NEW YORK — Aaron Judge felt like it was a good time for everyone to talk.
It was early September. The New York Yankees were on the road facing the Texas Rangers. They had spent much of August in a fight for first place in the American League East with the Baltimore Orioles, and there had been fierce backlash on social media after they didn’t call up top prospect Jasson Domínguez when rosters expanded on the first day of the month.
So, Judge gathered the players — no coaches or staff — in one big room and closed the door.
“I thought it was a good idea for me to say a couple of words and kind of talk it out, get guys focused,” he told The Athletic amid the Yankees’ champagne-soaked celebration after they clinched the division with a 10-1 win over Baltimore at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night.
Judge’s message?
“What’s important is in this room, and what we do in here,” he said.
The Yankees dropped two of three games in Texas and went into their Sept. 5 off day in second place by a half-game.
But by Sept. 7, the Yankees had snatched back the division lead. They never let it go again, going 12-6 the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Baltimore stumbled, going 6-11.
Your AL East Champs 👏#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/imhftoyGc5
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 27, 2024
Several players said the meeting and the theme of blocking out the noise had a big effect on the whole team — and that it came at the perfect time.
The Yankees had been grinding, starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt said, and they needed to regroup for what was going to be an intense final month of the season.
“It was just more of a meeting of, ‘Let’s be where our feet are’ a little bit,” Schmidt said. “‘Let’s worry about what we’ve got going on here. The chips are going to fall where they’re going to fall. We can control what we can control. Let’s just stay locked in.’”
Reliever Luke Weaver said he felt the meeting helped the team get its “bearings back in order.”
“It got you grounded,” he said. “It made you remember what’s going on. It helped slow things down a little bit. I think at the end of the day, sometimes you need that reminder. You need to be able to be like, ‘I don’t have to do it my individual self. We’re a team.’”
During the get-together, several veterans spoke about blocking out the negativity from the media and online about the club.
“Any clubhouse you walk into, you have MLB Network on (or) you have your own broadcast on, and that can be even dicey in itself,” Schmidt said.
“It’s part of it. It’s part of the game here when you play in New York. You are going to be constantly talked about, whether it’s yourself personally or the team. You just have to be aware that you’ve got to be able to compartmentalize all that stuff.”
“The biggest thing that I took away from that (meeting) is that we are here together,” utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera said. “We are in this situation. The players. The coaches. We are a group. We are a family. We have to take care of each other.”
Alex Verdugo said the timing of Judge’s message was crucial, too.
“I think that’s mainly it,” he said. “The season is very long. So, in the middle, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, man. We’ve still got (a couple) more months, right?’
“It’s like a marathon runner or even a sprinter. Anyone who sees the finish line, you’re not going to just quit. You see it and you’re like, ‘All this hard work or all this pain or whatever I went through, it’s right there. Let’s push through it.’”
Manager Aaron Boone praised Judge — in his second year as the team’s official captain — for knowing his teammates’ temperature.
“That was Judgey talking to the group,” he said. “That was with them. He’s become such a good leader. And, look, the thing is, the noise here — if you let it in too much — it can start to affect you. It’s important that these guys lean on each other, lean into each other, support each other and keep the blinders on in that way.”
Schmidt said that Judge constantly checks in with his teammates about how they’re feeling.
“He’s very patient, he’s listening to conversations, he’s taking it all in,” the pitcher said. “It’s not like a forced conversation. It’s not a forced meeting. And the things that he says are spot on. You can resonate with everything that he’s saying.”
And while the Yankees took care of business on the field to get themselves into position and win the AL East on Thursday night, the meeting Judge called weeks ago played a major role in setting the tone for their final push.
(Photo: Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)
