This nightmare roadtrip could define 2025 New York Yankees schedule

One reason so much hope abounded early in the 2024 Yankees' season was the way they responded to their biggest challenge: an Opening Week schedule that felt like MLB delivering an unnecessary middle finger.

Oh, you got Juan Soto? Fancy yourselves contenders, huh? Ok, hotshot. Your first series of the year is four games against your tormentors from 2017 to present, and then you get a breather, aka a road series against the defending NL Champs.

Somehow, the Yankees went 6-1 during that impossible stretch, setting a hustling, outworking tone that sustained them through mid-June, when they forgot everything they learned.

Next season, per the surprise schedule that Rob Manfred dropped on Thursday before the start of the "second half" (read: final 64 games), the Yankees' gut check might not occur until mid-September, when they're hopefully in the thick of the postseason chase.

Yankee 2025 Schedule: Toughest stretch comes at final whistle

A few recent traditions appear to be alive and well next season. No Red Sox games until June, an odd holdover from the COVID seasons. The Diamondbacks in the season's first week. Subway Series when absolutely nobody wants them -- mid-May in the Bronx, July 4 at Citi Field instead of Sept. 11 spread across both boroughs.

And, of course, there's the backbreaking roadtrip through well-trod nightmare territory. Weekend series in Boston Sept. 12-14. Three games in Minnesota to follow without an off day. Four in Baltimore on Thursday through Sunday.

After that point, the Yankees will only have six contests remaining: three at home against the White Sox, and three more with the O's to end the season. They'll more than likely know their playoff fate before that final sextet, but at least the season-ending Orioles set is in the Bronx, where the Yankees famously don't fumble the bag against divisional foes under Aaron Boone, you know what? Let's just wrap the article.

In all, the Yankees aren't subjected to many monstrous road trips, and the majority of their treks away from home aren't very long; a nine-game Colorado/Angels/Dodgers west coast swing is the longest of the season, other than the 10-game bear in mid-September. You'd probably rather encounter this tough stretch in the season's final month rather than set a potentially awful tone by opening the year in a bunch of enemy cities, right?

Eh, maybe not. The Yankees did handle business to start 2024. Best we can do now is just cross our fingers that the generation-spanning dominance over the Twins continues next season, and the Yankees can bank a minor breather between sweat-inducing Fenway and Camden trips.