AL East

There is no guarantee Aaron Judge returns to the New York Yankees last season, but team president Randy Levine said the organization will do what it can to keep him.

"I think we'll be extraordinarily competitive," Levine said of the Yankees' approach with the free agent, via Dan Martin of the New York Post.

The Yankees failed to sign Judge to a long-term contract last offseason, offering a seven-year, $213.5 million extension that was rejected. As Levine explained on The Show podcast, the team still wants him back.

"We know his worth and what he means," Levine said. "I don't know what's in his mind. All we can do is show him how much we'd like him to remain a Yankee."

Judge's value continues to grow during his unbelievable 2022 season.

The 30-year-old entered Wednesday with 54 home runs, 117 RBI, 109 runs and a 1.085 OPS, leading the majors in each category. He has 18 more home runs than anyone else in baseball this season, and he remains on pace to pass Roger Maris for the Yankees' single-season record of 61.

ESPN's Jeff Passan recently explained on the Pat McAfee Show why it's so important for the Yankees to re-sign Judge:

"I do think that when it's all said & done Aaron Judge will end up staying with the New York Yankees" ~@JeffPassan#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/OipuSG9LYO

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 1, 2022

"He's the captain, he's the leader in the clubhouse, he's extremely well-regarded by his teammates, by the coaching staff, by management," Passan said. "Everybody loves Aaron Judge. So the idea that he's going to be wearing another uniform, it just seems hard to fathom. But look, money talks."

There will obviously be a heavy market for Judge if he hits free agency, which puts pressure on Levine and the Yankees to pay up in order to keep the four-time All-Star.

New York fans likely won't be satisfied with a "competitive" offer if Judge is in a different uniform next season.

Another day, another home run for Aaron Judge.

The New York Yankees slugger hit his 52nd home run of the season in the ninth inning of Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field to tie his career-high in four-baggers.

52. 👨‍⚖️#AllRise pic.twitter.com/8a5KFAOs6X

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 4, 2022

However, Judge's late home run wasn't enough as the Yankees went on to lose 2-1, dropping their third straight game.

Despite the loss, the Yankees remain first in the AL East with a 79-53 record, five games ahead of the second-place Rays. Still, the team is 9-20 since the trade deadline and is in one of its worst stretches of the season.

While the Pinstripes are struggling, Judge is playing at an MVP level this season and entered Saturday's game slashing .294/.398/.661 with 51 home runs, 113 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 128 games.

The Yankees will be leaning more and more on Judge as the end of the regular season nears, but the remainder of the team must improve if it wants to make a deep postseason run.

As the New York Yankees continue to struggle, manager Aaron Boone has seemingly hit a breaking point after a 9-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

"That's an embarrassing loss," Boone told reporters Friday. "Hopefully, one of those rock-bottom situations, where you should be pissed off and embarrassed. We've set a better standard around here. We just got to be better. Period."

Nothing went well for the Yankees in Friday's loss, which was the team's largest margin of defeat this season. The bullpen gave up six runs, while the offense was held to just five hits in the shutout, with only one hit coming from the 1-through-5 spots in the lineup.

"It's just embarrassing when you get beat like that and you're going through the struggles you are," Boone added.

The loss was the Yankees' fifth in the last six games, part of a 15-25 record since the All-Star break. The Rays have cut the division lead down to just five games, putting even more pressure on New York during this three-game series.

After a blowout loss in Game 1, Boone is looking for a better effort from his team going forward.

As questions continue to linger about the future of MLB home run leader Aaron Judge, who's a free agent at season's end, rival executives reportedly expect him to remain with the New York Yankees.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Thursday that "most" within baseball think the Yanks will find a way to re-sign the four-time All-Star outfielder.

"They have to keep him, don't they?" an unnamed general manager told Heyman.

In June, Judge and the Yankees agreed on a one-year, $19 million contract for 2022 to avoid a hearing for his final year of arbitration. The slugger said no further discussions would be held about a long-term deal.

"That's for when the season's done," Judge told reporters.

The 30-year-old California native has bolstered his value with a terrific season. He's compiled a .296/.399/.664 slash line with 51 home runs and 15 stolen bases in 127 appearances. No one else in baseball has more than 36 homers.

Judge has played his entire career with New York, which selected him in the first round of the 2013 draft. He reached the major leagues in 2016 and won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2017 after hitting 52 longballs in his first full season.

His foray into free agency could be a watershed moment for the modern-day Yankees.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Yanks under George Steinbrenner were willing to spare no expense to chase World Series titles.

The financial balance of power has shifted toward the Los Angeles Dodgers and, more recently, the New York Mets over the past decade, though.

With Judge putting himself in line to receive a monster contract, the Yankees will likely have to step up if they're going to outbid those bid-spending rivals and others.

Although discussions about the Yanks' lack of spending are a bit overblown—they still rank third with a $252.2 million payroll this season, per Spotrac—it's reasonable to question whether they'll keep Judge no matter the price. There may be a limit.

