Former Yankee Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Yankees Playoff Hopes

Cameron Maybin didn’t offer a hot take. He just asked the question a lot of Yankees fans have been quietly avoiding.

“Just thinking out loud here… is it actually possible the Yankees miss the playoffs?” the longtime MLB outfielder posted on X Sunday morning. “At some point you are who you are.... shaky defense, hittable rotation, no speed on the bases, homer or bust offense, and way too many blunders.”

“Just my inner thoughts speaking out loud,” he added.

It was the kind of post that doesn’t scream outrage—but it doesn’t exactly whisper confidence either. And coming from Maybin, who spent part of the 2019 season in the Yankees clubhouse and remains a respected voice around the league, it hit with a little more weight.

Because he’s not wrong.

The Yankees entered the weekend clinging to a Wild Card spot and trending in the wrong direction. They’ve been one of the worst baserunning teams in baseball this season and rank near the bottom in defensive metrics since the All-Star break. Injuries to Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt have thinned their rotation. 

Offensively, the Yankees remain built around power. But when the homers dry up, and Aaron Judge goes on the injured list,  so does the run production. 

Maybin wasn’t stirring the pot, though he’s been around long enough to know that Yankees fans are near full-blown panic. His comments echoed what more than a few inside the sport are now wondering. After catastrophic injuries to Gerrit Cole this spring and Clarke Schmidt midway through, with Luis Gil just now making his season debut and now Aaron Judge's elbow an issue, maybe this just isn't the Yankees' year.

The Yankees missed the playoffs in 2023, the second time in seven seasons.  But with the AL East tightening and their margin for error shrinking by the day, Maybin is asking a legitimate question that the Yankees need to be asking themselves.