It’s been 17 years and counting since the New York Yankees have won the World Series, and the heat is on Aaron Judge and Co. to hoist the Commissioners’ Trophy this year.
The Yankees were named one of the teams with the most pressure on them to win this year by executives in a poll carried out by The Athletic’s Jayson Stark.
The Yankees are just one year removed from their 40th American League pennant. But they lost in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, and despite again making the playoffs — and finishing tied with the eventual pennant-winning Toronto Blue Jays — their franchise-long championship drought extended to 17 years.
The Yankees Have Pressure to Win The World Series This Year
The Yankees were not the most named team on the list of 36 executives with the hottest seat — that distinction fell to the Philadelphia Phillies and their core — nor were they even the team with the most pressure on them from New York. The rival New York Mets were the second-most pressured club behind their NL East rivals.
But Judge and the Yankees landed third, with Stark doing fans the added insult by rattling off the small-market clubs — the Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs — as well as noting the fact the Boston Red Sox have won the title twice in that span.
“I’m saying the Yankees, just because they’re on this list every year,” that rival exec said. “They’re pretty much always the answer to this question, and they bring it on themselves. Those 27 (championship) flags will bring it out on you every time. It’s been so long since they won, that pretty soon, those Red Sox fans are going to start chanting, ‘2009,’ the way the Yankees fans used to chant, ‘1918,’ at them.”
2026 is The Yankees’ Best Chance To Win it All
The Yankees have been much maligned for their insistence on running it back from 2025, but the 2026 season stands to be their best chance at winning the World Series in some time, at least on paper.
New York will return almost its entire roster that won 94 games in 2025, plus its starting-pitching rotation should be even better as the year goes on. Ace Gerrit Cole on the shelf for all of 2025, and Clarke Schmidt was confined to the sidelines for much of the year, but both are expected to return from Tommy John surgery in 2026.
Adding that duo to Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren — plus Carlos Rodon after he returns from offseason shoulder surgery — and offseason acquisition Ryan Weathers will make a formidable rotation.
But the Yankees still have Judge, the two-time reigning AL MVP, leading an offense that scored 849 runs a year ago — the most in the majors. With each position player set to return, plus the potential for top prospect Spencer Jones to join the fold in 2026, the Yankees offense should not be an issue this year.
The competition will be fierce, since the Dodgers, Mets, Blue Jays and Red Sox all upgraded their teams. But Yankees fans should be hopeful that this is the year.
Executives Name Yankees One of Top Teams With Pressure to Win in 2026