I keep coming back to the same image when I think about 2025. Blue jerseys streaming onto the Yankee Stadium infield after a 5-2 Game 4 win, while the home dugout stayed frozen. Toronto finally knocked out the big brother in the division in a 3-1 ALDS win, and the Yankees headed into another too quiet October.
On the surface, this season looked like a success. The Yankees went 94-68 for the second straight year, finished second in the AL East only because Toronto owned the head to head tiebreaker, and actually led all of baseball with 849 runs scored. Their run differential was a monstrous plus 164, with 685 runs allowed.
The fan in me wants to plant a flag and say this was a clear step forward. The writer in me keeps asking why another October ended early, and why so many of the issues I worried about in March were still there in October. That tension is basically the story of the 2025 Yankees.
Expectations vs Reality
Going into 2025, the Yankees felt as loaded as I have ever seen them. They were coming off a 2024 season where they also went 94-68, won the AL East, made it to the World Series, and lost in five games to the Dodgers.
The offseason was loud. Juan Soto left for a historic 15 year, 765 million dollar deal with the Mets, which hurt my soul and my timeline in equal measure. The Yankees responded by doing something they usually get accused of not doing enough: they went hard at the top of the market and signed Max Fried to front the rotation, then built a more modern looking roster around Aaron Judge.
They also had a full season of Jazz Chisholm Jr., who came over at the 2024 deadline and looked like pure electricity in pinstripes.
So my expectations were sky high. I thought 2025 would either be the year this core broke through or the year we learned that something was fundamentally off in the way this team is built. In a weird way, we got a little of both.
On one hand, the Yankees tied for the best record in the American League, finished first in MLB in runs and home runs, and once again made it past the first round, beating Boston in a Wild Card Series before falling to Toronto.
On the other hand, they ended up in the same place as so many recent Yankee teams: watching somebody else play in the League Championship Series.
So was this a step forward or just a prettier version of 2022 and 2023? To answer that, I think you have to build the case for both interpretations.
The Case for “Step Forward”
Let me start with the optimistic side, because there really was a lot to like about 2025.
An Offense That Finally Looked Like a Modern Juggernaut
If you had told 10 year old me that one day the Yankees would lead the entire league in runs scored, I would have just assumed that was normal. As an adult who lived through some pretty ugly dead bat stretches in recent years, I do not take that lightly.
The Yankees scored 849 runs, most in MLB, and hit 274 home runs, also the best mark in the league. They finished with the top slugging profile in the sport, and for long stretches it felt like someone different was punishing pitchers every night.
Aaron Judge was right in the middle of all of it, basically playing on “Ruthian with Wi-Fi” mode. He hit .331 with 53 home runs and 114 RBI, leading the team in everything and earning another MVP. Even by his ridiculous standards, that line is the kind of thing you see more often in video games than on Baseball Reference.
Around him, though, there was finally some real support. Jazz Chisholm Jr. gave the Yankees something they have not had in a while: a left handed bat who combines 30 plus homer power with 30 plus steal speed. In 130 games, he hit .242/.332/.481 with 31 homers, 31 steals, and a 126 wRC+, good for 4.4 fWAR. Jazz was chaos in the best way, and his presence made the lineup feel more dynamic and less station to station.
There were also quieter wins. The Yankees finally started valuing real infield defense at third base when they traded for Ryan McMahon, whose glove and +6 Outs Above Average helped stabilize the hot corner even if his bat was streaky. That is the kind of move a serious team makes.
A True Ace and a Deeper Pitching Staff
On the mound, Max Fried delivered exactly what the Yankees paid for. In his first year in the Bronx he went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 195 1/3 innings, striking out 189 with a 1.10 WHIP. That is bona fide ace material, the sort of reliable excellence this team absolutely needed with Gerrit Cole dealing with his own health and workload management questions.
Carlos Rodón did not have the same level of headline numbers as Fried, but he led the team with 203 strikeouts and gave the Yankees a second high strikeout lefty with real front line stuff.
