ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Yankees pulled into Memorial Day – the first benchmark of any season – with the second-best record in the American League.

After a 5-1 victory over the Angels on Memorial Day, the Yankees improved to 33-20, good for a six-game lead in the AL East.

A good start to be sure, manager Aaron Boone acknowledged, but still not where he or the Yankees believe they can be.

“I’d start with incomplete,” Boone said of how he would evaluate his team to this point. “We haven’t been perfect. We’ve had some tough losses along the way, but feel like we’re doing a lot of really good things as well, and we have a lot of reason to believe we have a chance to be a really good team. We’ve gotten contributions from everyone, which has been really good.”

Among the biggest questions coming into 2025 was how the offense would be without Juan Soto who, despite the enmity caused among the fan base with his departure to Queens as a free agent, did lead the Yankees to their first AL pennant since 2009.

But two months in, those in the organization – and there were a lot of them – who believed the Yankees would have a better top-to-bottom lineup this season because of the acquisitions made after Soto bolted have been proven correct.

The Yankees came into Tuesday leading the majors in homers (86), on-base percentage (.344), slugging (.470), OPS (.815), extra-base hits (195) and walks (215). They were second in the majors, and first in the AL, in runs per game (5.68). Their 301 runs were second in the majors.

Aaron Judge, of course, has much to do with that, the reigning AL MVP entering Tuesday leading the big leagues in pretty much every offensive category of note, including batting average (.398), OBP (.492), slugging (.756), OPS (1.248), WAR (4.7), total bases (152) and extra-base hits (34), which includes an AL-leading 18 homers.

But there has also been the production from new additions like Paul Goldschmidt, who brought a .345 batting average, five homers and .889 OPS into Tuesday, and Cody Bellinger, who is hitting .268 with eight homers and an .812 OPS, in the midst of a 28-for-77 (.364) stretch.

Third-year shortstop Anthony Volpe, while playing the best defense of his career, including his rookie year when he won a Gold Glove, appears to be getting his footing at the plate. He came into Tuesday tied for fourth in the majors in doubles with 16 (his bases-clearing double highlighted the Yankees’ four-run fourth inning Monday).

Though Austin Wells hasn’t gotten it going at the plate consistently, the second-year catcher does have eight homers and 31 RBIs, the latter tied for third-most on the club. Trent Grisham has slowed after a scorching start but still has 12 homers, second-most on the team behind Judge.

Jasson Dominguez has had his share of ups and downs in his first full season in the majors but has gradually improved his defense in left, a position he started learning in the spring, and has more often than not put up competitive at-bats.

“I love our blend of veterans and young players, because we’ve leaned heavily on both,” Boone said. “That youth and veteran experience has been a key for us.”

A rotation that was supposed to be decimated by Gerrit Cole’s season-ending injury in the spring and Luis Gil’s spring injury slated to cost him the first three months at least, has steadied after a rough initial two weeks. The unit entered Tuesday with a 2.70 ERA over its last 38 starts, allowing three earned runs or fewer in 33 of those outings. Though early, Max Fried (7-0, 1.29) is a runaway favorite for the AL Cy Young, and Carlos Rodon, Tuesday night’s starter, is 6-3, 2.88. Clarke Schmidt hasn’t yet gotten on a roll, but Will Warren and Ryan Yarbrough, inserted three weeks ago as the fifth starter, have.

And the bullpen, even with Devin Williams’ demotion from closer, has been as good as it was predicted to when spring training ended.

All of it has contributed to one of the best records in the sport, with the club coming into Tuesday having won seven of their last eight games and 14 of their last 18.

“Every night we’re going out with confidence and confidence in each other,” Volpe said. “We just feel really good about the brand of baseball we’re playing.”