Yankees Can't Quite Get It Done In Division, Mets Choke Completely

As current Yankee manager Aaron Boone would say, "It is what it is." But, as his predecessor, Joe Girardi, now a Yankee broadcaster, would say, "It's not what you want."

To win the American League Eastern Division, the Yankees needed to beat the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium today, and for the Toronto Blue Jays to lose to the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Luis Gil started, and went 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. He left with the game tied, 2-2, including a home run by Ben Rice. Fernando Cruz pitched a scoreless 6th, Luke Weaver a perfect 7th, Devin Williams a scoreless 8th, and David Bednar a scoreless 9th.

Rice led off the bottom of the 8th with another home run. That made the difference in a 3-2 victory. The Yankees finished the season with a 94-68 record, including an 8-game winning streak.

But it wasn't enough: The Jays beat the Rays, 13-4, for their own 94th win. Under the system in place prior to the expansion of the Playoffs, there would have been a one-game Playoff, as the Yankees won over their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, in 1978. Under the new rules, the 1st and only tiebreaker is head-to-head competition, and the Jays won that, 8-5.

Here's where the Yankees lost the Division: April 25. At home. They went into the 9th inning leading Toronto, 2-1. Williams -- with retroactive irony, the winning pitcher in today's finale -- was brought in as the new season's much-hyped new closer, and he allowed a single, hit a batter, then allowed a 2-RBI double and an RBI single, and the Jays won, 4-2. That was the season, right there, on April 25, although we didn't know it for sure until September 28.

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Aaron Judge finished the season with a .331 batting average, winning the AL batting title. He joins Babe Ruth in 1924, Lou Gehrig in 1934, Joe DiMaggio in 1939 and '40, George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss in 1945, Mickey Mantle in 1956, Don Mattingly in 1984, Paul O'Neill in 1994, Bernie Williams in 1998 and DJ LeMahieu in 2020 as Yankees who have done that.

Judge finished with 53 home runs and 114 RBIs. Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners hit 60, making him only the 4th AL player to hit that many, after Ruth's 60 in 1927, Roger Maris' 61 in 1961, and Judge's 62 in 2022. He broke the record for home runs by a catcher, previously 48 by Salvador Perez in 2021; and Mantle's record from 1961 of 54 homers by a switch-hitter. Raleigh also led in RBIs, with 125. One of these men will win the AL's Most Valuable Player award, but it's not yet clear which.

Judge batted .331 and hit 53 home runs in a season. Here's a list of all the players who have ever done at least that:

1920, 1921 and 1927 Babe Ruth

1930 Hack Wilson

1932 Jimmie Foxx

That's it. That's the list. Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson never did it. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Ken Griffey Jr. or Albert Pujols never did it. Nor has Shohei Ohtani. Nor did any of the steroid boys, though Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds each came within .003 of doing it.

The Yankees finished with 272 home runs, including 53 by Judge, 34 by Trent Grisham, 31 by Jazz Chisholm, 29 by Cody Bellinger, 24 each by Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice, 21 by Austin Wells, 19 by Anthony Volpe, and 10 each by Paul Goldschmidt and Jasson Domínguez.

RBIs? Judge 114, Bellinger 98, Chisholm 80, Grisham 74, Volpe 72 (suddenly, his .211 batting average doesn't look so damaging), Wells 71, Stanton 65, Rice 63, Domínguez 47, Goldschmidt 45. Late acquisition Ryan McMahon added 4 homers and 18 RBIs in 53 games.

In other words, the Yankees and their fans, while angry at Juan Soto rejecting them and signing with the Mets, did not miss him at all.

Max Fried went 19-5, and Carlos Rodón 18-9. But injuries to the rotation were costly. Gerrit Cole missed the entire season. Clark Schmidt missed most of the 2nd half, and only went 4-4. Luis Gil missed the 1st half, and only went 4-1. Cam Schlittler came on late, and went 4-3 with a lower ERA than any Yankee starter except Fried. Marcus Stroman was 3-2, but had a 6.23 ERA and had to be released. Will Warren was 9-8 but very inconsistent. Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and Mark Leiter Jr. all failed as the closer before David Bednar was brought in to take the job.

With all that, the Yankees still won 93 games. Since the advent of Divisional Play in 1969 -- and the expansions of the Playoffs in 1994, 2012 and 2020 did not change that -- the average number of wins of the 2nd-place team in the AL East has been 92, so 93 is, on the average, enough to win the Division. This time, it took 94.

Since the Wild Card was established in 1994, this is the 10th time the Yankees have made the Playoffs as a Wild Card. The 1st 9, they failed to win the Pennant every time. So, yes, winning the Division matters. In contrast, over that stretch, they have won the Division 16 times, and gone on to win the Pennant 8 times -- half the time.

The Red Sox finished 5 games behind the Jays, the Rays 17 back, the O's 19 back. In the Central Division, an epic collapse by the Detroit Tigers and a nearly-as-impressive surge by the Cleveland Guardians made Cleveland the Division Champion, and the Tigers the 6th and final seed. And the Mariners won the West, keeping the Houston Astros out of the Playoffs.

So the Wild Card Series schedule looks like this: Game 1 against the Red Sox will be on Tuesday, Game 2 will be on Wednesday, and, if necessary, Game 3 will be on Thursday -- October 2, the anniversary of the Bucky Dent Game. All games will be at Yankee Stadium, all will be at 6:00 PM, and all will be broadcast on ESPN. The only variable: If the Cincinnati vs. Los Angeles series ends after 2 games, and Yankees-Red Sox requires a Game 3, that game will be moved up to an 8:00 start.

Starting pitchers have not yet been announced, but, if the Yankees hold to their rotation, then Fried starts Game 1, and Rodón starts Game 2. Game 3 could be Warren on 5 days' rest, or Schlittler on 4. I would trust Schlittler. I would not trust Warren.

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Meanwhile...

The Mets lost to the Miami Marlins, 4-0. The Mets went in needing to win, and to get a loss from the Cincinnati Reds. They got the latter result, as the Reds lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-2 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

But the Mets lost the regular-season finale to the Miami Marlins, and so they miss the Playoffs. That same combination happened in 2007 and 2008, and now, it has happened again in 2025. They added Juan Soto, who thus rejected staying with the Yankees, and they and their fans were sure they were going to go all the way, and, at the least, "take over New York" from the Yankees.

Instead, they went 83-79. 84 wins would have made it. My compliments to the camera operators on the Mets' network, SNY, for getting some great images, including on the face of The expressions on the faces of the Mets fans who went down to Miami spoke volumes.

Met broadcaster Gary Cohen said, "It is unfathomable that this collection of talent winds up outside of an expanded Playoff system after having the best record in baseball after the first 2 1/2 months of the season."

Clearly, Cohen fathomed more about the '25 Mets than was there.

The Curse of Kevin Mitchell: Now 39 years. Next year will make it 40 years in the wilderness -- and Juan Soto is not Moses.