The staff as a whole finished with a 3.91 ERA and allowed 685 runs, which put them slightly behind 2024 in run prevention but still in the top half of the league. That might not sound like a massive leap, but given the innings they had to cover and the injuries they navigated, there is a case to be made that the underlying group is more solid than it was two years ago.
The bullpen also found a real workhorse in Tim Hill, who led the team with 70 appearances and put up a 3.09 ERA while being asked to get big outs all season. That is the kind of quietly important regular season piece that contenders usually have.
Younger Core Pieces Moving Closer to Their Prime
If 2024 was the year of “did the new pieces fit,” then 2025 started to feel more like the first year of an actual new core.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. made an All Star team and joined the 30-30 club in his first full season as a Yankee. Judge showed that his aging curve might not follow normal human rules. Several young arms, most notably Cam Schlittler, showed up in big ways, including a 12 strikeout Wild Card Series clincher against Boston that will live in my brain for a long time.
From that angle, 2025 absolutely looks like a step forward. It looks like a good team that got better in key areas and took a real swing at maximizing its window.
The Case for “Pretty Mirage”
Here is the problem: a lot of the structural issues that have haunted recent Yankee teams did not actually change all that much. They were just hidden under a nicer coat of paint.
Same Record, Same Ending
The simplest argument for “mirage” is right on the surface. The Yankees went 94-68 in 2024. They went 94-68 in 2025. In 2024 they won the pennant and lost the World Series. In 2025 they lost in the Division Series.
If you zoom out to franchise level goals, that is either treading water or a step back. There was no real progress in terms of playoff rounds won or actually lifting a trophy.
Offensive Volatility Still Lives Here
Yes, this was the best scoring offense in MLB. That is a real achievement. It is also true that the way the Yankees scored still looked very boom or bust, especially against the best pitching.
In the ALDS against Toronto, they scored 1, 7, 9, and 2 runs. The two losses in Canada were a 10-1 blowout and a 13-7 game where the offense woke up far too late. Game 3 at home was a miracle comeback where Judge hit a tying homer and the bats finally started barreling everything again, but Game 4 was a quiet 5-2 loss where the Yankees never really solved the Blue Jays bullpen carousel.
That pattern is basically the modern Yankees in miniature. When the power shows up, they look like the best team in the world. When pitchers refuse to give in or live on the edges, the lineup can go long stretches without stringing together the kind of contact heavy, grind you down innings that win in October.
I love home runs as much as anyone who grew up on late 90s Yankee teams, but there is a difference between using power as a weapon and using it as a lifeline. Too often, 2025 still felt like the latter.
Pitching Depth and Trust Issues
The rotation looks stronger at the top with Fried and Rodón, but the ALDS also reminded us how fragile that setup is when one or two things go wrong.
Toronto hammered Yankees pitching for 34 runs in four games, and they did it with a mix of hard contact and relentless pressure. Once the first two games turned into bullpen marathons, you could feel how thin the trust tree got after the top four or five arms.
That is not just a postseason issue either. The Yankees were middle of the pack in opponent runs per game at 4.29, and while some of that can be blamed on the lineups they faced, it also speaks to a staff that was good but not suffocating.
To me, that is the definition of a mirage problem. The surface looks like a solid staff, and Fried really is that guy. Underneath, though, this is still a team that needs more reliable middle of the rotation innings and more “medium leverage” bullpen arms they truly trust.
Familiar Injuries and Roster Churn
Another part of the “pretty mirage” case lives in the pattern of injuries and roster band aids.
DJ LeMahieu was designated for assignment and released in July after yet another year where his body simply did not cooperate, which forced more in season shuffling at second and third base. Ryan McMahon arrived midseason to patch one hole. Jazz bounced between second and third. Younger infielders tried to fill gaps. It all worked well enough to get to 94 wins, but at no point did the infield ever feel fully settled.
