Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
While the mood around the Yankees has been poor given the team’s recent run of awful form, that crucial playoff spot is still right there for the Yankees to take. A still very talented team depends only on itself to punch its ticket to the playoffs, and there are certainly worse spots to be in at this point.
Here we asked Yankee fans some postseason-related questions to gauge their level of optimism ahead of this final month and a half of regular-season baseball.
Flip a coin, as they like to say. Despite the team currently occupying the last of the six American League playoff spots, roughly half of the fan base doesn’t believe they’ll retain that at the end of the season. This result doesn’t come as that big of a surprise for a team without a winning record across a month since May.
On the flip side of the Yankees’ recent struggles, you have the Red Sox and Blue Jays taking advantage of that opportunity, particularly the Jays with a 17-10 record in the second half and a staggering 6.5-game lead over the Yankees. That lead justifies the outstanding skepticism that this team could repeat as AL East champs.
For those voters who believe this team will miss the postseason, we dove deeper to gauge their levels of skepticism, asking if there is a chance the Yankees drop below .500, something a portion of Yankee fans have never experienced. The last time this team finished a season below .500 was before the turn of the century, back in 1992.
As you could’ve imagined, such a negative outlook is shared by only a select few, but the mere presence of this question as something worth checking properly encapsulates the disappointment of the Yankees’ 2025 campaign.
[note: below results are from MLB-wide polls and not specifically from Yankees fans]
Who would’ve thought that in the middle of August, the runaway team in baseball would be the Milwaukee Brewers, with eight fewer losses than any other ball club? Yet, the two leading vote-getters in our poll are the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the Yankees taking not just one, but several steps back, the American League in particular feels completely unpredictable, with little separating a handful of teams. The Tigers and Blue Jays hold similar records and leads in their respective divisions, and neither can afford to drop too much, not just to hold first place, but also a potential bye. Over in the AL West, you have the Astros and Mariners fighting for the crown, with one of them ready to pounce for a round one bye if that opportunity presents itself, neither far away from Detroit or Toronto. Yankee fans know better than anyone else to avoid overlooking this dangerous and battle-tested Astros team, and the deadline additions of Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor took the M’s lineup to a whole other level.
Much like the Yankees, the Dodgers are also experiencing a disappointing campaign. However, unlike New York, Los Angeles is firmly in the thick of their division race, and its playoff spot isn’t really in question, even if their lead there isn’t insurmountable. It’s interesting to note that the gap in votes between the Dodgers and Padres doesn’t reflect their current campaigns and highlights plenty of confidence from most that Los Angeles will prevail in the NL West. One of the more experienced clubs in baseball, the Phillies are ready to battle whoever comes out on top of the NL West for that second playoff bye.