The Yankees are in Boston today, as they’ll take on their archrivals for the first time in 2026. It’s just the second time the Yankees have faced a divisional foe this season, their three-game set at the Trop against the Rays this month the only AL East matchup on a slate that’s otherwise been populated by teams like the Royals, Mariners, and Athletics.
It wasn’t so long ago that these divisional meetings were more frequent. In 2023, MLB smoothed out their schedule, reducing the number of games divisional rivals played against each other from 19 to 13. Gone were the long summers of seemingly playing only AL East foes, those drawn-out battles fomenting familiarity and resentment in equal amounts.
The schedule MLB has gone to has plenty of logic to it. It’s more balanced, and it allows every team to play every other team at least once, giving fans a regular chance to see all the other teams and stars the league has to offer. Yet the question still begs to be asked: do you miss the days of playing nearly half the schedule against division rivals?
Again, there’s a lot of logic to the new schedule, if only from the perspective of competitive balance. Teams in perennially strong divisions get the short end of the stick with unbalanced schedules, forced to beat up on each other all year while some team in the AL Central strolls to 87 wins and a division title. And there’s real benefit to the emergence of interleague play, setting up great annual matchups that we previously would have had to wait years to see. From a Yankees perspective, it’s been pretty cool to see them clash yearly with teams like the Dodgers, the Phillies, and the Brewers, top NL teams that they wouldn’t always have had the chance to face barring a World Series appearance.
But I’m sure some fans are nostalgic for the old days, where you really got to know your divisional rivals over the course of a season. At the cost of some spare interleague series against the Pirates and Marlins and the Diamondbacks, the Yankees would become deeply acquainted with the Red Sox, and the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays. There was something quaint to it, coming to revile these foes that we saw so often, but also finding some comfort in the familiarity, in the steady drumbeat that such consistent divisional matchups provided.
How do you feel? Do you miss the old days of playing the Sox and Jays over and over again? Or are you glad to see a schedule with more logic to it?
This morning, Kevin will recap what happened on the Yankees’ offday, while Jeremy will look ahead to the three-game set in Boston. Also, Michael delivers his review of the week that was down on the farm, and Nick writes up Joe McCarthy as part of our Yankees Birthday series. And in the afternoon, Josh discusses Aaron Judge, and being clutch in the first inning, while Peter’s At-bat of the Week gives some kudos to Ryan McMahon.
