New York Yankees

New York Yankees' struggles reach boiling point for Boone

Updated Aug. 21, 2022 4:33 p.m. ET

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is officially sending a message to his reeling clubhouse.

The Yankees' 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday was their 14th in the last 17 games. It came less than a day after Boone asserted that the Yankees should be "ticked off" and have to "dig" themselves out of the rut after losing 4-0 to Toronto on Friday night.

"We should be ticked off right now, and we need to start playing better— plain and simple," Boone said on Friday. " … We've hit a rough patch and we've got to dig ourselves out. We can sit here, and I can keep answering questions and talk about it ... but we've got to go do it. 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."

On Saturday, Boone was just as ticked off about another defeat.

"We gotta play better — period," Boone said at the postgame press conference before slamming his hand on the table. "And the great thing is it's right in front of us. It's right here. And we can fix it. …. If we don't score, it's tough to win. And I'll answer these same questions.

"Am I perplexed? Yeah, I am. We gotta do better."

After beginning the 2022 MLB season 61-23, New York is now 73-48, good for second in the AL. They've lost their last six series, which is somewhat shocking considering they did not lose a series from May 23 to July 10.

New York's offense has been the primary culprit for the downturn. Across their last 10 games, the Yankees have scored a combined 21 runs (2.1 runs per game). Aaron Judge, who has blasted an MLB-best 46 home runs and is a likely AL MVP finalist this season, is hitting .194 across his last 10 games.

They're currently without outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Carpenter.

Despite their struggles, the Yankees still own a seven-game lead on the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East. That said, Boone isn't banking on the Yankees' divisional lead getting them through the prolonged rough patch.

"I don't give a crap about the [divisional] lead," Boone said Friday. "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."

The Yankees attempted to shore up their roster at the MLB trade deadline. They acquired outfielder Andrew Benintendi from the Kansas City Royals, right-hander Frankie Montas from the Oakland Athletics, reliever Scott Effross from the Chicago Cubs and traded Jordan Montgomery to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Harrison Bader.

However, the bulk of those trades are yet to yield positive results.

Benintendi is hitting .192 across his first 22 games with New York. Montas owns a 9.00 ERA across his first three starts. Effross owns a respectable 3.24 ERA in eight appearances out of the team's bullpen.

Bader is still rehabbing from a foot injury. To boot, the Yankees traded outfielder Joey Gallo, who owned a .621 OPS, to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gallo owns a .949 OPS across his first 10 games with the Dodgers.

Boone is in his fifth season managing the Yankees. They've made the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, but failed to reach the World Series.