Yankees Have an AL East Elimination Problem

This would mark the fourth time that the Yankees were eliminated by a division rival since 2018. It would also be the third time that one of those rivals played Sinatra after beating the Yankees. At this point, Brian Cashman should be accustomed to it whenever he sees the clip pop up on his phone.

The first time it happened was in 2018. The Yankees, who had been thoroughly outclassed — a familiar story — by the Boston Red Sox. In the locker room, they played Sinatra while spraying champagne on each other. The Tampa Bay Rays also did it during the 2020 Wild Card, which took place in San Diego's Petco Park. As players like Ji-man Choi slid on the grass outside, covered in alcohol, Sinatra played too.

Unless the Yankees are facing American League Central teams, losing to rivals feels like tradition in the Bronx. Beating Boston in the previous Wild Card series is the outlier more than anything.

In 2018, the Yankees lost to those Red Sox. Next year, they failed to get revenge on the Houston Astros for coming short in 2017. In the pandemic-shortened season, after the Rays finished beating them all year, the Yankees lost again to Tampa in five games. In 2021, Gerrit Cole was chased out of the Wild Card game as he took the mound with a hamstring injury, and the Yankees suffered yet another loss to Boston.

In 2022, Aaron Judge surpassed Roger Maris, but again, his team failed to beat the Astros and gain any revenge for the sign-stealing or those previous defeats. Their World Series rivalry was renewed in 2024, harkening back to the days of Jackie Robinson and Yogi Berra. The Yankees shot themselves in the foot every step of the way, inevitably culminating in an ugly Game 5, where those dropped ball memes still exist today.

In 2025, that script is still the same. A rival beat them, and Sinatra serenaded them into the night. This time, it wasn't a recycled loss, as it had been with Boston or Houston, but a Toronto team that they had always handled over the years.

It doesn't matter if the Yankees add the ace. It doesn't matter if they trade for the superstar. It hardly matters if Judge has a statistically impressive October. The team that many grew up watching rise to the occasion now wilts anytime a modicum of pressure is placed on them.

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