It’s official, the Yankees end the regular season as the No. 1 Wild Card in the AL, finishing with the same record (94-68) as the Blue Jays but losing on the tiebreaker for the AL East crown. They will
host the Red Sox in a three-game Wild Card Series, all to be played at Yankee Stadium. It’s a few days early, but with the playoffs starting on the final day of the month, we figured it would be a good time to run the September edition of our GM approval poll.
Before we get into September, it might be useful to track the course charted by Brian Cashman’s approval rating throughout the regular season. Less than half the fanbase approved of his job performance in the first two months of the season despite the team jumping out to an early division lead. The annual June swoon caused it to crater even, though an active trade deadline bumped the rating to a season high of 74 percent despite the poor play extending into July. The team’s fortunes turned around by mid-August, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit they had dug in the division nor the fans’ discontent, his approval rating not even breaching 20 percent.
That brought the Yankees into the final month of the regular season needing to go on a serious run if they were to achieve their stated goal of winning the division. That started with a daunting 12-game gauntlet to open the month against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox, and the fact the Yankees made it through that stretch at 7-5 built confidence they could match up with any future playoff opponent while setting them up to make a final sprint with their last ten games against the last-place Orioles and White Sox. They took care of business to wrap up the regular season, winning nine of those ten games and eight in a row to end the campaign, ultimately falling short of winning the division by the thinnest possible margin. From August 11th onward, the Yankees posted the best record in baseball (31-12) to build the momentum needed to make a deep postseason run.
This successful stretch was driven by an offense and starting rotation that turned their seasons around just in time. Both units were top-three in MLB in September, the offense by wRC+ (120) and the rotation by ERA (3.13). The deserving AL MVP Aaron Judge obviously drove the ship, but the supporting cast around him also stepped up. Giancarlo Stanton raked in his 77 games back from injury and we know how he can carry the whole team in the playoffs. Cody Bellinger had his best season since winning NL MVP in 2019, Jazz Chisholm Jr. posted just the fourth 30-30 season in franchise history, Trent Grisham hit a career-high 34 home runs, Ben Rice and Austin Wells went on red-hot streaks in the last two weeks and deadline acquisition and MLB steals leader José Caballero offers an immense threat on the bases.
As for the rotation, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón got back to being the co-aces after both were part of the problem in the summer swoon. The pair allowed three or fewer runs in each of their final seven starts while averaging over six innings per outing, Fried finishing as the MLB wins leader while Rodón wrapped up his best season in pinstripes with a 3.09 ERA. The big boost has been the emergence of rookie Cam Schlittler as a legitimate Game 3 starter, the triple-digit-throwing youngster posting a 2.96 ERA and 27.6-percent strikeout rate in 14 starts. Will Warren and Luis Gil pulled their weight to help get the team into the postseason and offer intriguing options as potential bullpen long men.
Speaking of the bullpen, the overall numbers for the month of September might not have been great, but several important members finished the season strong to enter the playoffs with confidence. Devin Williams’ final eight appearances were scoreless with a 40-percent strikeout rate. Camilo Doval pitched seven scoreless appearances to end his campaign while Luke Weaver didn’t allow a run in his final five. With this trio performing at their best, the Yankees now have a sturdy multi-inning bridge to get a lead to David Bednar, who stabilized the ninth inning after arriving from Pittsburgh at the deadline with ten saves and a 2.19 ERA in 22 appearances with the Yankees.
It’s a tough test facing the Yankees in the Wild Card Series, Boston ace and likely second place Cy Young finisher Garrett Crochet waiting for them in Game 1. The Red Sox dominated the season series 9-4, but the Yankees winning the final series between them provides the belief they can do it again.
That brings us to today’s task. Do you approve of the job Brian Cashman has done through the end of September? On one hand, the Yankees made it to the postseason with the joint-best record in the AL after their extended summer swoon threatened to jeopardize those chances. On the other hand, they have an extra series to get through if they want to make it back to the World Series, any one of their gut-punch late losses the difference from winning the division and earning a bye. The polarizing GM certainly elicits stronger feelings than can be captured in a one-word response — you may feel a question such as the one being posed requires more nuance, greater elaboration, or a wider selection of options than just a “yes” or a “no,” however for the sake of this exercise, a binary question works best.
