Erik Boland: Yankees look for fast start to what Aaron Boone calls 'overreaction week'
The flag is presented on the field and by drones at Oracle Park during the national anthem before a baseball game between the Giants and the Yankees on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in San Francisco. Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
SAN FRANCISCO – One of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman's go-to phrases over the years relates to the daily scrutiny his club is under in New York.
A given year is not evaluated taking into account the natural ebbs and flows – of good play and bad – that take place during the six-month baseball season that is alternately described as “a grind” and “a marathon” by those involved in it.
No, that would necessitate some degree of nuance, fully understanding the old baseball adage that says the worst teams will almost always win at least 50 games and the best teams will almost always will lose at least 50 games.
Instead, in New York, Cashman, with the Yankees since 1986 when he started as an intern and the GM since 1998, likes to say, every day is treated like “162 one-game seasons.”
It’s a slightly different take on the old Bill Parcells line from his Giants coaching days when he said: “In New York, it’s always euphoria or disaster.”
And that was referencing the then 16-game NFL regular season, for which such disparate reactions at least, though not defensible, were somewhat understandable.
Which is as good of a transition as any into Wednesday night’s Yankees season-opener against the Giants. A victory, complete with a standout Max Fried start, and the Yankees are off and running to the World Series, Fried destined for the AL Cy Young.
A loss?
Well, disaster. Fried isn’t cut out for “the big game” and that Yankees starting pitching depth isn’t what they thought.
And on and on.
Aaron Boone, entering his ninth season as manager – a tenure that has seen the franchise’s World Series title drought enter its 18th year – appropriately calls this “the overreaction week of the season.”
“Some teams that get off to a good start, (it’s) ‘Oh, yeah, they’re going to be in it all the way,’ ” Boone said. “Other teams that aren’t, [it’s], ‘I’m really concerned about.’ ”
Forget the one week. Just take the opener for, well, openers.
The Yankees came into Wednesday having won each of their last four Opening Day games and were 7-1 in their previous eight openers since 2018.
As no fan of the team needs reminding, the Yankees have made exactly one World Series in that stretch, regularly suffering October disappointment after October disappointment, including last year when they laid a postseason egg against the Blue Jays in a four-game ALDS loss.
“October is a long way away,” Boone said Tuesday in Mesa, Ariz. before the Yankees wrapped up their exhibition season against the Cubs. “Obviously, we want to get there and play in it and be the last team, but there’s just so many things you got to go through as a team to give yourself a chance to be in that position.
He added: “It’s San Francisco Giants right now and opening on the West Coast and trying to get off to a good start in the overreaction week of the season, whether we start off good, bad [or] indifferent.”
If there’s one part of a baseball season that engenders more overreaction than Opening Day results it’s the reaction to the 26-man roster any given club leaves spring training with.
Now, of course, it matters greatly to the players. Players, to name one example, such as reliever Cade Winquest, a Rule 5 pick of the Yankees last December who never pitched above Double-A but found himself on the season-opening roster (in large part because, as a Rule 5 pick, he had to be on the 26-man roster or the Yankees would have had to expose him to waivers, which is another topic).
Though much is made of the Opening Day roster, by the trade deadline it’s hardly relevant, if not before that.
Last year, for instance, Pablo Reyes (no worries if one doesn’t immediately remember) was part of the bench. Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco were part of the rotation and Yoendrys Gómez was a part of the bullpen.
Whether it be injury, underperformance or some combination of both, it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s a handful of roster alternations within the next month, or within the next two weeks. That’s the norm.
“I feel like these guys are ready to go,” Boone said late Wednesday afternoon. “We know we’re about to start a long journey that’s going to be filled with a lot of stuff – good, bad, indifferent, unknowns. And making sure that we handle it all well and really stick together through it all. Excited to go out there and get after it with these guys.”
The Yankees officially got after it in 2026 Wednesday night.
A win, naturally, the preferred result, always the case.
A loss and still 161 to go.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
