Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
September is here. But we won’t need Green Day to come wake us up in four weeks. MLB has plenty of excitement to keep us alert. Specifically, the AL East looks like it could go right down to the wire as a three-horse race. The upstart Toronto Blue Jays currently
lead the division, with the Yankees and Boston Red Sox, eternal rivals, close on their heels.
So who do Yankees fans think will win the AL East? Perhaps surprisingly, there is a clear majority who share the same prognostication.
The Yankees run away with this, with 59 percent of respondents predicting the Bronx Bombers will overtake Canada’s team in the final weeks of the season. Just for one objective point of view, FanGraphs currently has the Blue Jays at 74.6-percent likely to win their first AL East crown since 2015, while the Yankees sit at 17.1 and the Red Sox at 6.2. At least the third-place opinion on Boston is shared, anyway. They will undoubtedly still fight hard for the division, though their chances took a hit with the likely loss of standout rookie Roman Anthony for the remainder of the regular season.
I share the Yankees fans’ optimism, for what it’s worth. Although … I wonder how different these results would look if New York hadn’t carved through some lesser competition last week and won the series opener in Houston. Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and company have Toronto in a 3.5-game lead over New York and Boston at the moment. Let’s see if things get more interesting down the stretch — and if the Yanks can improve on their dismal record against the top two division rivals in 2025.
