Have the Yankees gone from a great franchise to just a good franchise?

It’s one of the biggest questions in baseball heading into the All-Star break: Who are these New York Yankees? Is it the team that shot out of the gate, with 50 wins against just 22 losses? A team that despite losing its AL Cy Young Award-winning ace Gerrit Cole for most of the season had one of the best rotations and bullpens in baseball? A club with a surprise rookie package, Luis Gil, who posted a 2.03 ERA in his first 14 starts, more or less out of nowhere? They’re the team with an offense that resembles something out of the Yankees’ past, with Juan Soto, acquired in a blockbuster deal from San Diego in December, immediately feeling at home, posting MVP numbers as the Bomber offense soared, even as Aaron Judge took his time warming up. By the way, Judge finally heated up to levels approaching the heat of the sun, putting up some of the flashiest first-half numbers in recent memory: 34 home runs, 24 doubles and a Ruthian OPS, but I digress. The Yankees are a team that has finally eased the pressure off manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman, who under tremendous scrutiny before acquiring Soto, apparently finally assembled a lineup capable of doing something the Yanks haven’t done since 2009: reach a Series Worldwide.

Or is it the club’s recent form – the Yankees have won just eight of their last 26 games – that they really they are. Are they worse than the worst teams in baseball? The Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, Oakland A’s and Colorado Rockies, who have won more games than the Yankees over that stretch. They’re a team whose offense starts and ends with Soto, Judge and Stanton, their oft-injured DH who hit 18 homers in limited play. For the moment, at least, it appears that the dominant Yankees of April and May have succumbed to the suddenly thin roster that let them down in June and July. Other than the Big Three, there isn’t a single New York bat in the lineup with an OPS above .700 — the mark for an average hitter — with the exception of Ben Rice, a little-known rookie who hit six home runs in 24 games. Let’s just say that calling their lineup “unbalanced” is kind.

Meanwhile, the pitching team is filling the water. All Star closer Clay Holmes, so strong in his first 30 appearances, gave up 12 runs in 9 ⅔ innings. Gil bounced back the last two games after the rookie went through a stretch where he allowed 16 runs in just 9.2 innings. Marcus Stroman is a pitcher made to pitch anywhere but Yankee Stadium and Carlos Rodon has an ERA over seven since June. Sip.

Related: A Baseball Gaijin: An American Pitcher’s Journey to Japan and Back

This brutal stretch for New York ended appropriately on Sunday when the team limped into halftime in Baltimore, with Holmes blowing a two-run, ninth-inning lead, and his sixth save of the season thanks to shortstop Anthony Volpe hitting a routine grounder in the end of the game and left fielder Alex Verdugo misjudged a fly ball, allowing the winning run to score.

So let’s ask again: who are the Yankees? The 50-22 team? Or the 8-18 club? As always, the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle, which means that, once again, there are several teams better than New York, and that New York finally overcomes its World Series drought seems quite unlikely. What this also means is that, at 32 years old, another season of Judge is about to go to waste. Judge is, and it seems a little crazy to write, probably the best homemade Yankee bat since Mickey Mantle. Not only has Judge not won a World Series, he has never been to one. That puts him alongside Don Mattingly in the lone category of best Yankees of all time, without titles. Perhaps more accurately, this puts him in the same box as Mike Trout, one of the greatest hitters in history, who played playoff baseball in just one season. Even the addition of Shohei Ohtaini couldn’t bring poor Mike Trout more baseball in October.

What can the Yankees do to help Judge finally make the Fall Classic? Well, there are plenty of roster issues to be resolved at the trade deadline, and while the team could get a boost from promoting prospects, there are bigger issues in the Bronx, even if the team is just one game behind the AL East leader . Orioles.

That’s because the Yankees have a cultural problem. I’m not talking about Boone, the player’s best coach, for not criticizing his team for their lack of agility or the mental errors that plagued his nine down the stretch. I’m not even talking about the work Cashman did, which included abandoning the Yankees’ basic offensive formula that helped them win 27 titles — left-handed power — until finally trading for Soto. Cashman can’t say goodbye. No, this era is up to the owner.

If the Yankees do not return to the World Series this season, it will mean that under Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees will have endured the longest period without reaching the World Series since 1903 to 1920: a time that began when the team was known as the Highlanders and ended with the club sharing the Polo Grounds with the Giants: at a time when the “House That Ruth Built” wasn’t even built.

Does Steinbrenner spend? Yes, the Yankees are second only to their rivals across town, the Mets, on the payroll this season. Is he willing to do absolutely anything and everything to win like his father, George? No. Hal seems to be more interested in the business than the business of winning championships. After being kicked out of the playoffs last year, Steinbrenner echoed Giannis Antetokounmpo’s post-playoff elimination comments: “It’s not a failure. These are steps towards success” while refusing to consider the season a failure. That’s fine with Giannis. Good for most teams. Not good for the Yankees. Cashman didn’t bring the results and rings that are the biggest success in the Yankee universe. However, Cashman is not held accountable by Steinbrenner, even after a quarter century as GM.

Some theorize that New York pulled the trigger on the Soto deal this off-season, a move that raised the payroll to more than $300 million, just when the brand and the business were being legitimately threatened by a lack of sense of urgency of the franchise.

Then in May, while the Yankees were rolling, Steinbrenner said: “I’ll be honest, payrolls at the levels we’re at right now are simply not sustainable for us financially. It would not be sustainable for the vast majority of the property [groups]given the luxury tax we have to pay.”

Maybe it’s not sustainable, but with the team moving forward it was a curious time to set expectations for the fan base that they shouldn’t fall in love with Soto as his re-signing after the season is anything but a done deal. He also said the roster is “championship caliber,” something New York’s recent results don’t support. This Yankees team looks like more of the same: good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to reach or win the World Series. There is every reason to believe that, regardless of the results, Cashman would once again avoid being fired. This is the current culture in the Bronx, which is happy to be good but not great, something that directly undermines the foundation on which the franchise stands. And so title 28 could be a long way off.