Did you forget about the Yankees? I know you did not because you are not allowed to. But New York has had a relatively quiet season by their flamboyant and national-TV-darling standards. A big part of this is that the AL East has looked pretty much the same for a while now: The Rays have maintained a comfortable but not secure division lead; the less said about what's happening down there with the bird teams, the better; and in the middle, the Red Sox have ended child hunger and positioned themselves for what feels like an inevitable three-game wild card series against New York.
If the Yankees have been invisible, it's because they've only been "pretty good," and mostly because they can't hit for shit. Since June 1, they've slashed .227/.295/.385, rank 26th in MLB in runs scored, and 29th in wRC+. That they remain safely in playoff position is testament to their league-best pitching, but any self-respecting Bronx Bomber fan will tell you that's an unethical way to win ballgames. That's what the "Milwaukee Brewers" do. Yankees fans demand big boys! Big meaty boys swinging those big bats! Instead they got Trent Grisham.
That changes tonight. Why choose June 1 as the cutoff for the stats above? That's the day Aaron Judge went on the IL for a stress fracture in his rib, suffered more than a month earlier. “We’ve had long stretches where the offense has struggled. I think a big part of that is not having your guy,” manager Aaron Boone said. Their guy has now missed more than half the season, and as goes Judge so go the Yankees: They were a .610 team with him in the lineup, and a .536 team without him.
Tonight at home against the Colorado Rockies, Judge will be back in the starting lineup. No minor-league rehab stint for him—"Why waste at-bats?" he asked—although facing the Rockies is arguably a rehab stint.
The Yankees deliberately slow-walked Judge's return in the hopes of him being 100 percent for October, a luxury they had because the American League is pretty garbaggio and they were never in danger of falling out of the playoff picture. Still, they played winning baseball without him, surviving offensively thanks to a breakout year from Ben Rice, productive play from Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm, and contributions from rookies Spencer Jones and George Lombard and deadline acquisition Luis Garcia Jr.
But where the Yankees have really shined, and why they think this may be their best playoff team in a long while, is their pitching. Their rotation, which projects in October to be Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, and Gerrit Cole, leads baseball in ERA. Their bullpen also boasts MLB's lowest ERA, though the sustainability of that is a little more in question, depending on how much you buy that previously unheralded setup man Brent Headrick is actually the greatest reliever in franchise history.
Who knows how Judge will perform upon his return—he is 34 years old—but having the three-time MVP is obviously preferable to not having him. The pitching-first, homer-dependent Yankees will still lose some low-scoring playoff games in which they fail to advance runners and score all their runs via dinger. But now they have some more hope that same strategy will win them a few games, too.
