The Yankees are still good, but the Aaron Judge window is closing as the AL East loads.
The New York Yankees just did the thing they always do and they did it very well. They hit baseballs into the seats like they were trying to set off car alarms across two boroughs.
They won 94 games. They tied for first in the American League East.
And they watched the Toronto Blue Jays end their season shortly into October. Another MVP-level season for Aaron Judge that ended without a parade.
Let’s be honest, they had a good season by MLB standards. They went 94-68 and finished with a plus-164 run differential, which in normal cities gets you a banner and a commemorative book. In the Bronx, however, it gets you a polite nod and a reminder that the last World Series title was 2009.
Where The Yankees Actually Stand
They led Major League Baseball with 274 home runs. They scored 849 runs. Their team wRC+ was 118 —the best in the league —which basically means they created runs better than anyone, once you adjust for ballpark and run environment. They had a .787 team OPS.
This was not a soft offense. This was a sledgehammer.
Statcast loved them, too.
As a team, they had a hard-hit rate over 46 percent, well above the league average, and an elite barrel rate. They hit the ball really hard, really often.
That is still the brand for the Bronx Bombers.
There is a cost for living like that, however.
The Yankees also struck out 1,463 times. Call it roughly a 23.5 percent strikeout rate. That is a lot of wasted at-bats. You can bully most teams with that style from April to September. In October, you run into playoff bullpens built like knife collections, and those empty swings start to matter.
So no, the Yankees are not broken. They are not old and finished. They are elite good.
What they are not right now is winning in October with Judge going to be 34 years old in April.
Why Toronto Is Suddenly The Problem
The Toronto Blue Jays tied the Yankees at 94-68, but won the division on a tiebreaker. Then beat them head-to-head in the Division Series, ending the Yankees’ season without a parade for the 15th straight season.
And then Toronto kept going all the way to the World Series.
The part that should bother New York is how Toronto did it.
The Blue Jays’ offense did not try to win the Home Run Derby every night. Toronto scored 798 runs with a team slash line of around .265/.333/.427 and hit 191 home runs. That is 83 fewer homers than the Yankees and 51 fewer runs.
On paper, that should not be enough, but it was.
Here is why. Toronto almost never swung and missed. As a team, they struck out only about 1,099 times all year, which works out to something like a 17.8 percent strikeout rate. That was the best mark in Major League Baseball. They just refused to give up a free out. That wears a team down across nine innings and across five games in a playoff series.
They basically turned every at-bat into a root canal. Shorter swings. Fewer chase swings. Spoil pitches with two strikes. Push traffic. Force the starter to work. Get into the bullpen early. Then lean on their own bullpen to sit on a lead.
The Blue Jays aren’t the Yankees’ only concern going forward.
Boston Is Younger Than You Want To Admit
The Boston Red Sox just won 89 games and took a Wild Card spot. Their run differential finished around plus-110. They did that even before they had a full, healthy version of what their lineup is supposed to look like. Then they walked into Yankee Stadium for the Wild Card and made the Yankees burn ace-level stuff from a kid just to survive them.
And here is the annoying part for you, Yankees. The Red Sox kids are already here and getting better.
The Red Sox already committed long-term to Roman Anthony as some thump in their lineup. Ceddanne Rafaela has basically played every day in center field, given them plus defense, hit 16 homers, stole 20 bases, and is still only 24 years old. Marcelo Mayer came up at 22 and immediately looked like a guy who will live in the infield for the next 10 years once his wrist is right. Triston Casas is supposed to be the left-handed bat at first base long term when his knee cooperates.
Craig Breslow has shown he will go out and get pitching in the deal for Garrett Crochet.
Boston just won 89 games and is paying its 21-year-old star to stay, and they are ready to add arms.
Baltimore Is Just Sitting There Waiting To Get Healthy
The Baltimore Orioles finished last in the American League East this year. Guess what, so did the Blue Jays in 2024. The Orioles were a mess this year, but remember, they basically played the entire season as a triage unit. Star-level young bats kept getting hurt. Core arms never got on the mound. By the end of summer, they were more about surgery timelines than matchups.
The Orioles still have Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, and Samuel Basallo lined up as the position core, and they plan to spend on pitching this winter instead of trying to talk themselves into another bargain bin staff. They also quietly played around .500 under their interim manager the rest of the way. The bones are still there.
The Money Question
Normally, this is where Yankee fans brag about going out and buying talent.
But these are not the George Steinbrenner Yankees; they are the Hal Steinbrenner version.
In 2025, the Yankees were third in payroll at roughly $294 million. The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets were over them. Hal Steinbrenner has been pretty public about not loving the idea of blasting way past $300 million just to keep up.
Meanwhile, the bill is already huge.
The Yankees are locked into Aaron Judge through 2031. Max Fried is signed long-term. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón are deep into their 30s and expensive. Giancarlo Stanton is still on the sheet. Ryan McMahon is on the sheet. They still owe DJ LeMahieu real money to not play. There is more than $700 million already committed going forward, and about $184 million already earmarked for 2026 before arbitration and bullpen work even start.
This is not a blank check era. This is a budget era with very large numbers.
Where That Leaves The Yankees
The Yankees are still really good. They can still walk into a series and drop 10 runs on you because Judge is still out here doing Yankees legend things, and because the rest of the lineup is built to punish any mistake that leaks back over the plate. They still have frontline arms if everybody’s ligaments cooperate. They are still a 90-plus win baseline team, and there are only a handful of those in the sport.
But good has a ceiling in this division now.
Toronto can beat you by never whiffing and bleeding you out inning by inning. Boston can beat you with 23-year-olds you are going to be seeing for the next eight years, whether you like it or not. Baltimore can very easily stop being cute and go right back to being 90-win annoying as soon as they get their roster out of the MRI tube.
The Yankees are still good. Judge is still great. The question that Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman have to ask themselves this winter is whether that is good enough.
