Perspectives: Winding Down the Season
By Paul Semendinger
September 22, 2026
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I know many want to blame the Yankees' second place finish on all the injuries, but in reality, the Yankees have underperformed their expected record (Pythagorean Record) at this point by three games.
Even with the injuries, the Yankees should have performed a little bit better.
Aaron Boone's Yankees have performed worse than their Pythagorean Record in each of the last three seasons and in four of the last five seasons.
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The Yankees, with seven games remaining, have only 89 games.
Yes, they're better than most American League teams, but 89 wins on September 22 isn't great. It's a little bit better than pretty good - which is what the Yankees have been for far too long.
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I have stated, for years, that it makes no sense to put players at physical risk for a tournament that forces them to ramp up before they're ready and to play extra games that could wear their bodies down before the season - or impact their health during the season.
I have been saying this ever since the invention of that tournament.
I never follow the WBC. I don't care about the WBC.
An argument can be made that without the WBC, the Pirates might have actually made it to the postseason this year.
I am certain that there are no Pirates fans or Pirates players that are glad Paul Skenes ramped up quickly to pitch in the WBC at the possible expense of the postseason this year.
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There will be pundits that all clamor and state that baseball is in trouble because teams like the Pirates can't contend for the playoffs.
That might be true in some years, but in 2026, a big reason why the Pirates didn't compete is because their ace pitcher feels he was compromised because he played in a tournament before the season began.
This was a self-inflected wound that baseball did to itself.
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I am happy that George Lombard, Jr. is performing well again, but his OPS+ is still well below league average. It's only 87 which is basically the same as Anthony Volpe's (86).
No manager of a contending team would want a player with an 87 OPS+ batting fifth in his lineup. That is simply obvious on its face.
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In 2021, the Yankees had a player who had an OPS+ for the season that was 93 and no one wanted him anywhere near the starting lineup, let along batting in the heart of the order.
That player though had a better track record than Lombard. He also had a higher On Base Percentage and a higher Slugging Percentage than Lombard does.
That player's name was Joey Gallo.
This might put Lombard's 87 OPS+ into some perspective.
Of course, the big difference is that Lombard has a future and Gallo didn't any longer. But that's a conversation for another day. This isn't about what Lombard might do. It's about what he is doing - and what was the best approach to acclimate him to the big leagues.
Based just on his performance, both in the minor leagues and the Major Leagues, Lombard shouldn't be batting in the middle of the order.
Everyone knows this logically.
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All Yankees fans wish Austin Wells was doing better. He did well enough in August batting .246. But in September, he's down to .209.
The following are Wells' batting averages by season across his career:
2024 - .229
2025 - .219
2026 - .186 (to date)
This is a problem .
I know many people want to make excuses for Wells. We have heard the "He is injured" excuse for at least two seasons, but, when he hit in August, everyone was saying, "See, he's healthy." Is his .209 September batting average because he's hurt again - or somewhere in this is Austin Wells demonstrating that he simply isn't a quality big league hitter?
For his career, now 379 games, Austin Wells' OPS+ is 91.
At some point the numbers tell who the player is.
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The Yankees have a fighter's chance of reaching the World Series. The Yankees are certainly flawed and are much weaker without Aaron Judge, but they have a strong starting rotation that could, and should, carry them through the playoffs.
Until the Yankees reach the World Series, the competition to reach the World Series is simply not impressive - at all, excepting the Tampa Bay Rays. Anything less than an ALCS vs. the Rays must be seen as a failure by this club.
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Speaking of fighters, I heard a trivia question that read, "Who was the only fighter to defeat Muhammad Ali by knockout?"
I went through his losses in my head thinking, "I never saw him knocked out."
Joe Frazier didn't knock out Ali.
Leon Spinks did not.
Trevor Berbick didn't
I knew Larry Holmes beat Ali, but I didn't remember it as a knockout.
And then there was Ken Norton. He also didn't knock out Ali.
The answer was Larry Holmes, but it wasn't a knockout. They scored it a TKO, but in reality, Ali finished the round, sat on this stool, and his trainer, Angelo Dundee, called it off.
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Of course Lombard batting 5th is undesirable, but what were the alternatives? The only times Lombard has batted 5th is when Judge was not in the lineup. Before Saturday, the last time was he batted 5th was August 27. On Saturday, the alternatives were Volpe, Caballero, Wells and McMahon (and note Ramos was batting clean-up against a righty!). Sunday, I suppose Jones (in the lineup instead of McMahon) could have hit 5th and Lombard 6th, but then you have double lefties followed by double righties. Because Judge, Chisholm and Grisham are all out, you have nothing but 7th place hitters (or worse) available to bat 5th.