If the likely AL MVP leaves over the winter, there will be incredible pressure on the front office to make other moves during the offseason to keep the club in championship contention next year and beyond.

Staying with the Yankees still seems like the most probable outcome for Judge, though.

New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman is going on the injured list with a leg infection.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters prior to Saturday's game against the Oakland Athletics that Chapman's infection came after he got a tattoo recently.

This will mark his second stint on the injured list in 2022. The 34-year-old was placed on the 15-day injured list May 24 with Achilles tendinitis and missed 38 games with the ailment before returning July 2.

Chapman is undoubtedly past his prime and is struggling to find a rhythm this season. In 36 games, he's earned nine saves and has posted a 4.70 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and 35 strikeouts across 30.2 innings.

He has been with the Yankees for parts of seven seasons. New York traded him to the Chicago Cubs during the 2016 campaign before re-signing him ahead of the 2017 season, and he has been with them ever since.

In 308 games across those seven seasons with the Yankees, Chapman has posted a 2.93 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 153 saves and 445 strikeouts across 288.2 innings. He is in the final year of a three-year, $48 million contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2022 campaign if he can't reach an agreement on an extension in the Bronx.

The Yankees have turned things around after a bit of a lull coming out of the All-Star break. Their 78-48 record has them 8.5 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the top spot in the American League East.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone wants to see a little more fire from his club as it tries to break out of a slump that continued with a 4-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

"We should be ticked off right now, and we need to start playing better," Boone told reporters. "Plain and simple."

The Yanks, who owned MLB's best record at the All-Star break last month (64-28), have gone 9-19 so far in the second half, including 14 losses in their past 18 games.

New York's bats, which were virtually unstoppable at points throughout the season's first four months, have gone ice cold in August. The club has been shut out three times in its past six contests, and its scored more than three runs just once over the past 10 outings.

Boone explained after Friday's loss that there are only so many things he can say amid the skid, but he remains confident a turnaround is on the horizon.

"We can sit here, and I can keep answering questions and talk about it ... but we've got to go do it," he said. "And the good news is we've got all the pieces in that room to do that. I know that's coming. I know it's going to happen, but it really sucks going through it."

The Yankees did receive some good news Friday when Boone announced outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is set to begin a rehab assignment Saturday. The slugger tallied 24 home runs in 80 games before landing on the injured list with Achilles tendinitis in late July.

Getting Stanton back to provide some added middle-of-the-order protection for MVP candidate Aaron Judge could be the spark the Bronx Bombers desperately need.

That's still a handful of days away, however, and the Yanks' lead in the AL East has shrunk from a seemingly insurmountable 15.5 games to a less certain eight games over the Blue Jays. It could be down to six if Toronto takes the last two matchups in this weekend's series.

"I don't give a crap about the [divisional] lead," Boone said. "Play better. We'll handle it. You can talk about that—eight, nine, seven, 10—we need to play better. If we play like this, it's not going to matter anyway. We handle our business, we're in a great spot. We understand that. But we need to handle our business."

Nevertheless, the pressure is really starting to mount on the Yankees to right the ship to prevent an unprecedented second-half collapse.

Former MLB All-Star Bill Lee was taken to a Georgia hospital after he collapsed in the bullpen while warming up to pitch for the Savannah Bananas in an exhibition game Friday night.

"He was able to leave the stadium with medical attention and was taken to a local hospital," Bananas president Jared Orton told the Associated Press.

Lee, 75, pitched for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos during a 14-year career that ended in 1982 and was commonly referred to by his nickname, "Spaceman."

The California native is a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame after spending his first 10 seasons with the AL club. His lone All-Star appearance came representing Boston in 1973.

He compiled a 119-90 record with a 3.62 ERA across 416 career appearances (225 starts).

A biopic about his life, fittingly titled Spaceman, was released in 2016 starring Josh Duhamel and featuring former MLB closer Eric Gagne among the executive producers.

Meanwhile, the Bananas have become a popular attraction in a similar mold to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters.

They wear bright yellow jerseys and embark in a series of antics in exhibition baseball games.

ESPN produced a five-part series about the franchise, Bananaland, which debuted Friday on ESPN+ ahead of the game in which Lee was slated to pitch, which aired on ESPN2.

The Bananas are scheduled to play another "Banana Ball" game Saturday night in Savannah.

A separate version of the organization by the same name plays traditional baseball in the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer league.

New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton will begin a rehab assignment from an Achilles injury on Saturday, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Friday.

Stanton has not played since a July 23 loss to the Baltimore Orioles and was placed on the injured list on July 26 with Achilles tendinitis.

The news comes after Boone told reporters Wednesday that Stanton could return from his injury at some point next week and that the team was hopeful he could start a rehab assignment this weekend.

