Yankees All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr. made it clear after Thursday’s win that the Bombers are not satisfied with a Wild Card berth.
Following a dominant 10-4 win over the White Sox in which he went deep for his 26th home run of the season, Chisholm told reporters that the team’s goal is still very much to catch the Blue Jays in the AL East, and that’s just the start.
“We’re never satisfied with second place or third place,” Chisholm said. “We just lost the World Series last year, and that’s second place. We still weren’t satisfied. I don’t think we’re gonna be satisfied coming second or third in the division. That would be even more upsetting than losing the World Series.
“Right now, it’s just like, we’re gonna go out there and win that, and we’re gonna go win the World Series.”
This isn’t the first time Chisholm vocalized a strong confidence in the Yankees’ potential to win it all. During last year’s ALCS, he told ESPN’s Jeff Passan that “We’re World Series champions. No other doubt in my mind.” Chisholm’s comments are mainly a reflection of the team’s mindset, which should be to win it all given where the team finished last season and the expectations in 2025. Fortunately for the Yankees, that goal is still attainable, despite their rough showing overall since June.
The Yankees were sitting pretty to achieve the goal set out by Chisholm to win the AL East for a second year in a row, but a seven-game lead over Toronto quickly evaporated. Now, they trail the Blue Jays by four games with a month to go in the season. There is time to make up that ground, but the Bombers will have to buck a recent trend of falling short against better competition if they want to get back atop the division.
That part of the schedule has not arrived yet, but in the meantime, Chisholm and the Yanks are stacking wins when they need to, now riding a five-game winning streak.