Yankees Might Be Underrated Contenders Despite Dodgers Dominance

The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken the throne from the New York Yankees as the most hated team in baseball, if not the entirety of sports. They have taken the old-school Yankee approach of buying every player in the sport and have turned that into back-to-back World Series.

On the other hand, the Yankees have been far quieter in their offseason approaches the last few years. They’re relying on young prospects to continue developing on this team and retaining guys they’ve brought in through trades like David Bednar. They’ve been unwilling to over-expose themselves on top-end talent like Juan Soto, and it might just be working out for them.

New York hasn’t had the most challenging of starts to a season, but they’ve looked like the Evil Empire of old. The offense isn’t incredibly deep at the moment, and will most likely need to add a bat at the deadline if they truly want to be contenders come October, but the pitching looks awfully scary for the Bronx Bombers.

In recent seasons, the pitching has lagged behind the offense, but this year feels like that won’t be the case. The craziest part about this pitching surge is that the Yankees aren’t even close to full strength yet. Max Fried is picking up right where he left off in 2025, with a 1.35 ERA over three starts, and Cam Schlittler and Will Warren aren’t too far behind that mark either.

Those three alone would be scary in the playoffs, but Gerritt Cole and Carlos Rodon have all season to get healthy and join this rotation, which might be the best in baseball.

In the lineup, Ben Rice is taking a massive year three leap, holding an MLB-best 1.380 OPS, and Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger are all having very solid starts to the year. If Jazz Chisolm or Trent Grisham could heat up at the plate, the lineup could be just as good as the Dodgers.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the Yankees might be underrated. I wasn’t high on them entering this season, and I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong. This is a very good Yankee squad. It’s far too early to declare that the AL East might have been overrated, but I won’t be shocked if that’s the case. Each team outside the Yankees currently sits below .500 and has far more obvious roster holes.

The Dodgers have done a great job of shielding the Yankees from “some” amount of criticism in the media entering 2026, and I think that’s great for this team. Get in on the Yankees at +800 to win the World Series, or it might end up being too late.