5 Things Yankees Should Prioritize in Season's Final Week Ahead of MLB Playoffs

The games from here are mostly meaningless, so what's left to play for?

The New York Yankees will be hoping that Cody Bellinger (left), second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (center), and right fielder Spencer Jones (right) can end the 2026 campaign on a high note. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The final week of the regular season is upon us in the Bronx, as the New York Yankees look to play out the string of a regular season that will unfortunately end short of an AL East title in all likelihood.

Despite many of these last several games being effectively meaningless, there are still plenty of things for the Yankees, both organizationally and player-wise, to play for as they prepare for their likely destination in the Wild Card Round.

Getting Jazz Chisholm Jr. Back In A Groove

With Aaron Judge likely out at least for the start of the postseason, there may be no bigger x-factor for the New York Yankees' success than Jazz Chisholm Jr., who returned to the lineup on Tuesday night against the Rays after being on the injured list with his sprained thumb.

Considering the sudden unimportance of this series against the Tampa Bay Rays, you might think it would've been a bad idea to give him a few extra days off, but with the postseason right around the corner, he needs as many at-bats as he can get to get back in a groove after the layoff.

The injury came at such a rough time, as Chisholm was finally hitting like the player he and everyone else expected him to be at the start of the year. In his last 18 games before the injury, he was slashing .364/.446/.545. Dating back to the trade deadline, he's slashing .295/.338/.442 across 29 games.

The lineup gets a lot deeper if Chisholm comes back and is hitting, particularly if his trend against lefties continues to go in the right direction. After being one of the worst hitters in baseball against them through the end of July, he took a step in the right direction in August.

Getting 40/100 for Ben Rice

Counting stats don't really matter for anything but good vibes, and in a year when every single starting position player has missed time due to injury, giving the one guy who's managed to stay healthy a nice, round number would be greatly appreciated.

Ben Rice deserves some time off after what he's done this season. But he should still play much of this final week, especially a few games at first base after he's essentially spent the last few months as the permanent DH. The real goal here is for him to hit one more home run and pick up five more RBIs. He's already at 100 runs on the season, so let's get him two more round numbers.

New York Yankees designated hitter Ben Rice needs one more home run to reach 40 for the season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It would put his excellent, All-Star and All-MLB-caliber season into greater historical context. He would be only the 11th Yankee to reach 40 homers, 100 runs, and 100 RBIs in a season, joining a group that includes Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Alex Rodriguez. He'd also be just the third first baseman to do it, behind Gehrig and Jason Giambi, and the second Yankees draft pick, behind Aaron Judge.

Sending the rotation into the postseason on a high note

The three pitchers who will almost certainly start the wild card series against the Boston Red Sox will get their final tune-ups of the season against a potential playoff foe in the Bronx, in the Rays. What happens in that series will probably mean nothing going into postseason baseball, but you still want to see guys finish on a high note.

Max Fried is about fully built up and pitched in the second game of Tuesday night's doubleheader. He's coming off seven strong innings in Minnesota last week and faced a team in Tampa Bay, which the Yankees could see again in the playoffs. He's typically been very good against Boston in his career, but has not been a good playoff pitcher.

Cam Schlittler has all but locked up the AL Cy Young Award with just one start remaining, as his only competition, Dylan Cease, is likely being shut down by the spiraling Toronto Blue Jays due to shoulder soreness.

The final start will be a coronation of sorts, but will also put him on a good path for postseason success. Might pulling him an inning earlier than usual keep him fresh for Game 1 next Tuesday?

But no pitcher needs to string together a pair of good outings before the playoffs more than Gerrit Cole, who hit a wall at the start of the month and suddenly has a big issue with giving up the long ball. It's taken way longer than expected for the 2023 Cy Young winner to experience the typical post-Tommy John wall, but the Yankees need him to snap out of it fast. He has been abhorrent against the Red Sox as a Yankee, so considering he'd likely start a potential Game 3, he needs to have his demons sorted out beforehand.

Managing high leverage bullpen arms' innings

A big criticism of the Yankees' deadline approach was that they completely ignored their bullpen, which has struggled to maintain its efficacy as the wear and tear of a long season has ground them down. We've seen recent struggles from Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick as a result, with both sputtering on 9/11 against the New York Mets and the latter giving up a grand slam on Sunday against Arizona.

Those two, along with David Bednar, are indispensable for the Yankees' hopes of a deep playoff run. They have the rotation to bridge an entire game with just four pitchers, but they need them fresh to do so.

New York Yankees relief pitcher Brent Headrick has been one of Aaron Boone's most reliable options out of the bullpen this season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Headrick looks the most worn out of the three and should take it easy this week. Let's say two appearances, one inning max. You have to keep relievers on a schedule, or they'll be prone to rust. Blackburn and Bednar can be on similar schedules. After all, when wins and losses don't matter as much, there's less of a need to put your absolute best on the mound every day.

As for the rest of the bullpen, it's audition time. They should try to get three appearances in for Clarke Schmidt (as long as his bicep soreness isn't an issue) and give Michael Fulmer, Luis Gil, and Tim Hill a chance to prove they deserve consideration.

Playing with pride against the Rays

It's the biggest disappointment of the season that a gigantic four-game series against the AL East-leading Rays will not mean anything after months of it being a target date to take the division for good, but that's what happens when one team plays exceptional baseball for months and months while the other plays merely good baseball.

These games being effectively meaningless sucks, but the Yankees should still treat them like the big games they were supposed to be. Aaron Boone can maybe manage this with one eye on a determined postseason fate, but the 28 (29 on Tuesday) players need to play with the conviction of a team that does not want the Rays to celebrate on their home turf, even if it's inevitable due to how this weekend turned out.

It would also help New York's postseason prospects to go into the playoffs knowing they can beat the team in front of them. The issue the Yankees had with the Blue Jays in 2025 was that Toronto had routinely dogwalked them all season, and they carried that confidence with them into October.

Even winning three out of four would be enough to show a team that has faced little adversity all season long that you're the team they should be worrying about, even if they have home-field advantage in their fortress of solitude in Tampa.

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