2025 New York Yankees

2025 New York Yankees / Franchise: New York Yankees / BR Team Page

Record: , Finished in AL Eastern Division (2025 AL)

Managed by Aaron Boone

Coaches: Brad Ausmus, Matt Blake, Travis Chapman, Preston Claiborne, Casey Dykes, Mike Harkey, Pat Roessler, Luis Rojas, James Rowson and Tanner Swanson

Ballpark: New Yankee Stadium

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2025 New York Yankees headed into the season as the defending American League champions, something that could not have been said since their last World Series win, back in 2009. And of course, for the Yankees, the only thing that matters is winning the World Series, so the fan base was growing impatient, even if getting to the Fall Classic after an outstanding season in 2024 had been an achievement. The off-season had been anything but quiet, though, as there were numerous personnel changes from that pennant-winning team. The biggest change was the departure of RF Juan Soto, who had teamed up with MVP Aaron Judge to form the heart of the Yankees' offense, but when he became a free agent after the season, the Yankees came up short, seeing him leave to join their crosstown rivals, the New York Mets. Also leaving was long-time second baseman Gleyber Torres and closer Clay Holmes, both also as free agents, while P Nestor Cortes was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in order to acquire Holmes's replacement, Devin Williams. Other additions were P Max Fried, signed as a free agent, OF Cody Bellinger, acquired in a trade with the Chicago Cubs, and 1B Paul Goldschmidt, signed as a free agent. The other major change was that the Yankees finally dropped their long-standing policy banning facial hair on players - they were the last team in the majors to have such a policy.

The Yankees ran into injury trouble in spring training as they lost four key players in a short span of time: DH Giancarlo Stanton and utility player DJ LeMahieu both had to start the season on the injured list, and two starting pitchers were also shut down for a prolonged period, as Rookie of the Year Luis Gil was sidelined for a period of months, and ace Gerrit Cole had to undergo Tommy John surgery, ending his season before it had started. Heading into camp, the Yankees had a wealth of starting pitchers, and it even caused an issue as Marcus Stroman, who looked like he would be the odd man out, expressed his displeasure at being considered for a bullpen slot. However, with the injuries, Stroman was again a starting pitcher, and GM Brian Cashman admitted to reporters that the Yankees now needed more pitching but that "very little [was] available." There was more bad news on March 16th when Clarke Schmidt had a scheduled Grapefruit League start pushed back for a day, then cancelled the next day due to shoulder soreness. The hope was that rest would allow him to make his first regular season start, scheduled for April 3rd.

The Yankees started the season on the right note as Austin Wells, the first catcher to bat lead-off on Opening Day for the franchise, connected for a homer off Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers sending them on their way to a 4-2 win on March 27th. In their second game two days later, they did some thing unprecedented in major league annals to mark Cortes' return to New Yankee Stadium: Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Judge homered on his first three pitches of the game - which was also the first time the Yankees had opened a game with three consecutive homers, then Wells hit another long ball later in the inning for their first-ever four-homer inning. If that wasn't enough, Judge added to more homers, including a grand slam, and the Yankees hit a total of nine homers, setting a new team record, in a 20-9 win. They were just the third team to hit that many dingers in a single game. Also, for both Wells and Goldschmidt, it was the first time in their career that they had batted in the leadoff spot. With 11 home runs in their first two games, the Yankees had hit two more than any other team before them, and then added four more long balls the next day in completing a sweep of Milwaukee. That power outburst attracted attention to the fact that a number of their players were using an odd-shaped bat called a "Torpedo bat" with a thicker barrel and a tapered end to compensate for the extra weight in the middle. But lest conspiracy theories take over, Judge had hit all four of his homers in the series with a regular bat. In any case, the 15 long balls tied them with the 2006 Detroit Tigers for most in a team's first three games, and the 13 over the final two games were the most in any two-game span in Yankees history, and one short of the all-time record set by the 1999 Cincinnati Reds. They continued to be homer-happy in their next game, when they hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 1st, when Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe and Ben Rice all went deep to make it 18 homers in four games, a new record. However, they then got a taste of their own medicine when Eugenio Suarez, himself on a home run tear, hit a grand slam off Mark Leiter Jr. in the 8th with closer Devin Williams unavailable, for a 7-5 Arizona win and the Yankees' first loss of the season. The Yankees were the first team to have nine different players go yard in its first four games, and to have three players (Judge, Chisholm and Volpe) with three or more homers in that span. By the time they completed their season-opening home stand with a 9-7 win over Arizona on April 3rd, they had hit 22 homers, shattering the previous major league mark of 17 through a team's first six games set by the 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers, and Judge had hit the 500th extra-base hit of his career. The trio of Judge, Chisholm and Volpe now all had at least four homers, which was also unprecedented at such an early stage of the season.

The Yankees continued to rake when Judge hit his major league leading 6th homer on April 4th and Trent Grisham went deep twice the next day, with the Yankees winning the first two games of their first road series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. By then their record start had resulted in 25 homers in their first 8 games. However, on April 6th, the Bucs became the first team to hold them within the park for an entire game and won 5-4 in 11 innings, a loss which was followed by another homerless performance, this one in a loss to Casey Mize and the Detroit Tigers on [[[April 7]]th. Their 2 runs that day was their lowest total of the season.

Further Reading

• Bryan Hoch: "Here are the storylines to watch as the Yanks open camp", mlb.com, February 10, 2025. [1]
• Bryan Hoch: "Cashman: Yanks need pitching, but 'very little is available'", mlb.com, March 11, 2025. [2]
• Bryan Hoch: "Judge hits slam among 3 blasts as Yanks break franchise HR mark", mlb.com, March 29, 2025. [3]
• Steve Rushin: "Goodbye to Baseball’s Most Anachronistic Rule: I miss it already.", The Atlantic, February 25, 2025. [4]

2025 MLB season by team