Aaron Judge didn’t hide the edge in his words after the Yankees’ season came apart in October, and he aimed plenty of it at the front office.
New York’s run ended Wednesday with a 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, completing a sweep at Yankee Stadium. Victor Mesa Jr. broke it open with a two-run homer off Max Fried in the sixth inning, Ian Seymour got the win, Fried took the loss and Bryan Baker picked up his third save of the series.
The finish was ugly by any measure. The Yankees, who won 93 games in the regular season, managed only five runs in three ALDS games. They hit .130, posted a .192 on-base percentage and never led in 27 innings against Tampa Bay.
Judge watched it all from the dugout’s top step, standing next to rookie George Lombard Jr. while the Rays celebrated. He wasn’t available for the postseason after a strained right calf kept him off both playoff rosters, following the fractured rib that already cost him more than three months during the regular season. Judge appeared in just 66 games.
That absence left the Yankees without their captain for all five playoff games, and he made clear he wanted to be on the field.
“I liked our chances if I was out there or not,” Judge said. “But definitely, if you ask anybody in this room, I wanted to be out there and I wanted to contribute. But it’s just not the way it went.”
Aaron Boone had defended the decision to keep Judge off the roster before the series, saying the Yankees needed the version of Judge who could truly help them advance. He called it the “right thing” to do.
Now the Yankees head into another winter without a championship, their 17th straight season without one. They’re still chasing title No. 28, and Judge is still looking for his first ring.
But his loudest message after the loss was aimed at Brian Cashman and the people building the roster.
“We’re the Yankees. I feel like they [the front office] should go all-in and do what they need to do. If we’ve got holes, if it’s finding certain players or personnel, whatever we need, you’ve got to go out there and get it.”
Judge didn’t pin the whole season on the front office, and he didn’t pretend building a roster is as simple as adding stars. Still, he made it plain that winning 93 games wasn’t the standard in New York.
“It’s tough to say. I want to trade for everybody, sign everybody every single year, but I know that’s not realistic.
They give us a winning team every single year, but that’s not good enough here in New York. We’re the Yankees.
You’ve got to go out there and expect championships and go all-in every year. I’m excited to see what they do.”
The Yankees’ offense told the story of the postseason collapse as much as anything else. After scoring 18 runs in two wild-card wins over Boston, they produced just five across the three games against Tampa Bay. That drop from nine runs per game to 1.67 came with Judge sidelined, but the struggles were bigger than one missing bat.
New York also committed four errors in Game 2, and in Game 3 Anthony Volpe’s apparent tying homer was changed to an RBI double after replay showed spectator interference. Boone accepted the ruling, and the Yankees still had three innings left to erase the deficit.
Judge also pointed to the day-to-day standard he believes championship teams have to meet.
“There’s a standard to winning a championship,” Judge said. “It’s black and white.
There’s no gray area. It’s every day you show up to work.
Every little thing you do is, ‘Are you working toward a championship or not?’ So I think that’s the biggest thing, is just everybody in the room understanding you gotta bring it every single day, especially here in New York.
There’s no days off, and it just comes down to the little things and just preparing every single day like you’re preparing for a championship game.”
Judge backed Boone’s return, and Boone remains under contract through 2027. The Yankees also have roster questions to sort through, with Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm Jr. approaching free agency.
There are at least some pieces to build around. Ben Rice led the team with 41 regular-season homers, while Rice, Lombard and Spencer Jones gave the Yankees young players with something to work from. Judge also praised those players, along with Volpe’s response after a minor league demotion.
Even with that, the captain’s final word on the season was blunt.
“We gotta be better. None of us are satisfied,” Judge said.
In Other News...
MLB Just Weighed In On The Anthony Volpe Play Yankees Fans Hated
The season-ending loss at Yankee Stadium has taken another turn, this time with Major League Baseball stepping in on the controversial play that had Yankees fans fuming. In the middle of New Yorks defeat to the Rays, Anthony Volpe drove a fly ball that briefly looked like it might leave the yard before a fan reached over the fence and pulled it back into the field of play, turning a potential home run into a double after review.
MLB determined the fan interfered with the ball and the person was ejected from the ballpark, adding an ugly postscript to a frustrating night for the Yankees. The Rays still finished off the win and completed the best-of-five sweep, 3-0, leaving New York with one more reminder of how quickly a playoff game can swing on a single moment. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Just Got Hit With A Brutal Post-ALDS Question
The Yankees ALDS exit has already opened the door to the sort of uncomfortable postseason autopsy that follows this club when October ends early. David Ortiz weighed in on the loss to the Rays and pointed to something bigger than a bad series, saying the Yankees are missing the culture that used to help define their success. He framed it as a matter of clubhouse leadership and attention to detail, two things that once felt baked into the organization and now sound more like a standard the current group is trying to reclaim.
Alex Rodriguez added another layer to the discussion by highlighting the gap between New Yorks high payroll and Tampa Bays ability to keep winning with far less money. It is the kind of comparison that stings because it goes beyond one matchup and gets at the larger question hanging over the Yankees: if the resources are there, why does the on-field result still look so familiar in October? [Read more 🡒]
Anthony Volpe Gave Yankees A Spark Before A Play Fans Will Debate
Anthony Volpe got the Yankees moving in Game 3 after being inserted into the lineup, and he immediately made his presence felt by helping tie the game with a run scored on a double. For a club that needed a lift, his energy and aggressiveness were exactly the kind of spark Aaron Boone was looking for when he turned to him in a bigger spot.
Volpe then found himself at the center of the nights most talked-about play, driving a long fly ball that was impacted by fan interference and kept from becoming a potential home run. The umpires ruled that a run would score because of the interference, giving the Yankees an extra tally and leaving fans to sort through what they saw, what the call meant and how much it changed the game. [Read more 🡒]