ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Yankees took care of one AL East rival. Their ALDS reward is another.
After sweeping the Boston Red Sox out of the Wild Card round with back-to-back nine-run performances, New York heads south for a best-of-five American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays claimed the AL East and earned a first-round bye, while the Yankees had to fight their way through Boston to get here.
Now the division rivals meet with a trip to the ALCS on the line.
Gerrit Cole gets the ball in Game 1
The Yankees will hand the ball to Gerrit Cole in Game 1, a moment that carries a little more weight considering where his season began.
Cole missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and did not return to the Yankee Stadium mound until May 22, 569 days after his previous home start. I wrote about that return earlier this season in 569 Days Later, Gerrit Cole Returns Home.
The goal was always bigger than simply making it back.
It was getting back to October.
Cole faced Tampa Bay three times during the regular season, pitching 18 innings while allowing 12 hits and five earned runs with 16 strikeouts. He finished those starts with one win, one loss and one no-decision, with the loss coming July 8 at Tropicana Field.
The Rays will counter with Drew Rasmussen, who also saw plenty of New York during the regular season. Rasmussen went 2-1 with one no-decision in four starts against the Yankees, striking out 19 and allowing seven earned runs in 16 innings.
There are not many secrets between two teams that spent an entire season battling inside the same division.
Yankees make their ALDS roster moves
The Yankees made one change from their Wild Card roster, adding left-hander Ryan Weathers to the pitching staff and leaving Amed Rosario off the ALDS roster.
Weathers had been on the injured list since Aug. 23 with a forearm flexor strain but worked his way back throughout September and is now healthy enough to join the postseason roster.
His addition gives New York 11 pitchers and 15 position players for the best-of-five series.
But the roster decision everyone was waiting for involved Aaron Judge.
The Yankees ultimately decided to leave their captain off the ALDS roster as he continues to rehab the calf strain that has kept him out since mid-September.
Judge has continued taking live at-bats and increasing his workload, but New York determined he is not ready to return.
That means the Yankees will once again have to navigate a postseason series without the centerpiece of their lineup.
They managed it against Boston.
Now they will have to do it against the team that won the division.
A short postseason history between familiar rivals
For teams that have spent so much time battling in the AL East, the Yankees and Rays have met only once before in the postseason.
That came during the shortened 2020 season, when the teams met in the ALDS at Petco Park in San Diego as part of MLB’s postseason bubble.
New York won Game 1 before Tampa Bay took the next two. The Yankees forced a deciding Game 5 with a 5-1 win in Game 4, but the Rays ended New York’s season with a 2-1 victory to win the series 3-2.
Six years later, the circumstances could hardly be more different.
No bubble. No neutral site. No empty ballpark in San Diego.
This time, the Yankees will have to walk into Tropicana Field and try to take home-field advantage away from the AL East champions.
One rival down, another waiting
The Yankees could not have asked for a much better start to the postseason.
They beat Boston 9-0 in Game 1 and followed it with nine more runs in Game 2. Cam Schlittler dominated, Ben Rice delivered a monster performance and the offense produced throughout the lineup.
Two games. Eighteen runs. One rival sent home.
Now comes Tampa Bay.
The Rays had the luxury of sitting back and watching the Wild Card round, but the Yankees arrive with something rest cannot manufacture: momentum.
And they are not just waiting around for the big swing. They are manufacturing runs, taking the extra base, moving runners, applying pressure and doing the little things that win games in October. The Yankees are playing the short game now with every intention of making this October a long one.
After sweeping Boston, they head into the ALDS looking far more dangerous than a team that simply survived the opening round.
Saturday night, Gerrit Cole will climb onto the mound at Tropicana Field less than five months after completing a comeback that took nearly two years.
That alone feels made for October.
Across from him will be Drew Rasmussen and the team that kept New York from another AL East crown.
So, yes, the Rays got the division.
Now the Yankees get their shot at something bigger.
Boston is already gone.
Tampa Bay is next.
And the Yankees are not heading south just to keep this run alive.
They are heading there to take it.
Postseason at a glance