Some of that is modern baseball. Every team deals with injuries. But when you zoom out, you can see a franchise that still leans heavily on older, expensive players who carry significant health questions, then scrambles in season to re-balance things.
Somewhere In Between: What Was Real and What Might Fade
I think the honest answer on 2025 is that it contained both real progress and some serious mirage energy. The tricky part is teasing out what is sustainable from what might regress.
What I Think Is Real
- Aaron Judge is still an MVP level anchor. The line he put up is not something you fake. He has now done this sort of thing enough times that I believe in his ability to be a top three hitter in the sport for a few more years.
- Max Fried is a true ace who fits in New York. A 2.86 ERA over nearly 200 innings in the American League while pitching home games in Yankee Stadium is real. That is not smoke and mirrors.
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. looks like a legitimate core piece. A 30-30 season, strong defensive metrics, and an above average offensive line in his first full Yankee season suggests this is not just a one year pop.
- The front office is at least trying to modernize. Trading for a plus defender at third, investing in a high end frontline starter, and building a more athletic lineup show that this is not the same approach that produced some of the more clunky rosters of the early 2020s.
What I Think Could Prove Illusory
- Leading MLB in runs is hard to repeat. Offense is volatile year to year. If a couple of key bats take even a small step back or miss time, it is not guaranteed that this group is still sitting on top of the scoring table in 2026.
- The October problems are still the same. High strikeout, high slug lineups can look incredible over 162 games and very beatable over a week against top pitching. Until the Yankees show a consistent ability to score without living on mistake pitches, I have to treat that as a real weakness.
- The pitching staff is one injury run away from looking thin again. With so much invested in a small handful of arms, the margin for error is small. That is before you even get into speculation about adding another ace type like Tarik Skubal or targeting bounce back candidates like Zac Gallen, which tells you the front office knows more is needed.
In my view, 2025 was not purely a mirage. The team really did get better in some meaningful ways. It also did not represent a full break from the flaws that have defined this era. It felt more like an incomplete renovation than a new house.
What 2025 Means for 2026
So where does that leave us heading into what should be a very loud offseason in the Bronx?
To me, 2025 told us a few important things about the main actors in this story.
- The front office is willing to spend and to make bold moves, but still has to prove it can build a fully balanced roster. Betting big on Fried and Chisholm was the right idea. Now comes the hard part, which is layering in contact skills, defense, and deeper pitching without losing the firepower.
- Aaron Boone can get a team to 94 wins, but the October narrative is not going away. Fair or not, another early exit puts more pressure on everyone in the dugout. The question is not whether the Yankees are prepared. It is whether they are adaptable once a series turns sideways.
- This core has the talent to win a title, but the configuration still feels off. The pieces do not quite overlap in that effortless way you see with the very best modern champions. There are still too many “if healthy” and “if the power shows up” qualifiers for my liking.
If 2026 is going to be more than a rerun, I think a few things absolutely have to happen:
- Add at least one more high end or near high end arm so the rotation is not one injury away from panic.
- Bring in at least one everyday bat whose main skills are contact, on base ability, and defense, not just raw slug.
- Continue to treat infield defense and athleticism as non negotiable, not as afterthoughts.
- Build a bullpen that is six or seven deep in trusted options so that the team can actually play the matchup game like Toronto did in that Game 4 bullpen special.
My Verdict: Step Forward, With Mirage Warnings
If I have to plant a flag, here is where I land:
I think 2025 was a step forward, but not a big enough one to make anyone comfortable.
The Yankees did not fake their way to the best offense in baseball. They did not luck into an ace season from Max Fried. Jazz Chisholm Jr. did not accidentally become a 30-30 player. Those are real developments that matter for the next few years.
At the same time, the way the season ended, and the way their weaknesses lined up so neatly with Toronto’s strengths, should make everyone a little wary of treating 2025 as proof that everything is fine. The record looks great on a graphic. The underlying blueprint still needs work if this team is going to be more than a recurring guest star in other people’s highlight packages.
