What Do The Yankees Need To Win The World Series?

It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the New York Yankees, MLB’s winningest franchise, made their last appearance in the World Series.

But after the Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera-led era of Yankees’ baseball was ushered out, a new championship-caliber era has made it’s way to the Bronx, with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole manning the ship.

Nothing is signed and sealed yet though, as New York has their toughest task ahead of them.

Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and the rest of the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers are no pushovers and will certainly be a greater challenge than the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians were for New York.

However, it’s not an impossible feat by any means for baseball’s biggest prize to make it’s way back to the Bronx.

But if the Yankees want to capture their 28th World Series title in franchise history, there are certain things that need to happen.

Gerrit Cole Must Show He’s the Best Starter in the Matchup

There’s no denying that the reigning AL Cy Young award winner certainly has the best track record of all remaining starters in this year’s Fall Classic.

The question is, though: which Cole will we see when the stakes are at their highest?

We’ve witnessed three versions of him this October. There was the Cole that opened his 2024 postseason allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out four in five innings of work against the Royals.

But he followed that up with a seven-inning masterclass against those same Royals in Game 4 of the ALDS, where he surrendered just one earned run on six hits and no walks while striking out four.

And then he put together an outing that was a mix of his two previous starts in his lone start against the Guardians in Game 2 of the ALCS, where he only tossed 4.1 innings while allowing two earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts.

To tame the Dodger bats of Ohtani, Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Co., they’ll need Cole to exercise the ace-level form he showed in Game 4 of the ALDS.

Cole is slated to get the ball Game 1 on Friday, meaning he could very well make three outings this World Series. So if the Yankees are to take advantage of having the series’ best starter then they’ll need Cole to fall back on his Cy Young form.

Aaron Judge Needs to Continue His Upward Trajectory in October

Judge is coming off yet another lethal regular season where he sits as the frontrunner for his second career AL MVP. In 704 plate appearances in 2024, he hit 58 homers, a career-high 144 RBI, with a .322 batting average and a 1.159 OPS.

However Judge has failed to live up to the same MVP-level hype come the postseason.

Since the 2019 ALCS Judge hasn’t managed to post an OPS above .738. For context the league average OPS in 2024 was .711, according to Baseball Reference. Judge has only managed to surpass that total in the postseason twice in that span.

And Judge was not able improve upon those numbers really when opening his 2024 postseason, recording just two hits in the entirety of the series without driving in a single run and only managing to post a .620 OPS in the ALDS.

He came out with a bit more of a bang against Cleveland posting his highest OPS and RBI total, while tying his series’ high in home runs since the 2019 ALCS.

We definitely saw flashes of the Judge we’ve come to know during the last series but it’s still not at the consistency we’ve come to expect.

And now that he will face his toughest test with likes of starters like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler and a relief corps led by Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech, it’s imperative that Judge continues to show the postseason improvements he has this October and not take a step back when the stakes are at their highest.

If Judge can match the blistering form that his fellow superstar-caliber teammates, Soto and Giancarlo Stanton, are currently on, this Yankees offense suddenly looks a lot harder to gameplan, regardless of how strong the Dodgers’ pitching may look.

The Yankees Supporting Cast Needs to Attempt to Match L.A.’s

It’s no secret that both of these offenses run through their immense star power at the top of the order, with Ohtani, Betts, Freeman and Hernández for Los Angeles, and Judge, Soto and Stanton for New York.

But Los Angeles’ depth beyond the their top hitters really was a game changer for them in knocking off the Mets in the NLCS.

Led by Tommy Edman, bringing home NLCS MVP honors after driving in 11 runs with a .407 average and 1.022 OPS, and Max Muncy hitting .333 with a stellar 1.363 OPS, the Dodgers have found more ways to win beyond the top usual suspects.

The Yankees certainly have talented names beyond Judge, Soto and Stanton, but it comes down to whether that group can perform better than they did in their most recent series against Cleveland.

Gleyber Torres has stepped up to the plate and been a catalyst in leadoff position this October, including a .364 average and .809 OPS in the ALCS.

And Anthony Rizzo came back from injury with a bang, immediately adding a spark to the middle of the order, hitting .429 with a 1.000 OPS against the Guardians.

But the questions lay with potential 2024 AL Rookie of the Year Austin Wells and top trade deadline acquisition Jazz Chisholm Jr. They didn’t exactly provide the consistent lineup support we expected from them and certainly not to the degree of the Dodgers’ complementary pieces.

If the Yankees are to knock off this 98-win Dodgers team, they need to take a page out of L.A.’s handbook and consistently distribute the offensive workload and not provide opposing pitching with easy outs.

Luke Weaver Needs to Receive Support From Fellow Relievers

Luke Weaver looked untouchable in the closing role for New York in the ALDS, posting a 0.00 ERA and 0.46 WHIP in 4.1 innings of work in their 3-1 series win.

But after allowing multiple homers and and three earned runs overall in the ALCS, Weaver looked as human as had since taking over the Yankees’ closing role down the stretch.

But the Yankees had a series of names step up in a big way against Cleveland.

Tommy Kahnle continued his scoreless 2024 postseason last series and kept up the overall phenomenal form he’s displayed this season, which lead him to a very low 2.11 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 42.2 regular season innings.

New York also managed to see some great outings from other arms, like Jake Cousins, who struck out all four hitters he faced in Game 5 of the ALCS.

Or like Mark Leiter Jr., who made the most of being added to the roster as an injury replacement, going 1.2 right away on Game 4 before pitching 0.2 scoreless in Game 5.

And Tim Hill has been the key lefty out of that bullpen, as he and his abnormal delivery have failed to surrender a run this postseason, and he even went longer than one inning twice in the ALCS.

The one name that will need to recapture some of the ALDS form he had is Clay Holmes, who’s been a bit of Swiss-army knife type of reliever for the Yankees. After going scoreless while appearing in all four ALDS games versus Kansas City, Holmes posted a very inflated 10.13 ERA in 2.2 innings of work in the ALCS.

If the rest of the bullpen continues to perform as they have, and Holmes can reclaim his postseason form from earlier this October, then Weaver will be much fresher to take on his hardest task yet: shutting down arguably the league’s most talented lineup to close out ball games.

The Yankees Are More Than Capable of Winning it All

New York has the means to go the all the way an capture World Series glory.

After all, this is a 94-win team with top end talent offensively, in their rotation and in the bullpen.

They also have the necessary depth across the board, it’s just a matter of how they step up and support the aforementioned top-end talent.

The Dodgers undoubtedly pose a daunting task to any opponent, but the Yankees may the best team in the American League to go head-to-head with this juggernaut and put a stop to their magical 2024 run.