This is Stanton's second stint on the injured list this season. His first came in May, when he went on the IL with a right calf injury.

With Stanton sidelined, the Yankees have lost 15 of their last 23 games and have fallen out of the American League lead, sitting 3.5 games behind the first-place Houston Astros with a 73-46 record.

The Pinstripes still hold a comfortable nine-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. However, the club can't be happy with its play of late, and it needs to turn things around before the end of the season.

The star slugger said earlier this week that it's been tough to watch the Yankees struggle while he's been sidelined.

"Very annoying," Stanton said of staying patient as the Yankees struggle, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. "It’s annoying not playing in general. But you gotta be smart also. That trumps everything."

Stanton's return should help give the offense a spark. He's hitting .228/.309/.498 this season with 24 home runs and 61 RBI. That said, the team will need some other players to step up regardless, including DJ LeMahieu, Josh Donaldson and Andrew Benintendi.

New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge said there's "work to do" amid a skid that's seen the club lose nine of its past 11 games.

Judge crushed his MLB-leading 46th home run of the season Friday night, but the Yanks still suffered their third straight defeat in a 3-2 loss to the rival Boston Red Sox.

"You can go around this whole room, I think every guy could speak up and say they need to pick it up a little bit, including myself," Judge told reporters. "If we lean on each other, start picking each other up and have each others' backs, we're going to be in a good spot down the stretch."

The four-time All-Star stopped well short of pressing the panic button, however, pointing to the team's spot atop the AL East standings.

"We're in first place, that's where we want to be," Judge said. "But you never want to peak too early. All these games, all these situations, big moments on the road—it's just getting us ready for games down the stretch and in the postseason where we'll be playing games like this against tough opponents. So we're not where we want to be, but I think that's a good thing. We've got a lot of work to do."

The Yankees were the league's best team prior to the All-Star break with a 64-28 record that was three games better than any other club.

They haven't been able to maintain that pace in the season's second half, though. They've gone 7-14 since the break, and three of those wins came against the Kansas City Royals, who are 20 games under .500.

On Monday, New York manager Aaron Boone said he called a team meeting to reset the focus on trying to chase down a World Series title.

"We got together today and spoke and talked. Just more kind of dust settling from the trade deadline, people coming and going a little bit, wanted to get the group together and talk to them, so I did that," Boone told reporters. "Just [wanted] to remind them that we got everything in that room to get through this and realize the goal to being a champion—that is where the focus lies and is."

It hasn't sparked an immediate resurgence as the Yanks have gone 1-3 since the meeting.

In the bigger picture, the Yankees still feature one of the most talented rosters in baseball, especially with Judge playing on a level above pretty much everyone else. His 46 homers are 12 more than anyone else.

Several players who were key to their first-half success, including ace Gerrit Cole, closer Clay Holmes and infielder Gleyber Torres, have struggled since the break, and the club has also dealt with injuries to outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Carpenter.

New York holds a 10-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the division, so it still has a fair amount of cushion as it awaits players returning to form and coming back from the IL.

The question is whether the first-half Yankees will return before the playoffs. If so, they'll be among the top-tier championship contenders come October.

The New York Yankees are hoping to have both Luis Severino and Matt Carpenter return from their injuries before the end of the regular season.

Severino is set to throw from a bullpen mound on Monday for the first time since being placed on the injured list, and the Yankees are hoping he can make five major league starts in September, per Bryan Hoch.

Carpenter, meanwhile, had his check-up in New York City, which went well. He'll have another round of X-rays after Sept. 1 and it's possible he returns this season, per Hoch.

Severino was transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL on Aug. 1 with a strained lat.

The 28-year-old has not pitched since exiting a July 13 win over the Cincinnati Reds early. In 16 starts this season he is 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 95 strikeouts in 86 innings.

Severino said earlier this month that he wasn't happy about being moved to the 60-day IL. However, general manager Brian Cashman noted at the time that the plan was for the right-hander to make around five starts before the postseason.

Severino's return to the New York rotation will be more than welcomed, especially after the franchise traded Jordan Montgomery to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Yankees will then boast a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Frankie Montas, Jameson Taillon, Nestor Cortes and Severino by the time the playoffs come around.

Carpenter, meanwhile, suffered a fractured left foot after fouling a ball off it in Monday's win over the Seattle Mariners. He suffered a clean break and does not need surgery to repair the fracture.

The 36-year-old told reporters earlier this week that he would be back this season.

"We’ve checked everything and it’s the best we could hope for, given the situation," Carpenter said. "I’ve got a broken bone that takes time to heal."

Carpenter was enjoying an excellent season with the Yankees before the injury, hitting .305/.412/.727 with 15 home runs and 37 RBI in 47 games.

The Yankees are first in the AL East with a 71-41 record and hold a 10-game lead over the second-place Toronto Blue Jays. They are all but certain to make the postseason and could make a deep run.