The Yankees Aren’t Winning the World Series Without Aaron Judge

"You never know."

Famously that was right-hander Joaquin Andujar's favorite phrase in English, because you never know what will happen next in baseball. And that's what makes it great. It's a refined version of Yogi Berra's "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Well, ACTUALLY. With less than a week of regular-season games left in 2026, we know a lot about what's still possible -- and what isn't. Most postseason spots are clinched, and all but two division titles have been won. Most of what's left in the regular season is bookkeeping. Even looking to the far-flung future of next week, we know a lot about how the postseason will play out.

"You never know" is something that teams and individuals say to make themselves feel better in desperate times -- and while it contains grains of truth, it's only true to a point.

The Tampa Bay Rays clinched the AL East at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. The Rays winning the division has been inevitable for a while, especially with the New York Yankees missing Aaron Judge for 90-something games because of a fractured rib and a strained calf muscle. The Yankees, bless 'em, were good enough to qualify for the AL Wild Card but say that Judge won't be healthy enough to play next week in the Wild Card Series.

We've already seen at least one media post using tortured logic to imagine how the Yankees could win without Judge. It's a little like picking the Chicago Bulls to win the NBA title during that season Michael Jordan retired. Basically the reasoning is: "You never know."

Yes, you do. You know. The Yankees maybe could win a postseason series, but only because the other team, like most of the American League, stinks. The Yankees ain't winning no World Series without Aaron Judge. This is not to say they should just give up without their best player. But it is OK for everyone else to give up on the Yankees.

Delusions of grandeur are happening on the National League side too. The Chicago Cubs sustained a major injury Sunday when Alex Bregman was struck in the face with a foul ball while standing in (or near) the on-deck circle. He suffered multiple facial fractures, and looked like he went 15 rounds with Mike Tyson. If not the boxer, at least the middle infielder of the same name from the 1970s.

Early reports are that Bregman's vision checks out OK. It could have been a lot worse, and there's still time for that, actually, but the Cubs are acting like it's just a flesh wound.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters Tuesday that Bregman is not going on the injured list and he might even play in their final regular-season weekend series before the NL Wild Card round starts. Sounds really optimistic, considering how a similar injury happened to David Fry in 2025 and Giancarlo Stanton in 2014 and they didn't play again in those seasons.

But the Cubs stand much less of a chance without Bregman in the lineup, so they're going with it.

"I think Alex is going to be fine," Counsell said.

Hey, you never know.

Bregman's face is broken! And he's just going to step back into the batter's box less than a week later like nothing happened? There's optimism and there's hallucination. Show some respect for reality, Cubbies. This is a Mets medical staff putting a concussion sufferer on an airplane-level bad idea.

Yogi saying "It ain't over 'til it's over," and Andujar updating it was generally good for baseball. But this is Quirky Saying Abuse (QSA). Not all truisms are true all of the time.

Sometimes, it's right to just say: "It's over."