The New York Yankees endured a very familiar postseason fate on Wednesday night: eliminated on their home field by a rival, embarrassed in the postgame celebration. More embarrassing? It wasn’t an upset. It wasn’t a shocker. It was a team that outplayed them all year long outplaying them one more time.

The Yankees are the Yankees, and they’ll always be considered a threat by the prognosticators. As has been the case during Aaron Boone’s entire tenure, though, they certainly weren’t the game’s dominant force this season, nor were they expected to be. They were a slugging team with flaws and a leaky bullpen. They entered 2025 somewhere in the middle of the perceived pack, and finished the season as the third-likeliest American League team to reach the World Series, where an NL team that would surely be favored over them would be waiting.

As the Yankees’ deficit swelled late in Wednesday’s game, FOX announcer Joe Davis attempted to pay them a compliment, looking forward to next season by noting that New York is “always in the conversation”.

That, right there, is their true fatal flaw. Hal Steinbrenner’s moderate aggression, Brian Cashman’s ability to fill the holes he created, and Boone’s sturdy (but not additive) caretaking all combine to (typically) keep the Yankees afloat. But they’re never viewed as elite. They never get dethroned anymore when they lose, nor do they keep the pressure on their opponent from a position of power.

Since Boone’s arrival in 2018, the Yankees – the big-budget New York Yankees – have never once been the best team in baseball. The Astros, Red Sox, Dodgers, and even the Rays have met them with an edge. It’s a champagne problem, sure, but it’s wild to look around and realize they’ve never accidentally stumbled into greatness. Instead, they’ve always been forced to prove they can match the league’s elite rather than becoming the league’s elite. And they haven’t done it yet.

Aaron Boone’s Yankees are always “in the conversation,” but never more than that

The Boone Era, of course, is not ending. He noted after Wednesday’s loss that he expects to fulfill his contract. If the GM has a job for life, and the GM pulls the strings, then why wouldn’t the manager join him in perpetuity?

Given that the franchise’s constraints seem poised to remain in place, the best we can likely hope for is that the Yankees somehow manager to plumb the depths and find an edge to match the aggression of their rivals next season. They need to uncover a chip and place it firmly on their shoulder. Because we know, based on past experience, we cannot expect them to suddenly become the king again overnight. They’ll have to fight to earn it.