NEW YORK — Every season the Yankees do not win it all lands a little heavier than the last. The franchise has 27 championships, more than any team in the sport, and none since 2009. That gap has become the defining pressure of this era in the Bronx.
Now a former Yankee who knows the weight of pinstripes has put words to the frustration. He did not soften them. He aimed them straight at the front office, the ownership and the clock ticking on the team’s biggest star.
The Yankees are 54-43, second in the American League East and 2.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays after Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They have gone 18-20 without their captain in the lineup, a stretch that has turned a promising season into an anxious one.
The timing of the criticism was not a coincidence. It landed the same week the team made a roster move that quietly underscored just how long its franchise player may be sidelined.
A roster move that says the quiet part
On Saturday, the Yankees transferred Aaron Judge to the 60-day injured list. The move opened a 40-man roster spot for newly signed right-hander Bradley Hanner, who was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after agreeing to a major league deal.
The transaction was procedural on its face, but the message underneath was hard to miss. Placing Judge on the 60-day list confirms he cannot return in the near term, extending an absence that has already reshaped the season.
Judge, a three-time AL MVP, has not played since May 31 because of a stress fracture in his right first rib. He landed on the injured list June 5. Before the injury, he was batting .248 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs and a .907 OPS in 59 games, and he was still named to his eighth All-Star team.
The news on his recovery has not been encouraging. Re-imaging on July 15 showed some healing, but not enough to let him resume baseball activities, and he has been limited mostly to lower-body work.
A Yankees great turns up the heat
Into that uncertainty stepped Alex Rodriguez, a central figure on the last Yankees team to win it all. Speaking at a WFAN event, the three-time MVP delivered a blunt assessment of the organization and its urgency.
He started with the clubhouse itself, arguing the current roster lacks the championship experience the franchise was once known for. He contrasted the present group with the winning culture of the Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera years.
“When everyone looks at Derek Jeter, there’s good feelings. Mariano Rivera, good feelings,” Rodriguez said. “If you look at our team (now), we have less than 1-2 championships in the dugout for a franchise that has 27.”
From there he turned to the stakes surrounding Judge, framing the closing title window as a burden on everyone from the general manager to the fan base.
“That window’s closing,” Rodriguez said. “And it puts tremendous pressure on Brian Cashman, the ownership, the fanbase. And what an absolute tragedy it would be to have one of the greatest players of our generation only go to one World Series and not win.”
Then came the challenge to the front office. With the Aug. 3 trade deadline near, Rodriguez urged the Yankees to be aggressive, pointing to a wide-open American League as the reason to push everything to the center of the table.
“It’s a very simple formula. This is the weakest the American League has been in our lifetime,” Rodriguez said. “You have a scenario where you could play the White Sox and the Rays and go to the World Series. So if you’re management, if you have an opportunity to go all-in, you gotta put all your chips in now.”
The deadline pressure builds
Rodriguez’s argument cuts to the heart of the Yankees’ dilemma. Judge is 34 and remains the engine of the offense, yet his standing as one of the game’s best has never come with a ring. He praised the captain as irreplaceable to the clubhouse.
“Aaron Judge is such a transformational player, but what he means in that clubhouse, what he means to the fan base, ownership, and his teammates, he’s just one of one,” Rodriguez said. “So, I think it’s very hard to win a championship without Aaron Judge.”
The front office now faces a clear choice. The lineup has leaned on Ben Rice to offset the missing power, with mixed results, and the offense has sputtered without its centerpiece. Adding outside help before the deadline may be the only way to stay in the race while waiting on Judge.
For now the Yankees hold their ground in the division and the wild-card picture, but the margin is thin and the calendar is unforgiving. Judge is on the 60-day list, his return is unconfirmed, and one of the franchise’s most decorated names has told management the time to act is now.
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