NEW YORK — Six games into the 2026 season, the New York Yankees are not just winning. They are making history. The numbers are absurd, the pitching has been almost perfect, and the questions that plagued this team all winter are starting to look like they had answers all along.
New York entered April 3 at 5-1, the best record in the AL East. The Blue Jays are going to be good. So are the Orioles and Red Sox, even if Boston stumbled to a 1-5 start. The Yankees know what lies ahead in a loaded division.
As New York Post baseball columnist Joel Sherman noted this week, margin matters in this division.
“You don’t want to leave wins on the table in this division,” Sherman said, citing a Yankees source. “The example used was last year the Yankees won 94 games. The Blue Jays won 94 games. That’s one win short of winning the division. The Blue Jays won the tiebreaker.”
That single game defined last October. The Yankees know it. Every win now carries extra weight.
Pitching numbers that belong in the record books
Through six games, the Yankees own a team ERA of 1.01. The next-closest figure belongs to the Atlanta Braves at around 2.00. For context, Atlanta’s rotation has been devastated by injuries and is widely expected to fall back as the year progresses.
The Yankees have logged three shutouts in their first six games. Per MLB.com writer Bryan Hoch, that matches a feat achieved by the 2002 Yankees and places this club alongside just four other teams to do it since 2000: the 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers, the 2015 Oakland Athletics and the 2016 Dodgers. New York has also permitted just three total runs through six outings, tying the 1943 St. Louis Cardinals for the fewest allowed in that span.
Manager Aaron Boone did not overload the praise but kept it straightforward.
“Everyone has contributed,” Boone said. “Max has gone into the seventh or completed the seventh in back-to-back ones. Everyone else from the starting rotation has gone out and held them down, and then the bullpen has been excellent.”
Max Fried has been the headliner. The left-hander has not allowed a single run in two starts. Sherman said the timing was almost surreal.
“A couple hours after we talked about Max Freed on our podcast, Freed went out for the second time this year through shutout baseball,” Sherman noted. “He was really precise and very good.”
The bullpen worry that may already have an answer
All winter, the Yankees rotation drew praise. Their bullpen drew doubt. Closer David Bednar was the known quantity, but the bridge to get there looked shaky on paper.
So far, that bridge is holding. Sherman identified three relievers as the critical barometers: Camilo Doval, Jake Bird and left-hander Brent Headrick. The trio has combined for three runs allowed across a combined 11 appearances through the first six games.
Doval has been especially sharp.
“His stuff is high-end. He’s faced eight batters. Not only has he not walked any, he’s only gone to a three-ball count on one,” Sherman said. That kind of command from a pitcher with Doval’s raw ability is a significant development.
Bird was acquired at last July’s trade deadline and was eventually sent to the minors last season. He has come back a different pitcher. Hedrich, meanwhile, was a name Aaron Boone kept returning to throughout spring training when asked about under-the-radar contributors. The thinking was that converting Hedrich to a full-time reliever role would preserve his stuff and prevent the back-to-back decline that hurt him in 2025.
“The initial read of their setup guys is it’s like old times,” Sherman said. “The Yankees traditionally, over the last 10 years, have found answers in their pen often in unexpected places. That didn’t happen last year. And it was their worst bullpen in quite a while.”
If this holds, it solves the single biggest concern entering the season. Sherman put it plainly:
“It does make you curious if this continues for a while or all year because it would solve what was the biggest worry about them coming into the season.”
Ben Rice looks like a changed player at first base
Ben Rice came into 2026 with the bat never really in question. The concerns centered on his glove. First base was a relatively new position for him a year ago, and it showed.
Through the early games, something has changed.
“He’s just looked much better at first base,” Sherman said. “I don’t think anybody should clear room on his shelf for a gold glove. But the question is can he be major league average or better? And this is a guy who is a worker.”
If Rice can field at a competent level while continuing to punish right-handed pitching, it changes the calculus around Paul Goldschmidt’s role. Goldschmidt was brought in for his bat against left-handers and his defense. But Sherman raised the question of whether the Yankees might not need to rest Rice against lefties as often as once thought.
“If Ben Rice is going to hit and field at least major league average and destroy righty pitching, then he becomes an everyday player,” Sherman said.
That was always the upside projection. Now it looks like it might actually happen.
Trent Grisham’s legs are the story nobody expected
When the Yankees made Grisham a qualifying offer and he accepted it at $22.05 million, the fan base was largely unhappy. One year, big money, for a player who looked sluggish in center for much of 2025.
Sherman pushed back on that narrative early in the season.
“A big market team playing for it all, you got to bring him back if he wants to come back for one year,” he said. “And maybe a slight overpay, but not an overpay at all if he’s the guy he was last year.”
More importantly, Grisham is moving differently. Sherman and others noted during spring training that his hamstrings had been the issue in 2025. The belief inside the organization was that Grisham was protecting his legs and not running out fully on plays. In the early going, that appears to have been accurate.
“He’s just moving so much better in center field,” Sherman said. “Grisham has been a gold glove level center fielder in the past.” If he stays healthy and reverts to 20-25 home runs with walks and above-average defense, the contract looks like fair value and the Yankees’ outfield looks a lot more stable.
Cody Bellinger can play center as well, but Sherman noted Grisham on two healthy legs is the better option. The Yankees signed Bellinger in part for his versatility. Having Grisham in top form is a luxury they did not fully enjoy last season.
A 5-game sample with real underlying signals
Six games do not define a 162-game season. Every analyst, Sherman included, is careful to repeat that. Small samples are small. The Yankees standings will look different in May.
But context matters. The Yankees’ 2026 pitching performance through six games is historically unusual. The Yankees bullpen contributors were the question marks, and they are answering. Ben Rice is improving in a spot where he had real deficiencies. Grisham appears physically right in a way he was not for most of 2025.
These are not just results. They are process indicators. And for a Yankees team that went 94-68 last year, lost a division tiebreaker by one game and made a World Series run before falling short, the early read is that this Yankees group may have more room to grow than outside observers assumed. The Yankees enter the home opener on April 4 with every reason to believe this season could end very differently than the last.
A digital technocrat-turned-baseball buff, Sara is an ardent follower of the New York Yankees. Born and brought up in New York City, she is a regular to games since she was a kid. Despite working as media strategist, baseball is her first love. She has been covering baseball games in the city as well as MLB and MiLB games involving the Yankees, the Mets, and their minor affiliates as a freelancer for different web and media publications. She works as a lead author for the Yankees-centered PinstripesNation since its very inception.
