Yankees' latest embarrassment vs Mets reveals front office's costly offseason blunder

You've guessed it! The New York Yankees have done it again. They've embarrassed themselves against the Mets in what turned out to be a completely avoidable series of events. Aaron Boone learned absolutely nothing from the two-game sweep at Citi Field earlier this year.

What happened back on June 25-26? Mets manager (and former Yankees bench coach) Carlos Mendoza started two lefties in David Peterson and Sean Manaea. The Yankees couldn't hit either of them, as Mendoza knew very well from experience, and it resulted in the Bombers getting outscored 21-9 in the two games.

Not only that, but Boone couldn't figure anything out. He batted Gleyber Torres and JD Davis in the cleanup spot on different nights (despite both being undeserving of such a nod) and refused to remove a slumping Anthony Volpe out of the leadoff spot. Torres and Davis combined to go 0-for-6 (0-for-4 with RISP), offering no protection for Aaron Judge, and Volpe went 1-for-10 (0-for-3 with RISP). It's almost the absolute worst you could possibly do.

But Boone's worst offense was arguably pitching Gerrit Cole in that series. Cole was making just his second start of the season after recovering from an elbow injury, and he's fared terribly against the Mets in his career (6.64 ERA in eight starts). Look, completely maneuvering a pitching staff isn't easy, but Cole could've used extra rest and avoided an opponent that always dominates him. There was no harm in giving him the opener of the four-game set in Toronto the next day instead.

In the end, Cole got rocked to the tune of seven earned runs on six hits (four home runs) and four walks in just four innings in the 9-7 loss. As Yogi Berra would say, it was deja vu all over again on Wednesday night: Cole got another start against the Mets with an all-important series against the Red Sox on the way and got rocked again (5 2/3 IP, 6 ER, 8H, 1 BB). He allowed three home runs and struck out only four batters.

Yankees' latest embarrassment vs Mets reveals front office's biggest blunder of all

Meanwhile, Mendoza, again, started two lefties against the Yankees, who only managed to score three runs across 9 2/3 innings against Manaea and Jose Quintana. Mendoza also shrewdly avoided starting Luis Severino against his former team in the four games this year, knowing (probably) only bad things could've resulted from that for the Mets.

While Mendoza was making the obvious winning decisions, Boone continued to fumble. On Tuesday night, to "play the matchup" against Quintana, Boone put righties Jahmai Jones (leadoff) and JD Davis (cleanup) in the starting lineup, despite the two never getting regular reps and being fringe major league talents. A famous Boone tactic it was – play the matchups with worse players. The two went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts and were later removed from the game. Boone also started backup catcher Carlos Narvaez (a righty) in the same game, and he went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. Impossibly bad.

Mendoza had the Mets pitch around both Juan Soto and Aaron Judge on Tuesday, which saw the duo go 0-for-5 with five walks. They didn't score a run despite getting on base that many times, though, because Davis was batting behind them. The game ended 3-2 in the Mets' favor. The Yankees went 1-for-9 with RISP and left 11 runners on base, and the Mets were almost as bad (2-for-10 with RISP, eight LOB)!

See what's going on here? Mendoza, in his rookie year of managing, already has more instincts than Boone has shown since 2018. We warned in the offseason that letting Mendoza go to Queens could haunt the Yanks, and that narrative is playing out at the moment as Boone trends downward for the fifth year in a row.

Boone's hilarious punt lineup on Tuesday sealed the deal, and his decision to once again start Cole when it was unnecessary all but officially buried the Yankees (it's 6-2 in the sixth with no sign if them making a comeback).

The front office extending Boone after the 2021 season was their first mistake. Letting the most qualified in-house option on his staff leave the season after the Yankees' worst showing in 30 years for a team in the same market was Part II of this particular heinous chapter of Modern Yankees Suckery. Chapter 15 of Book 7, if we're being specific. This might end up being the longest sports documentary in Netflix history when all is said and done.