The Tuesday Discussion: 2026 Yankees Predictions

March 24, 2026

***

This week we posed the following to our writers:

Please make a prediction for the 2026 Yankees.  

How many wins will they have?

Will they make the playoffs?

If so, how far will they go into the postseason?

Here are their responses:

***

Paul Semendinger -

Wins - 89

Playoffs - Yes

I believe they will lose in the second round

***

Tim Kabel -

Wins - 84

I predict of the Yankees will win 84 games and will not make the playoffs. 

***

John Nielsen -

How many wins will they have?   97 Wins

Will they make the playoffs?  Yes

If so, how far will they go into the postseason?   AL Champions (and will give the Dodgers a competitive WS)

***

Andrew Hefner -

How many wins will they have? - 92 wins 

Will they make the playoffs? Yes: second in division to Blue Jays, second wild card spot 

If so, how far will they go into the postseason?  Always wishing for the World Series win but with little large-scale improvements made (and barring any insane season from Grisham or other) I am only hopeful that an ALCS is in the cards. 

***

Ethan Semendinger -

Wins - 90

Playoffs - They will make the playoffs as a wild card team.

They will lose in the wild card round.

***

Derek McAdam -

My prediction is that the Yankees will have just a couple less wins compared to last season, dropping from 94 to 92. They will still make the playoffs, but I predict they get knocked out in the Wild Card round. I’d like to say they’ll go all the way and win a World Series, but I’m not yet convinced that will happen. 

***

James Vlietstra - I have no reason to believe that they won’t at least match last year’s 94 wins. They are basically running back the same team but with a better bullpen, deeper bench, all year of Schlittler and Cole returning. 

Hopefully this year they win the division so they have an easier path in the playoffs. 

It’s impossible to say what to expect in the playoffs. Back when there was only one round of playoffs, the best team won. Now with the expanded playoffs, the hottest team wins. So basically they play 6 months to establish dominance and set personal records and then a bad weekend leaves a bad taste in your mouth and a 17th year without winning a World Series. 

***

Mike Whiteman - The Yankees will win 96 games, taking the AL East Division by a couple games over Baltimore. 

They will surprisingly cruise through the playoffs to the World Series, where they take a 7-game classic over the Dodgers. 

***

Cary Greene - With the most immediate challenge for the Yankees being to stay consistently afloat in what will be a tightly contested American League East this season, Cashman will go about hoarding depth and scouring the scrap heap that consists of out of work players who were once prized Draft Picks or perhaps others who are rehabbing from injuries..etc.

Yankees sharpies know the drill all too well. I think the Yankees will win 86 games this season and it may seem like I'm lowballing the team this year but let's call it what it is. The Yankees are running it back again with the exact same team as last season, with one fairly significant exception, in the form of Gerrit Cole and if he manages to become Nathan Eovaldi 2.0 then the Yankees might be a more formidable version of what they were last season. 

Rebounding from not one, but two Tommy John Surgeries, perhaps Nathan Eovaldi serves as a best case comp example for Cole, as he was a power pitcher who, like Cole, was willing to put in the work that a successful rehab requires. Eovaldi seems to be on a never-ending run of excellence and he came back without a loss in velocity or other limitations. In fact, after his surgery, Tommy John himself pitched as if he had a bionic arm. The more innings he logged, the better his sinker ball became. If some of the Yankees young pitchers are able to impact the team as the season goes along then the bullpen, which appears to be the main weakness of the team as Spring Training wraps up, might actually become a strength. 

Making the playoffs will be a little more difficult for the Yankees this year, but they have about a 70 percent chance to qualify this year so, if the injury gods are cooperative and if the baseball gods are willing, the Bronx Bombers likely will make the postseason.

With the roster constructed as it presently is, as Aaron Judge goes - so go the Yankees. Judge will need to have another huge season for all to go right. Considering that Judge, a three-time MVP and a seven-time All-Star, owns an .822 OPS in the postseason, he'll have to come up bigger than that if the Yankees are going to win a World Series. 

Let's hope I'm wrong, but in my estimation the Yankees will likely make the playoffs but then come up short again, when they face superior pitching deeper into the postseason. If the Yankees don't connect for home runs, their offense usually stalls and big bats have a way of falling asleep against elite postseason pitching.

Fortunately, it's a very long season and as we all know, in baseball -- anything can happen.

Perhaps the biggest problem the Yankees face this year is that their manager, Aaron Boone, hasn't been able to guide them all the way to a World Series victory. If Hal Steinbrenner had spent a little more this offseason and if he had pulled the plug on Boone and perhaps Cashman as well, then it might be a different story this season. But Hal is essentially content to run it back again. I'm not convinced that Hal has the mindset of winner, in fact, I fear the opposite. I think Hal may go down as the biggest loser in Yankees history. Will he be forever remembered as the man who squandered the playing career of a modern day Babe Ruth? Time will tell. 

This year, the Yankees will get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. 

***

Andy Singer - I made it known that I didn't think that the Yankees had an optimal offseason (for instance, I would have signed Bichette to play 3B instead of Bellinger to play the outfield, just as an example), but the reality remains that this is still one of the best teams in baseball on paper, with significantly more depth than last season just by virtue of how much further along their upper minors prospects are today as opposed to last season. There's very real depth waiting in the wings on the pitching staff. The starting rotation, even without a complete return by either of Cole or Rodon, is one of the best in baseball. In addition to having likely the best outfield in baseball, the Yankees have starting caliber depth stashed at AAA. Combine that with some steps forward by some of the Yankees' younger talent, and this could be a very exciting year.

The AL East is brutally tough, but projection systems largely consider the Yankees either the most or the 2nd most talented group in the division. I think the Yankees have more depth to withstand injuries than the Jays and the Sox, so I give the nod to the Yankees. Here are my predictions:

How many wins will they have? 98 Wins

Will they make the playoffs? You bet.

If so, how far will they go into the postseason? The Yanks win the World Series in 6 games against the Dodgers.