New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Put down the torches and pitchforks, people. The fan reaction was overwhelmingly negative to the Yankees’ champagne celebrations of clinching a postseason berth with a win over the Twins on Monday (they had technically already clinched with Toronto losing earlier). However, Aaron Judge provided a new and valuable perspective on the importance of celebrating even the small victories.
“There’s a lot of guys in this room that are going to wear this pinstripe jersey one time, and they might not have [another] opportunity to ever make it to a postseason. So you gotta celebrate that because, at the end of the day, you work your butt off in spring training and all season long to get an opportunity to go out there and win a World Series.”
To that point, eight Yankees have never made it to the postseason, including rookies George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones, trade deadline acquisitions Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos, and journeyman-turned-relief-ace Brent Headrick. However, the most poignant example is Michael Fulmer, who missed all of 2019 and 2024 to injury and contemplated retirement following his second Tommy John surgery in 2023. Fulmer soaked in the celebrations he once thought he’d never get to be a part of, but made sure to share a final point. With every hug he received, the message remained the same: “Job’s not finished.”
The Athletic | Brendan Kuty ($): Being the starting shortstop for the Yankees is one of the heaviest, most scrutinized burdens to bear in MLB, much less for a 21-year-old rookie called up midseason and handed the job. Anthony Volpe knows this better than anyone, and that’s principally because of the astronomically high bar set by a certain Derek Jeter. Now, George Lombard Jr. gets to experience the full weight of the job, but he’s not going into it unprepared.
In January, Lombard sat down for a private breakfast with Jeter and used the opportunity to pick the brain of the player perhaps more qualified than anyone to speak on what it takes to play for the Yankees. At that point, Lombard was coming off a successful half-season at High-A followed by some minor growing pains at Double-A, and was preparing to participate in major league spring training. Lombard focused his questions around the parts that the cameras don’t capture:
“I think the better questions — and the ones that are more valuable — are all the non-baseball (questions). How he approached dealing with New York. Dealing with everything that comes with it. The media. The off-the-field stuff. How, in his case, being the captain, dealing with all of those responsibilities.”
More than preparation, routine, media, and many other team-related responsibilities, the piece of advice that struck Lombard the most sounds simple: to be an authentic, stand-up human being. That impacts all facets of the game, from interactions with teammates to remaining grounded, humble, and hungry to always improve.
New York Post | Greg Joyce: Ryan Weathers is progressing in his rehab from a left forearm flexor strain suffered on August 22nd. Weathers threw his first bullpen session on Tuesday, throwing 15 pitches with the velocity sitting at 87-90, which he assured was harder than he normally throws in his bullpen sides between starts. The next step is to throw another bullpen on Friday followed by live batting practice. It’s a race against time to get fully built back up before the regular season ends Sunday after next, but Weathers has the added advantage of potentially not having to build up to a full starter’s workload if the plan is to deploy him out of the bullpen in the postseason. At the time of his injury, Weathers was 5-8 in 25 starts, with a 3.60 ERA, 3.62 FIP, and 143 strikeouts in 137.1 innings.
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