Pedro Martinez Said What Everyone Watching the Yankees Already Knows

Pedro Martinez didn’t say anything Tuesday that Yankees fans haven’t been screaming at their TVs for two weeks. He just said it with the kind of blunt honesty that comes with a Hall of Fame résumé and zero reason to sugarcoat things.

The Yankees lost 7-3 to the Tigers on Monday night, their ninth loss in the last 15 games. And the pattern is getting harder to pretend isn’t real. Without Aaron Judge in the lineup, this offense looks like a different team. A worse one. A team that can’t handle left-handed pitching and doesn’t make pitchers pay for mistakes.

Martinez, now a TBS analyst, posted on X that the Yankees are missing more than Judge’s bat. They’re missing his presence. The way he changes how pitchers approach every at-bat around him. The way he makes the guys hitting behind him look dangerous by default.

He specifically called out Ben Rice, the rookie catcher who looked like a potential spark plug earlier this season. Rice has cooled off, and Martinez noticed. The young hitter is getting a tougher brand of pitching now. No Judge means no protection. Pitchers can nibble. They can challenge Rice with stuff they wouldn’t dare throw if Judge were due up next.

The Red Sox swept four straight from the Yankees over the weekend, and that wasn’t a fluke. Boston attacked the bottom of the order. They fed the Yankees left-handed matchups and watched the lineup go quiet. Detroit followed the same blueprint Monday night. Tarik Skubal carved through New York’s hitters like he knew exactly where the weak spots were.

Judge is still the AL MVP favorite. He was having one of the best seasons of his career before he went down. But this stretch is a reminder of just how much of the offense runs through him. Without Judge, the Yankees don’t just lose home runs. They lose the structural logic of their entire lineup. Every hitter moves up a spot. Every pitcher breathes easier.

The Yankees still have Giancarlo Stanton. They still have Juan Soto. But neither one is Judge. And until he comes back, every opponent is going to test the same flaw. The Yankees know it. Martinez just said it out loud.