Two-time Super Bowl-winning NFL coach Bill Parcells once coined the phrase, “You are what your record says you are.” Apply that wisdom to the Yankees’ record overall this season, 49–40, and the ledger would suggest this is a good, playoff-caliber team. Apply that same logic to the Yankees’ recent play over the last month, and you’d think you were watching one of the worst teams in the sport.
It’s been that bad for the Yankees, who have gone 13–17 since the start of June, an abysmal stretch that coincides with the absence of reigning back-to-back American League MVP Aaron Judge.
Now, it would be easy to blame the Yankees’ struggles on Judge’s absence. After all, we’ve seen New York languish without their captain and feared slugger in the past.
But a comparison of some numbers of the Yankees sans Judge historically to the Yankees sans Judge in 2026 seems to indicate there are far more problems.
Yankees without Judge historically
| Winning Percentage | Runs Per Game | Home Runs Per Game | Runs Allowed Per Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| .544 | 4.86 | 1.49 | 4.6 |
Yankees without Judge in 2026 (Through July 5 games)
| Winning Percentage | Runs Per Game | Home Runs Per Game | Runs Allowed Per Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| .431 | 4.1 | 1.4 | 4.7 |
The Yankees are hitting about roughly the same number of homers and allowing a similar number of runs per game as they traditionally have without Judge, but are scoring far fewer runs and losing games at a greater rate than one would have expected.
So what’s the culprit behind the Yankees’ losing skid, in which they’ve dropped nine of their last 10 games? Bad baseball in every facet of the game.
A lineup that has gone missing at times
Since June 1, the Yankees offense ranks among the bottom five teams in batting average, OBP, slugging percentage and wRC+. And as jarring as those numbers are, it’s been the head-scratching lapses the lineup has gone through that have been far more concerning. Even without Judge and the injured Giancarlo Stanton, this is a lineup that still employs two former league MVPs in Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, as well as an All-Star slugger in Ben Rice. Rice struggling mightily, perhaps without Judge’s protection in the lineup, hasn’t helped, as he's scuffled to a .200/.298/.391 slash line since the beginning of June.
The Yankees have gone through long stretches where they struggle to even put runners on base, failed to hit with runners in scoring position and have toiled against starting pitching even after getting multiple looks at an opposing team’s starter. There was White Sox pitcher Sean Burke, as part of an opener, holding the Yankees to one run over the final 7 ⅓ innings of a June 18 loss. There was Reds starter Andrew Abbott holding the Yankees to one run over five innings on June 20. His teammate Chase Burns permitted just one run over five more innings the next day. Then, there was a particularly futile stretch during a four-game sweep at the hands of the rival Red Sox, in which the Yankees scored nine runs in four games, went 4-for-24 with runners in scoring position and were no-hit by Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray for seven innings.
Will Judge’s return help the lineup? Of course it will. But there are far too many talented hitters in this lineup for the Yankees to look this helpless at the plate for long periods of time.
A starting pitching staff that has regressed and succumbed to further injury
Up until May 31, a deep Yankees rotation that had weathered the absences of Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón had been baseball’s best, pitching to a 2.97 ERA. Since June 1, Yankees starters have pitched to a 4.91 ERA.
There have been flashes of brilliance from Cole since his return in May, but the overall results (4.01 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate) aren’t what the Yankees have come to expect from the longtime ace. Even the staff’s current ace, Cam Schlittler, has experienced some turbulence, mainly due to a June 30 start in which he served up four home runs and six earned runs to the Tigers. Will Warren (3.73 ERA, 89 ⅓ innings pitched) has been steady but Ryan Weathers (4.29 ERA) has nearly exceeded his career high in innings pitched, opening the door to durability concerns.
The Yankees certainly don’t need any more of those. Lefty ace Max Fried is still shelved on the injured list due to a bone bruise in his left elbow and still likely weeks away from a return. Fellow southpaw Rodón, who had been pitching well since his May return, on July 3 joined Fried on the injured list with elbow inflammation. Yankees depth starters Elmer Rodriguez and Brendan Beck haven’t been up to the task as fill-ins.
Plus, in another factor outside of the control of Yankees starters, the club’s poor defense has put a strain on the pitching staff, which has allowed 30 unearned runs since June 1, the most in baseball. Good health will likely return for the Yankees starting staff, but there are question marks that weren’t present earlier in the year.
A defense that has made costly mistakes
Defensively, the Yankees have fallen on hard times during their June—and July—swoon. New York began the season among the most reliable defensive teams in the game, but has committed as many as 20 errors in a 15-game stretch in the midst of the club’s doldrums. Part of the reason for the defensive woes? New York dealt with injuries to catcher Austin Wells, a standout defensive force behind the plate, as well as outfielder Trent Grisham and third baseman Ryan McMahon, leaving the club to play some players, such as the versatile José Caballero, out of position.
But make no mistake: the Yankees have made plenty of uncharacteristic brain farts in the field. The most glaring of the Yankees defensive transgressions? A four-error game in a 6–3 loss to the Red Sox on June 26 in which the club surrendered six unearned runs, its most in a game while holding the opponent to zero earned runs since 1913.
The club should be much better defensively than it has as of late, given it employs strong defenders at third base (McMahon), second base (Jazz Chisholm Jr.), shortstop (Anthony Volpe) and in the outfield (Bellinger).
Sometimes, the noise around the Yankees is so loud it blurs the lines between perception and reality. In the case of the Yankees defense, any criticism has been earned as of late.
Judge returning, which may still be weeks away, will undoubtedly help the Yankees fix some of what ails them. But they’ve been playing poorly enough for long enough to know that there are issues here that go beyond just inserting a reigning MVP back into the lineup and the field. The Yankees had better turn it around—and fast.
