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It has been a bad season for the New York Yankees. Nearly everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for a preseason contender. They had the second-best odds of making the World Series in the American League, and now they're barely .500. Can they still make the playoffs?
At the time of writing, they have not yet been eliminated. The Yankees face improbable (some would say impossible) odds to make it to October once more. It's not impossible.
The Boston Red Sox are below New York in the AL East standings, and they have officially been eliminated. There's a 2.5 game difference in standings, so the Yankees are on thin ice.
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They currently trail the Houston Astros by 6.5 games with eight remaining, so it's not as if their playoff hopes have any juice. One more loss, combined with an Astros win, would put them out of their misery, but they're not out yet.
How the Yankees got to this standing
Barring an unprecedented and completely improbable streak, the Yankees are not going to make the postseason. Even if they won out, they'd need the teams they're trailing to lose a bunch, too.
Everything that can go wrong, has. The Yankees suffered an intense amount of injuries. Aaron Judge spent two months on the IL. Giancarlo Stanton has been awful and also spent time on the IL.
Carlos Rodon missed the first half of the season and was ineffective upon return. Luis Severino turned into the worst starting pitcher in baseball during the season when he was healthy.
Anthony Rizzo suffered a concussion in the first half and was lost for the season. DJ LeMahieu forgot how to hit the ball at his career pace. Save for Gleyber Torres and Gerritt Cole, no single player has been healthy for most of the season or at or above their usual quality.
That has left the Yankees, whose payroll is an astonishing $278,999,256, on the verge of completely missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016. This was a shocking fall from grace for them, and largely unexpected.
