NEW YORK – He’s the captain, the face of the franchise, the $360 million man. For all these reasons, Aaron Judge can’t hide from his postseason woes. But in reality, the Yankees’ embarrassing performance in the World Series is a system-wide failure. As crazy as this may sound, considering they’ve won 94 games and their first American League pennant since 2009, they’re not very good at baseball.

What the Yankees are good at is beating down weaker opponents, something they accomplished in the regular season by leading the Majors in home runs and in the American League playoffs by beating the offensively challenged Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians to dominate. For the Yankees to succeed, Judge, above all, has to stomp. They got away with minimal contributions from him against AL Central competition in the first two rounds. They can’t get away with it against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

If – when? – the Yankees are unable to overcome their three games to zero deficit, they will be doing themselves a disservice if they simply pat themselves on the back for a great season and fail to take an honest look at who they are. The Dodgers are the better team. Better offensively. Better defensively. Better on the basics. And, surprisingly, better with their starting pitching, too.

At this point, it’s fair to wonder how the Yankees would have fared against some of the other postseason qualifiers in the NL — the San Diego Padres, the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s also fair to ask if they will be as successful in the AL next season, especially if Juan Soto leaves and other teams in the league continue to improve.

The Yankees brand of baseball is offensive, not just in the statistical sense of the word, but also in the aesthetic sense. It was hard for them to watch this series, as was much of the season. Whether they re-sign Soto or not, they need to address their sloppiness on the bases and in the field. Which, with a team so fundamentally flawed, will be easier said than done.

Manager Aaron Boone is at some level responsible for the Yankees’ frequent on-field mistakes. General manager Brian Cashman is responsible for a trade deadline in which the Dodgers’ additions (Jack Flaherty, Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech) worked out better than the Yankees’ (Jazz Chisholm Jr., Mark Leiter Jr.). The Yankees backed out of a tentative trade agreement for Flaherty after reviewing his medical records, and subsequent attempts to reach a deal were futile.

It was a rough World Series for Jazz Chisholm and Aaron Judge of the Yankees. (Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)

Judge, too, will have to do some soul-searching and figure out why he’s not exactly proving to be a worthy heir to an October tradition of excellence founded by Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter and other American great Yankees history. the past. Judge has now racked up more than 250 postseason plate appearances. And while he has 15 home runs, his career batting average as of October is just .196. He’s testing the theory that if a great player gets enough opportunities in the postseason, he will eventually succeed.

In 2022, Judge set an AL record with 62 home runs in the regular season, then hit .139 with a .490 OPS in the postseason. These playoffs were more of the same. Judge is coming off an even better offensive season than in 2022. His OPS-plus, 123 percent above league average, was the 13th highest in AL/NL history, 33 percent better than that of the next closest finisher, Shohei Ohtani . And yet here he is again, stuck in the autumn mud.

The Yankees have scored seven runs in their three losses to the Dodgers. Judge is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts. For the postseason, he is hitting .140 with two home runs and 20 strikeouts in 54 at-bats. And the problem he identified as his biggest problem — swinging on too many pitches outside the strike zone — is only getting worse. The righty’s chase percentage during the regular season was a career low: 17.7 percent. It has increased in every postseason series, from 21.3 percent against the Royals to 33.3 percent against the Guardians to 35.3 percent against the Dodgers.

Judge didn’t offer much insight after going 0-for-3 in Game 3 with a strikeout and a walk, saying, “I didn’t get a single hit, didn’t drive in anybody. I’ve got to get something done up there.” When The AthleticsChris Kirschner asked him if he felt like he was letting the team down. He paused for a few seconds before saying, “Absolutely. You want to get the hits, you want to go out and do your job. I’m not doing my job right now, so (I have to) pick it up.

Actually, Judge can’t say much more. And really, the Yankees can’t say much about their disappointing performance. Several players, including Judge, adopted the mantra of “win just one game.” Well, of course. And the Yankees should actually be able to win one, while the Dodgers plan a bullpen game on Tuesday night. Right?

Maybe, maybe not. The Yankees could have put the Dodgers in serious trouble by grabbing a lead on Monday and forcing Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to use lower-leverage relievers, as he did by essentially holding off Games 2 and 5 in the NLCS. Instead, Clarke Schmidt walked a physically compromised Shohei Ohtani on four pitches to start the game. Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run homer, and the Yankees didn’t score until Alex Verdugo hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth.

Verdugo gave an interesting analysis of the Series, saying: “For me it’s not one-sided. The first game was ours. They won it. They had a historic hit. In the second game we got caught in one inning and couldn’t bounce back. That was the fault of the crime. And when we don’t score, we put a lot of pressure on our pitchers to go out there and be perfect against a really good Dodgers lineup.”

The last part is undeniably true, but let’s go back to the first part. Defensive missteps by right fielder Juan Soto and second baseman Gleyber Torres haunted the Yankees in Game 1. They still led 3-2 in the 10th, but the game should never have gone to extra innings, let alone Freeman’s walk- off grand’. slam, the first in the series’ history.

The Yankees’ bench reacts to a strike call in the seventh inning of Game 3. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)

The only bad inning Verdugo had in Game 2 was the third, which included a two-run homer by Teoscar Hernández and a solo shot by Freeman off left-hander Carlos Rodón. But the Yankees produced only one hit before the ninth, a solo shot by Soto. Their offense then pulled off the same disappearing act in Game 3, with Walker Buehler recording five strikeouts in a span of seven batters in the first three innings, starting, of course, with Judge.

The Dodgers’ pitching is good, there’s no doubt about that. But the Dodgers also do the little things the Yankees don’t. Two plays vividly illustrate the difference between these clubs. Edman scored brilliantly from second on a soft ball from Mookie Betts to the right. Hernández, not known for his left defense, made a perfect throw to nail the struggling Giancarlo Stanton at the plate.

The Yankees can still dream of a path to a more competitive series. Beat the Dodgers relievers in the bullpen game. Rally behind Gerrit Cole in Game 5. Force the Series back to Los Angeles, with the pressure shifting to the Dodgers. But little of what we’ve seen suggests that such a scenario could actually unfold.

Oh, the Yankees keep talking about how close they are, how quickly things can change. Judge reflected on a knuckle curve from Buehler, slamming the end of his bat to left in the fourth and saying, “Knock that one out of the park, things change.” Of course. But the judge intervenes. The Yankees take. In some ways they are not who we thought they were. In other cases, they are who we suspected all along.

(Top photo of Aaron Judge: Dustin Satloff/MLB Photos via Getty Images)