Are the Yankees as good as everyone thinks they are?
By CJ Keeling, Staff Writer
The New York Yankees started an early week four-game series against the Seattle Mariners, 18 games above .500, while also riding high on a seven-game win streak. The Yankees were close to making it eight games in a row to start the series against the Mariners, before a 9th-inning meltdown by Clay Holmes.
The Clay Homles debacle in the 9th was a result of some soft hit balls, and an error by second baseman, Gleyber Torres. These events preceded to the Yankees blowing a 4-1 lead in the 9th, Clay Holmes allowing his first earned runs of the year, and not being able to rally in the bottom of the 9th resulting in a 5-4 loss.
A LOOK BACK: Umpire Tosses Yankees’ Aaron Boone in Wild Argument
The Yankees went on to win two of the next three against the Mariners leading to an important series split to start the week with a long West Coast trip looming over them. The West Coast trip will give the Yankees stops in San Diego, and Los Angeles to play the Angles and San Fransisco.
The Yankees head into this trip with a 35-17 record, but are they as good as the record says? The Yankees are 10-7 against teams that have a winning record this season. This 10-7 record holds the Yankees losing three out of four games to a division rival, the Baltimore Orioles. The 10-7 record is a small sample size against teams above .500 from their overall record of 35-17.
The teams above .500 the Yankees have beaten besides for the one win against Baltimore include wins against, the Cleveland Guardians, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and their most recent series split against the Seattle Mariners. The only team to have made the playoffs of this group of teams from last year was the Minnesota Twins.
The off-season addition of superstar, Juan Soto, who is hitting .312, with 13 home runs, and 41 runs batted in, plus the smaller addition this offseason, Alex Verdugo who adds a little more versatility to the lineup with him being another left-handed bat.
While also adding Marcus Stroman an above-average innings eater who takes the ball every five days (something they did not have last year) and who also may be able to start a few big games for them this year has also helped the Yankees have the 35-17 record they hold on May 24th, 2024.
Also See: New York Yankees Need Health to Return to Excellence in 2024
The Yankees are also getting some in-house production they did not get last year. Luis Gil has been transcendent for the Yankees this year. The 25-year-old has compiled a 6-1 record with a 2.11 ERA, and a 1.01 WHIP for the Yankees to start the season. As well as much better play from 23-year-old Anthony Volpe, and 34-year-old Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees are hoping Stanton stays healthy with his lengthy injury history and Anthony Volpe
continues to improve and is hopefully turning into the guy they thought he could be when he started his first big league season with the Yankees last year.
You play who they put on the schedule, but is the Yankees’ early season success fueled by mediocre competition to begin the year?
The Yankees missed the playoffs last year and are looking to keep their early season success going heading into Memorial Day Weekend and the month of June. July 4th is the next major reevaluation date for the Yankees, and we will have a better understanding if the early season success was sustainable or just a product of poor competition.
