Hour 1: Joez McFly

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Introducing Meta Glasses.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
You have questions, they've got answers.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:05)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru? Lima.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:09)
How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
Dónde está el baño?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:14)
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:17)
Technically, no.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:18)
Spiritually, yes.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:20)
Hey Meta, what should I do with my life?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
That's one of life's biggest questions.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:25)
What do you think? Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.

**Michael Kay** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Jake Asman** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**Michael Kay** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the ESPN New York app and your smart speaker.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
No Michael Kay.

**Jake Asman** (0:42)
Oh yeah, that's right. Jake has been sitting in for Michael Kay. Hope everyone had had a wonderful weekend. As Michael would say, it's Monday, July 20th, 2026
Plenty of baseball to discuss in our show today. I'm fixing some football as well. I was at Fanatics Fest. So I saw the Kam Scadaboo comments he made about being brain dead, if you will, in person. So I got some thoughts on that later on in the show. We'll certainly talk about the Mets. Francisco Lindor with a huge game yesterday. I was listening to Barton Carlin coming in today. And I tend to agree with Chris. Like, what's the point of trading Lindor if you're just going to get $0.30 on the dollar? Who's taking on that contract? Can you make it work with the guy? What's the plan? So we'll talk about that. But we're obviously going to start with the New York Yankees. And I think the tone in my voice is going to be a little lighter than it would have been had the Yankees completely blew that game in the second game of the doubleheader last night. They're leading 1-0. And I think every Yankee fan, the second you saw them have bases loaded, nobody out in the fifth inning and did not score a damn run. I think every Yankee fan thought, well, we know how this goes. They're now going to blow it and lose the game. And sure enough, they did blow the lead. Fernando Cruz gives up the home run.
But credit to a guy I had been extremely critical of, Jazz Chisholm came through with a solo shot in that eighth inning and the Yankees were able to hold on for a 2-1 win. David Bednar has been great. You look at the back end of the Yankee bullpen, and I still think they could use another reliever. But the bullpen has done its job. The starting rotation for the most part has done its job. Even with the cold decision to leave him in and he gives up the homerun to Muncie on Friday night, he's done his job. You're going to get Max Fried back soon. He's already making rehab starts. The Yankees, I'll give Brian Cashman this, they figured out, I think, a lot of the hard part of a championship team. They have the pitching. They could tinkle with the bullpen here or there. Maybe that's calling some guys up, moving a guy from the rotation to the pen.
You could do some things there, but ultimately the biggest thing the Yankees need is they need another bat. Since June 2nd, the Yankees' first game without Aaron Judge, they ranked 21st in slugging, 22nd in ex-slugging, which I don't know what that means, but this is from the Daily News. 25th in runs scored. I know what that means. They're not scoring runs. OPS, 693, not good. They've been one of the worst offensive teams in the league with that Aaron Judge, and yes, they need Aaron Judge in order to win.
If you take Aaron Judge out of the Yankees' lineup, they're not the same team. The problem is this is not a compliment.
This is an indictment on the team Brian Cashman has put together, and some of it is, guys need to simply play better. Like, Jazz Chisholm said yesterday, he's been terrible this year. This was Jazz last night.

**SPEAKER_9** (3:39)
Sucked. I sucked all season.

**Jake Asman** (3:43)
In what?

**Cam Scatibowy** (3:45)
The numbers speak for themselves.

**Jake Asman** (3:47)
The numbers speak for themselves. I've sucked. He's been clutch, so give him that, but he's been bad. Some of it is guys like him and Cody Bellinger, who since Judge has been out of the lineup, Bellinger has not played well. His OPS is under 700 since Aaron Judge has been out of the lineup. So they need some of the guys in the lineup to be better. There's no doubt. But they need another bat, if not two. And I don't know how realistic that is, but the American League is wide open for the Yankees. It's a weird dynamic watching the Red Sox win their 13th straight game. They're beating up on the Rays all weekend, so the Yankees are gaining ground despite losing 2 out of 3 to the Dodgers. But now the Red Sox are right back in the race. And it feels like last year where when the Red Sox swept the Yankees in June, it kind of propelled their season. They end up being a playoff team that faced the Yankees in the wild card round. Feels like that could be happening again this year. Red Sox swept the Yankees in a four game set at Fenway in June, and since then they have been a completely different team.