Yankees Icon Jorge Posada Says Current Team Needs to Get 'A Little Angry' Amid Woes

On Thursday, June 12, the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 1-0, and moved to 42-25 on the season. At the time, they were atop the AL East and looked like a shoo-in for the postseason.

But a lot can change in two months. Since that win, the Yankees are just 19-30 and have lost six of their last seven games. Former catcher Jorge Posada believes it's time for the team to show a little bit of fire.

"It's just more about attitude than anything," he said when asked about what the Yankees could change amidst their struggles. "Just gotta get a little angry. ... They need to have a chip on their shoulder. You gotta play like that. You can't be friends with everybody."

The Yankees have been plagued by defensive woes and sloppy base-running. Closer Devin Williams has been a disaster of late, with his ERA ballooning up to 5.73. The Yankees are producing offensively, leading the majors in homers (182) and OPS (.773) while ranking second in runs (590), but little else has seemed to go right of late.

The result has been the Yankees dropping from atop the AL East to third in the division, 6.5 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for the top spot. A playoff berth is far from guaranteed at this point—the Yankees only hold a half-game lead on the Cleveland Guardians for the final AL Wild Card berth.

So something has to change. If that's a bit more fire in the belly, as Posada suggested, the Yankees would do well to discover that now.