On June 21, New York Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner said he was “confused” about why fans were upset by an underachieving team that was third in the AL East at the time and full of injuries.
Well, the Yankees are usually a playoff team so perhaps they deserved the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks.
That was nearly a month ago.
Now?
The Yankees are last in the East and out of the playoffs entirely if the season ended today.
So it turns out fans had reasons to be upset or to push the panic button.
Instead of improving, things have gotten worse.
Aaron Judge is still injured and without a timetable for a return, Anthony Rizzo is in an ugly slump since May, the offense as a whole is not responding, and the bullpen has been blowing leads left and right.
“The Yankees are 15-20 since Judge got hurt and 10-12 since Hal Steinbrenner said he confused about why fans are upset They’ve fallen from third place to last and from a playoff spot to 2.5 games out since Hal spoke,” Talkin’ Yanks tweeted.
The Yankees are 15-20 since Judge got hurt and 10-12 since Hal Steinbrenner said he confused about why fans are upset
They’ve fallen from third place to last and from a playoff spot to 2.5 games out since Hal spoke pic.twitter.com/m96aymT83I
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 18, 2023
There you have it: since Steinbrenner pretended to be “confused”, the team has somehow gotten worse.
The Yankees badly need Judge back, but he should be at least a couple of weeks away.
They need slumping players to remember how to hit, and they need calmness and focus in the late innings.
They still have time, but if things don’t change or they don’t improve, they risk being left out of the postseason for the first time since 2016.
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