NY Yankees, Mets: What’s ahead following first Subway Series matchup
After the Yankees took two out of three in the first Subway Series in 2025, what can they and the Mets expect before their July rematch.
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Six long months later, the Yankees are finally going back to Dodger Stadium this weekend.
They were halfway to L.A. last Oct. 30, when – well you know – a five-run lead disappeared during an ugly fifth inning of World Series Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.
When last seen in-person by Aaron Judge’s Yankees, Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers were celebrating their 2024 world championship clincher in the Bronx.
These 2025 Yankees have suggested they’re capable of another long October run, and the Dodgers are the Dodgers, though the NL is stacked with more contenders than the AL.
First up, it’s a three-game series against the Angels. Here are five things to watch as the Yankees spend the week in Southern California:
Ryan Yarbrough: A start and a ring
At Angel Stadium, the Yankees are scheduled to start lefties Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Rodon and right-hander Clarke Schmidt.
With a finesse arsenal of sinkers, slider and changeups, Yarbrough has posted a 2.28 ERA over his last nine appearances (3 starts) as he heads into Monday night’s start.
Still building up as a starter, he’s coming off an 81-pitch, five-inning effort in a 4-3 win against Texas last Wednesday, with eight strikeouts.
And quietly, in L.A., Yarbrough will also receive his 2024 World Series ring from the Dodgers.
Yarbrough made 32 relief appearances last year before the Dodgers traded him to Toronto for Kevin Kiermaier, his former Tampa Bay Rays teammate.
Max Fried: Back home in Los Angeles
The Yankees’ new $218 million lefty is back home in L.A.
Max Fried (7-0, 1.29 ERA) lines up for Friday’s series opener at Dodger Stadium, about 15 miles from where he attended high school at Harvard-Westlake.
The Yankees have won 10 of Fried’s 11 starts. Per Elias, it’s the best debut by a starter for his new team through 11 games since Justin Verlander (9-0, 1.22 ERA) with the Houston Astros in 2017-18.
In five career regular season starts at Dodger Stadium (as an Atlanta Brave), Fried is 2-2 with a 3.21 ERA, limiting the Dodgers to a .167 batting average.
It’s also Cody Bellinger’s first appearance as a Yankee against his original club; Bellinger won the 2019 NL MVP as a Dodger and was part of their 2020 world championship team.
Aaron Judge: Back in the Hollywood spotlight
The Yankees’ captain arrives in SoCal leading the league in homers (18), batting average (.397) and OPS (1.246).Judge is coming off a 5-for-12 weekend at Colorado (.417) with two homers in the Yankees’ 2-1 series win against the woeful Rockies.
Before Judge and Ohtani collected their league MVPs, Judge was a .222 hitter with one homer in last year’s World Series; the captain’s career postseason .768 OPS, vs. his current 1.028 regular season OPS, is one built-in narrative entering this October.
Dodger Stadium’s since-padded right field wall base is also where Judge badly injured his right foot in June 2023, making a spectacular catch and costing him 42 team games.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., Giancarlo Stanton: Making progress
According to GM Brian Cashman, slugging DH Giancarlo Stanton (tendinitis, both elbows) is about to embark on two weeks of live batting practice – possibly ahead of a brief rehab assignment.
Speaking Sunday on SiriusXM MLB Network Radio, Cashman also suggested that second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (oblique strain) was closer to a return from the injured list.
Chisholm Jr.’s track could put him back in play during the Yanks’ next homestand, beginning June 3.
Stanton has been hitting off high velocity machines since April, but he might be a week or two behind Chisholm’s anticipated arrival back in the Yanks’ lineup.
Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman: Looking ahead
Progressing in his throwing program, right-hander Luis Gil (lat strain) could return in July, but the search for available pitching will continue.
“Whether it’s adding to the rotation, adding to the bullpen,’’ Cashman told Sirius XM he’ll be engaged with the trade market before MLB’s deadline.
“Clearly, we’ll look at the infield’’ as well, Cashman said, though Chisholm Jr.’s return and DJ LeMahieu’s recent performance, coming off the IL, could factor in.
The return of Stanton, in particular, will impact how Ben Rice is utilized, though Cashman filed that under “good problems to have’’ and that “we’ll figure it out.’’