.

One World Series victory over 24 seasons is simply not a good track record - especially for a team with the resources the Yankees have.

And yet, the Yankees seem fine with this because nothing really changes. The same people continue making the same type of decisions year-after-year. They state the same platitudes. But, in the end, the same cycle still exists.

The Yankees expect the fans to believe that this year is going to be different.

Now, afters years of this, many fans no longer buy into the Yankees' statements.

Actions speak louder than words and the actions the Yankees have taken for the last decade or so demonstrate that building the best possible team is not their primary objective.

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This is not how the Yankees used to operate. The Yankees didn't become known as the "Evil Empire" (a nickname I never liked, but the point still stands) because they gave only partial effort.

The Yankees were baseball's dominant team because they had one clear goal - to win. Period.

This was that approach that drew many fans to the Yankees.

They were the best, they desired to continue to be the best. They wanted to always be the best. Everything the Yankees did seemed to be geared towards being the best.

The Yankees were also direct and unapologetic about their clear desire to be baseball's best team year after year after year.

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The Yankees used to be the number one destination for the best free agents. They all seemed to want to put on the pinstripes.

The Yankees used to be the number one destination for the star players from Japan.

Great players wanted to be part of the Yankees' tradition.

The team, also, wanted those players and was willing to outspend any other team to get them.

None of that is still the case any longer.

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Now, it is also a fact that the Yankees' approach didn't always work. No team always wins.

Still, the team's mission was clear:

Win. Be the best. Period.

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As a fan, I would rather root for a team that does everything it can to be the best than to root for a team that seems satisified with not being the best.

This is a very simple equation.

I'd rather root for a team that always seeks to be great, knowing they will sometimes lose, than to root for a team that seems content with just trying to be good enough (who also, in the end, seems to lose anyway).

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The Yankees happen to be baseball's most valuable franchise. The Yankees have the financial wealth to always go all-in.

The Yankees are worth billions of dollars more than the next most valuable team. Besides the Los Angeles Dodgers, no other franchise is even in the Yankees' ballpark.

We're talking billions of dollars here. The Yankees are worth billions more than their competition. Billions. The Yankees are so valuable that they're worth more than the 5th and 6th most valuable teams combined:

• Yankees = $8.2 B

• Dodgers = $6.8 B

• Red Sox = $4.8 B

• Cubs = $4.6 B

• Giants = $4.0 B

• Mets = $3.2 B

The Yankees spend a ton of money, no one can deny that. But, that does not mean that they spend wisely or that they address obvious issues the team has.

And it's clear that whatever their payroll, the Yankees could spend more. They simply choose not to.

For example, heading into the 2025 season, the Yankees chose to never get a MLB-level third baseman. They also never acquired a leadoff hitter. (Those are just facts. No amount of arguing or debating will change those facts.)

Both of those oversights, or mistakes, or whatever one wishes to call them, have hurt the team this year. That is also very obvious.

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The Yankees claim to only want to win the World Series. That's their rhetoric, even if it is not how they operate.

They teams has stuck with a manager, Aaron Boone, who has gone longer than any other manager in the team's history without ever winning a championship.

Every person who watches the Yankees closely has seen that the team, under Boone's direction, plays a poor brand of baseball. Under Aaron Boone, the Yankees have not been fundamentally sound. Fans have also seen Boone out managed in big games every season since he arrived.

It seems though that the Yankees are satisified with Aaron Boone's performance.

Sticking with a manager that has not been able to win it all, for this long, seems, to prove that the Yankees feel he is good enough. (For this writer, that isn't good enough.)

Sticking with a manager that hasn't gotten the job done seems to be an indication of the franchise not trying to be the best. Good enough is not seeking to be the best. The Yankees seem content with good enough.

I have said, for a long time, that the Yankees do not wish to be great. They feel good enough is sufficient.

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What is also true is that the Yankees have good and loyal and passionate fans who respond with increduility when writers point out any, most, or all of what I articulated above. These fans often make excuses for the Yankees.

The truth is people make excuses when they fail to deliver on their expectations.

The Yankees make a lot of excuses and they have a lot of fans that make a lot of excuses for them.

But no team has ever won a championship flag or displayed a championship trophy for excuse making.

The purpose of sports is to win. Period.

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Now, of course, I love the Yankees. I want them to win. I long for the days when the Yankees' mission was clear in their actions, words, and decisions. "Our goal is to be the best."

One can be a Yankees fan and be very disappointed in how the team operates.

It is very clear that the way the Yankees are operating is not producing the expected or desired results.

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I believe, and it seems very clear, that the Yankees' approach is no longer to be great. It is clear that the Yankees want to be just good enough to make a run for the post season each year. With this, they can then sell fans on a pennant race. They can then also hope to catch fire and, because anything can happen in the post season, to possibly win a World Series, not by being the best, but by getting lucky at the end of the season.

That approach has not yet worked. But it can. And it might. It might even work this year. Who knows?

But when one owns the greatest franchise in the sport, just hoping for the best isn't the greatest approach.

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I'd rather see the Yankees use their tremendous resources to build the best possible team with the best possible manager year-after-year.

I'd like to see the Yankees do this every year. Just like they used to.

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Will any of what I always hope for guarantee a World Series? No. It will not. But, that is still the approach I believe the Yankees should take.

What is clear is that the approach the Yankees have taken these last many years also isn't working.

When you keep building a team with obvious holes, year-after-year, it's no surprise that there are no World Championship flags flying over the stadium.

Changes are needed. The approach the Yankees are following, and have followed, isn't working and hasn't worked.

Hoping for the best is not, in any way, the same as preparing to be the best.

The Yankees' focus has changed. It's time for them to go back to the way they used to run the organization. Play big to win big.

The Yankees built their fortunes and legends with one specific goal - to be champions. It is time for that to be the very clear goal once again.

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Let's Go Yankees!