Yankees aren't proving worthy of major trade deadline splash right now

New York Times

5 days ago

NEW YORK — New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman likes to use the metaphor that the trade deadline is like shopping at the market.
He might want to start eyeing the clearance rack.
Look, the Yankees didn't embarrass themselves in a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on Monday night.
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Sure, the lineup — sans star Aaron Judge (flexor tendon strain) — didn't do much outside of the two-run first inning. Yeah, shortstop Anthony Volpe and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. each didn't make plays the Yankees, who would call them elite defenders, might expect them to make — Volpe dropping a hard-hit grounder to his right and Chisholm bungling a transfer on a slow hopper. Neither was charged an error. (Manager Aaron Boone said Volpe wouldn't have had time to complete the throw to first base even if he had come up with it.)
But in the ninth inning, Austin Wells' line drive to center field with a runner on second base was a few feet from falling for extra bases. It would have cut the deficit to a single run and put the tying run on base with two outs. Alas, it was caught at the warning track, and the game was over. Still, the defeat wasn't as bad as either of the two eyesores they produced in Toronto last week against the first-place Blue Jays.
But it's hard to look at the stumbling Yankees and think they're trending up, and that Cashman should throw billionaire owner Hal Steinbrenner's money or the franchise's higher-end prospect capital at any of the the team's problems before the trade deadline on Thursday at 6 p.m.
In fact, when manager Aaron Boone was asked pregame whether he felt the roster was still proving to the front office that it deserved reinforcements, he deflected.
'Look,' Boone said, 'there are so many machinations going on up there. So many conversations from 30 teams. That's tough to say. We're always trying to prove ourselves all the time. We've gone through months now where we've just played OK and we know we need to play good baseball here to get to where we want to go. Our focus is on doing that everyday, not necessarily out to prove anything. It's about going out there and trying to shake hands at the end of the day.'
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And when outfielder Cody Bellinger was quizzed on if the trade deadline was a hot topic in the clubhouse among players, he talked around it.
'Ultimately,' Bellinger said, 'the guys in this locker room, it's kind of out of our control. What we have to do is what we've been doing and focus on the day to day and our plan. We have no idea really what's going to happen. Just kind of focus on what we can focus on.'
The Yankees' main focus has been on trying to play better, which they haven't done consistently in a while. Since June 13, their 14-25 record is the third-worst in the game. Their bullpen had an atrocious 5.16 ERA over the span going into Monday.
Since Saturday, they have been without Judge, and it's unclear when he'll be back. The Yankees have said they expect him to return to DH-ing once the 10-day injured list window ends, but whether that happens on that timeline is anybody's guess. It's also unclear when Judge will be ready to play the outfield again. That they're even discussing Giancarlo Stanton potentially trying to play right field after not playing the position at all last year or this season, and after he's taken to running the bases as if he's concerned he might get hurt if he's not careful, would seem to be a bad sign.
Still, it wasn't as if the Yankees were hopeless. Yes, they remained 5 1/2 games back of the first-place Blue Jays. But they also were a game ahead of the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card standings, and the rest of the American League wasn't exactly filled with juggernauts.
The Yankees' first two moves seemed like they were more than half-measures, but also like they were made by a front office still gauging its appetite. Adding Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies was just as much about trying to solidify third base for the next two seasons as it was about this year. Trading for Amed Rosario from the Washington Nationals simply gave the Yankees a righty bat to pair with the lefty-hitting McMahon the rest of the season.
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They were still prioritizing adding pitching — particularly in the bullpen, where there seemed to be no shortage of trade candidates. They also seemed inclined to explore adding another starting pitcher.
Yet the question becomes: At what cost? For more than a month, they haven't played like a team that should consider trading top prospects such as George Lombard Jr., Spencer Jones or Carlos Lagrange. After all, which potential acquisition exactly would put this team back over the hump, especially with Judge sidelined for who knows how long?
The clearance rack probably isn't where the Yankees would find the answer to that question. But it might be better than buyers' remorse.
(Josh Lowe steals second base before being tagged by shortstop Anthony Volpe. Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)