ORLANDO — With the Blue Jays dominating the Yankees in 2025, Aaron Boone said that the gap between Toronto and his Yankees is smaller than people think.
“I mean, we ended with identical records last year,” the manager said when asked what tells him that at the Winter Meetings on Monday. “I don’t want to discount that they kicked our ass last year. Like don’t take it out of context.”
Boone went on to add that the Jays “obviously were a great team last year and an eyelash away from winning a world championship, so they certainly proved to be the better team this year. Hopefully, we can close that gap and pass them and others this year.”
As Boone noted, the Yankees and Blue Jays each finished with a 94-68 record this past season. However, Toronto won the American League East thanks to an 8-5 record in head-to-head play with New York.
The Blue Jays then bludgeoned the Yankees in the ALDS, taking the best-of-five series in four games on their path to the World Series. The Dodgers took Toronto down in the Fall Classic, thus securing their second straight championship after beating the Yankees in the World Series in 2024.
“We played them in September, beat them 2-out-of-3 in a meaningful time of the year where we were closing in on and trying to win the division,” Boone said of Toronto. “But to their credit, they beat our butts in the postseason.”
The Blue Jays have improved since the offseason began, signing starters Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce. They’ve also been connected to several big-name free agents still on the board. That includes Kyle Tucker, who recently visited the club’s complex in Dunedin.
With Toronto already making a splash and coming off a better season than the Yankees, Brian Cashman downplayed the idea that his team must make “a big statement” this offseason, though the general manager is actively looking for upgrades.
“They’re the defending American League champs,” Cashman said. “We were the defending American League champs the previous year. They are now the defending American League champs. We have to find our way to take that back from them, and at the same time, be better than everybody else in the league. Because every year, teams are obviously trying to do what we’re trying to do, which is get better.
“The only statement is you want to make sure that you find ways to put a team out there that’s capable of getting all the way.”
