It’s been a dozen years since the New York Yankees drafted Aaron Judge. From A-ball in Charleston to the scorching lights in the Mecca of baseball, Judge has lived within a singular, unforgiving doctrine: World Series or bust. Back in October 2024, on the morning of the Yankees’ regular-season finale, Judge admitted, “Ever since I’ve been a Yankee, getting drafted in 2013, all that was ever engrained in my head or what we were taught is win in New York. Be a winner. Championship mindset. It’s just always been the way I was raised; even before I got here it was, “If you don’t win, what’s the point?”
While the Yankees couldn’t meet it last year, the line seems to be moving further away in 2025 as well. Although, post Sunday’s 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, the Yankees are 65-67 and stand atop the AL wild card standings.
However, Max Fried, who signed an eight-year, $218 million contract this past offseason because Yanks couldn’t land Soto, is struggling noticeably. He was handed the largest contract ever for a left-handed pitcher. While he was expected to be the anchor of the starting rotation, he hasn’t met the expectations.
BT has huge concerns for the Yankees if Max Fried can’t return to ace form.
Listen: https://t.co/H0MGypV0Qw pic.twitter.com/blUERbfAM6
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) August 18, 2025
WFAN Sport Radio’s Brandon Tierney made a harsh statement. “Without Max Fried, the Yankees really don’t have a chance to win a championship… Max Fried has been bad.” He didn’t put it out as a possibility. Instead, he announced it.
After pitching seven innings of one-run baseball on June 25 in Cincinnati, Fried held a 1.92 ERA through 17 starts. However, in the following eight starts, his performance declined sharply, posting a 6.80 ERA and showing little resemblance to the dominant pitcher he was during the first half of the season.
His Sunday’s outing against the Cardinals was just as bad. The Yankees sure notched a 12-8 win. But in that game, Fried lasted only five innings while surrendering seven earned runs on eight hits. His ERA has now ballooned to 3.26.
It’s certainly concerning for a three-time All-Star and a 2021 World Series champ. Yet, the Yankees can’t give up on him given that both Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt are unavailable. For now, the only question in New York is simple—can this team win it all?
How are the Yankees looking right now?
The Yankees had a one-of-a-kind weekend. They were able to stack an 8-4 win to finish off the three-game sweep against the Cardinals. Except for the win feels, some music and Jazz Chisholm sipping on a beer, the mood was tempered in the Clubhouse. They have now won five of their last six games, including the series against the Minnesota Twins in the Bronx.
We can’t say the mood was celebratory, but it was sure relieving. After all, two series wins cannot overshadow the damage from their long, ongoing tough stretch.
They had dropped 31 out of their 51 games between June 13 and August 10. “We believed that even during the rough patches and tough moments of the season. We never lost that confidence. But now we’ve got to go prove it,” said manager Aaron Boone.
For now, the Yankees are hoping that the last week was the beginning of that turnaround for them. They do know it is going to be a long run of consistently stacking wins if they want to contend in their division.
There are 38 games left to play, and the Yankees are second in the division. They gained ground on both teams ahead of them on Sunday, pulling to 5 ½ games behind first-place Toronto and a half-game behindsecond-place Boston.
The Yankees also managed to extend their lead over the Cleveland Guardians for the third AL wild-card spot to 3½ games. Now, the Yankees have to play against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday before they come back to bronx for the upcoming games.
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