The month of May has only added more intrigue when it comes to the Yankees. With two full pages of the calendar behind us, the Bombers are still fighting to reclaim first place, with the Rays playing some good baseball to wrap up the spring.
Regardless of any team success or struggle, another month in the book means a new slate of defensive highlights to look back on. New York ranks as a roughly league-average defensive unit up to this point based on Outs Above Average, but that doesn’t mean they can’t flash the leather now and then. Here’s a look at May’s best.
May 3rd: Judge tracks it down
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In a tied game in the third inning, the Orioles began to threaten when Taylor Ward slashed a ball towards the wall in right field. With the ball tailing and carrying all the way to the wall, Aaron Judge raced back and used every bit of his 6-foot-7 frame to reach and snag the ball. His jump took him into the wall fairly hard, but he held onto the ball, and secured the second out of the inning.
May 4th: Ryan McMahon goes full extension
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Despite his flaws, which can grow tiring, Ryan McMahon’s calling card has always been his glove. Since his arrival, almost every edition of this series has featured some spectacular play by the Yankees’ third baseman, and May of ‘26 was no different. Later in the O’s series, with the Yankees leading in the seventh, Tim Hill induced a chopper down the line, which McMahon was fairly far from. This didn’t stop him from stabbing the grounder in a fully-extended dive toward foul territory planting his feet and firing a laser over to first base.
May 7th: Jasson Domínguez gives his all
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In the very first at-bat in a game against the Rangers, Brandon Nimmo swatted a ball deep into left-center, destined for extra-bases. That was before Jasson Domínguez charged all the way back to the wall, and snagged the fly ball just a beat before crashing into the fence. It was a spectacular play to kick off the game, but certainly came at a cost, as he has not seen the field since then, with a fairly significant sprain of his AC joint on this play.
May 15th: Schlittler bounces back with a beauty
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This is a bit of a two-for-one from the mid-May Subway Series. First, with one out in the third inning, Cam Schlittler took a low liner off the shoe, before Anthony Volpe redirected to collect the ball and make a slick play to record the out at first. An inning later, Schlittler showed his athleticism, when he pounced off the mound to barehand a soft chopper before making a terrific fadeaway throw over to first for the out. It was an eventful few innings for the righty, but was certainly a defensive highlight of the month.
May 20th: Bellinger uses every inch of the leather
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Later in the month, in a 0-0 ballgame with a the Blue Jays, the Yankees once again benefitted from some fancy glovework. With Schlittler on the mound once again, the righty induced a slicing fly ball toward the left field wall off the bat of a lefty. Cody Bellinger got a good jump and was immediately headed toward the wall, and was forced to used all of his lengthy wingspan to bring in the second out of the inning. Like some of his teammates, a month of Yankees baseball is not complete without a highlight from Bellinger.
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