Are the Yankees better with a captain?

The other day the unofficial SABR daily quiz, Horsehide trivia, began a question talking about the 16th captain in New York Yankees history.

I was like, “Sixteenth? There've been 16 of those guys?” I could only name a handful: Gehrig, Munson, Jeter, Judge. But yes, according to Wiki, there've been 16. It helped that they had one every year from 1903 to 1925. That ended when they released Everett Scott and (presumably) didn't want to tap bad-boy Babe Ruth again, who'd been captain in 1922. But after a 10-year gap they anointed nice-guy Lou Gehrig, then seemed to retire the captain title, along with his uniform number (the first in MLB so retired), when Gehrig developed ALS and died young in 1941. But no, they resurrected it in 1976 for Thurman Munson ... who died young when he crashed his plane in August 1979.

You'd think that would be the end of it: back-to-back untimely deaths for Yankee captains. Nope. In the 1980s, Graig Nettles was tapped, and then we got the co-captaincy of Willie Randolph and Ron Guidry. Donnie Baseball took up the mantle in the 1990s. This century we've gotten Jeter and Judge.

You notice anything about those post-Munson captains? Something of interest to Yankee haters like myself? 

• Graig Nettles (1982-84)
• Randolph/Guidry (1986-88)
• Don Mattingly (1991-95)
• Derek Jeter (2003-14)
• Aaron Judge (2023-?)

They don't win much when they have a post-Munson captain. Ignoring this season, since it ain't over, 24 seasons are represented, with just two pennants and one World Series title to the Yankees name—both during Jeter's reign, and paltry numbers for Yankee fans.

Put another way: In the 121-year history of the modern World Series, the Yankees have won 40 pennants and 27 titles, meaning they win a pennant 33% of the time and a title 22% of the time. And sure, post-Munson, those numbers drop off to 18% and 11%; but when the Yankees have an official captain, it's much, much worse: 8% and 4%.

Like this:

So let's have more Yankee captains.