Aaron Judge taking a bullet for organizational problems is exactly what’s wrong with Yankees

Following yet another brutal showing against the Boston Red Sox, Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees captain, spoke some harsh truths regarding what's wrong with the current team.

Will Warren got roughed up in Saturday's disaster, and with the Yankees' newest addition, Paul Blackburn, on the hill in a last gasp attempt to make a comeback, the team completely unraveled, with some familiar culprits taking center stage.

So Judge isn't wrong when he says, "Coaches can't fix that, fans can't fix that, media can't fix that. It's the players in this room. We've got to step up," speaking about the team needing to play better. But the blame only starts there.

Aaron Judge is technically right when he points the finger at Yankees players needing to play better, but there is a lot more at play

Something that perhaps needs to be talked about more is the fact that Judge was hitting just .197 in the second half through that contest, and without his bat at its usual levels of potency, it is hard for the Yankees to win ball games.

More than one thing can be true, however. While Judge is just one of many players who need to step up, that's not the whole reason why we are where we are. The lion's share of the blame should fall on the shoulders of two men, Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone.

While Boone is the easiest target, it makes more sense to start with Cashman. After all, he's the architect of this mess. Hal Steinbrenner has drawn a payroll line in the sand that Cashman can't cross, which, given the Yankees' revenue, certainly irks the fan base.

To that end, Cashman has spent the last several years trying to get creative, stretching out contracts long past their expiration date to lower their AAV, and thus, how much they cost towards the tax. While that may seemingly give him more money to work with every year, it backfires once you realize that the Yankees are paying $43.785 million to three players: Aaron Hicks, DJ LeMahieu, and Marcus Stroman, who are no longer on the team.

While no one would call LeMahieu or Stroman contributors, at least they played for the club in 2025, unlike Hicks, who last suited up for the Bombers in 2023, yet still resides on their books. This year isn't the only example of this phenomenon occurring, either, and it's a big reason why the Yankees played most of the season without a functional third baseman despite the bloated payroll.

Cashman's other decisions, such as his deadline moves to "fix" the bullpen and the disastrous Devin Williams trade this past offseason, have also done the club no favors.

Then there's Boone, a man who refuses to hold any of his players accountable. We've arrived at a point where it should be clear that Anthony Volpe should not be starting at short, but rather put on the bench in favor of Jose Caballero, a vastly superior defensive option who has roughly equivalent offensive production. Instead, Boone stands out there trying to convince fans that the bad plays Volpe makes are actually good plays that just didn't work out.

Boone also puts his players in incredibly disadvantageous situations far too often. The most egregious example is the infamous call to Nestor Cortes in Game 1 of last year's World Series, but there have been many, many more instances of this poor managerial decision-making.

So yes, Judge is technically correct. The players do need to show up and play better, but they also need some help. They need a general manager who is going to surround them with talent, rather than put together a half-baked roster and then scramble to fix the problems he created at the deadline. They also need a manager who will hold the players to account, put the best options to win baseball games out there, and make sure that whoever he calls upon is put in a situation to succeed.

These things aren't happening, and until they do, the Yankees will struggle to get back on track.