This is fairly uncharted water for a World Series favorite. It's still very, very early into the 2021 baseball season, but the Yankees don't look great. A weekend sweep at the hands of the Rays dropped New York's record to 5-10 overall, good for last place in the American League.
For a franchise with as much historical success as the Yanks, such a start doesn't happen often. In fact, this is just the sixth time in the last 50 years that New York has played at least 15 games and had twice as many losses as wins. However, don't call the season over just yet -- as history shows us, a slow start out of the gate doesn't always mean the Bombers are destined for a bad finish. Here are the five most recent times it's happened, and how the rest of the season played out:
1997: The last time the Yankees were this bad in April was '97. Off the heels of the franchise's first World Series in 19 years, there was a bit of a hangover as a walk-off loss in Milwaukee dropped New York's record to 5-10. It was short-lived, however. They won nine of the next 12 to get over .500 by the end of the month, played .619 baseball the rest of the way and finished 96-66. Though they didn't repeat as champs, losing in five games to Cleveland in the ALDS, it did set them up for the dynasty to come from '98-00.
1991: Okay, so not every example here turns out great. A four-game losing streak in early May dropped the Yankees to 7-16 overall, and the hole was too big this time. A surge from June into July briefly put them above .500 at 44-43 overall, but that was immediately followed by eight losses in 10 games and that was that. The team would collapse the rest of the way and finish 71-91, the worst winning percentage by a Yankees team since 1913.
1989: This team was never actually 5-10 or worse, but they make the list anyways because no other Yankees team in the last 50 years started 1-7 like this bunch did. After scoring 19 total runs in the first eight games, the offense woke up and by the end of April was back to .500 at 12-12. Alas, New York stumbled through mediocrity for most of the year to the point where George Steinbrenner fired Dallas Green in August and replaced him with Bucky Dent. Things didn't really improve, and New York finished 74-87.
1985: This team finished April at 6-12, and went on a tear the rest of the year. Record-wise the 1985 team was actually better than the '97 squad come season's end, going 97-64. Alas, because of the postseason format it wasn't enough to make the ALCS. Still, after that miserable April, New York played at a .636 clip -- for context, that's the same win percentage as the 2009 World Series champion Yankees.
1972: A three-game sweep in early May to Oakland dropped the overall record to 5-11. The low-point wouldn't come for another two months, when a five-game losing streak dropped their record to 26-34. From that point on, though, New York hit its stride. Over the next 78 games Ralph Houk's bunch went 48-30 and found themselves a half-game out of first place on September 12th before the wheels fell off. They'd lose six of the next seven, closed the year losing five straight and finished 6.5 games out of first.
