Yankees Win Series vs Rockies

By Sal Maiorana

May 26, 2025

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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Yankees Win Series But it Was Harder Than Expected

It’s funny, but when the Yankees play clearly inferior competition, I get more irritated than usual if things don’t go well because I expect them to eviscerate teams like the sad sack Rockies. They did so Saturday, but Friday and Sunday were way too difficult, and even losing one game to Colorado felt disgusting. They’re going to need to be better this week when they face both Los Angeles teams. Lets get to it.

Well, the Yankees won their sixth consecutive series, but the fact that it was so difficult to put down a Colorado team that has now lost all 17 series it has played this season was a little disconcerting.

I guess you just chalk it up to baseball, right? There’s no other explanation for why the 32-20 Yankees struggled so mightily in the Friday loss and Sunday win against a team that is now 9-44 and on pace to lose more games than any team in modern MLB history.

Of course, the team that owns the record for futility with 121 losses is the 2024 White Sox, and as you’ll recall, the Yankees lost a game to them, too. Again, that’s baseball.

What was surprising about the weekend was that the Yankees didn’t take full advantage of an absolutely horrible Colorado pitching staff. Sure, that Saturday game was fun, but take a closer look at that one: The Yankees won it 13-1, but 10 runs came in the fifth inning and they scored in just two other innings in that game. Friday they had seven scoreless innings before they showed a little more consistency Sunday as they put up runs in four innings.

I know this probably all sounds a bit nitpicky, but given that the Rockies’ team ERA is an MLB-worst 5.73 and the rotation ERA is 6.81, I just expected a whole lot more from the Yankees’ high-scoring offense.

That said, things are good right now. The Yankees have won 13 of their last 17 games and they have created some distance in the AL East as they lead the suddenly hot Rays (who just swept the Blue Jays and have won five in a row) by 5.5 games, and they’re six up on the Red Sox and 6.5 ahead of the Blue Jays. That’s a nice neighborhood to be in as we hit Memorial Day which is always one of the first mile markers of a season.

Now, to continue the nit picking, the Yankees’ third-base situation remains a mess because with Oswaldo Cabrera out of the mix, they’ve been rolling out the combination of Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas, and that’s just not cutting it at the plate.

Through 52 games, the Yankees’ third basemen rank 28th in MLB in combined batting average at .209, they’re 25th in on-base percentage at .288, and their OPS of .601 sits 24th.

Peraza’s double on Saturday kick-started the big 10-run fifth inning, but it continues to become more and more apparent that he just can’t hit at the major league level. Since he took over for Cabrera as the primary starter, he’s 2-for-23 with two RBI. In total he has played 32 games and in 79 plate appearances he’s slashing .167/.241/.319 for an OPS of .560. Not that we should be surprised because for his career, which consists of 106 games and 338 plate appearances, he’s slashing .204/.284/.316 for an OPS of .600.

There is no doubt that Peraza’s glove is excellent and he made a number of nice plays in this series, but he’s essentially an automatic out and while it’s not a huge problem right now because the offense, in general, has been very good, how long can the Yankees keep going with him? He’s out of minor league options so unless they’re willing to DFA him and risk that someone will pick him up as a free agent, they’re kind of stuck with him.

Vivas was advertised as a player who made consistent contact in the minors, but we haven’t seen that yet as he’s been a free swinger since his recall a couple weeks ago and he’s striking out 26.2% of his plate appearances while slashing .167/.250/.278 for a .528 OPS.

My guess is that the Yankees have to keep riding with these two until Jazz Chisholm returns perhaps sometime this month and then Aaron Boone can either move DJ LeMahieu to third, or leave him at second and move Chisholm over to third. Whatever the decision, I just know that Peraza can’t be a regular on this team, and it’s too early to know what Vivas is going to be, but perhaps the best place for him is back in Triple-A.