Yankees trade for White Sox reliever Keynan Middleton, Rangers pitcher Spencer Howard

In a move sure to please almost no one – their fans in particular – the Yankees barely made any moves before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline. 

And so the Yankees, despite making last-minute deals for White Sox reliever Keynan Middleton and Rangers pitcher Spencer Howard, will try to make a push for a playoff spot the last two months of the season with essentially the same group of players who put the club in the position they entered Tuesday in – currently, on the outside looking in when it comes to the postseason.

“We were aggressively trying to do and be open-minded to a lot of things coming our way,” GM Brian Cashman said Tuesday night, speaking right around the same time his team fell behind the Rays, 4-0, in the third inning. “But when the dust settled, we stayed the course with what we have because we felt, given the options that were available coming our way or the options that we were unable to secure, this was the best play for us with the team we had.”

The Yankees, desperately in need of a lefty-hitting quality outfielder for several years, came into the day 55-51, 10 games behind the American League East-leading Orioles and 3 ½ games behind the Blue Jays for the league’s third and final wild-card spot.  

And a lackluster offense was the overwhelming reason why the Yankees have been in last place for a while now.

All had been quiet when it came to the Yankees and trade rumors and speculation in recent days, with the silence deafening Tuesday afternoon as teams across the sport made big splashes. Yankees tormentor Justin Verlander going back to their tormenter of tormentors, the Astros, but one example. The American League East-leading Orioles, to name another team ahead of them in the standings, pulled off a late-afternoon deal for Cardinals righthander Jack Flaherty. The Rays, also ahead in the standings, added Cleveland righthander Aaron Civale on Monday.  

“Seems like management is paralyzed right now and can’t figure out which path forward they’re supposed to take,” one organizational insider said a couple of hours before the deadline. 

Ultimately, the path chosen by Cashman was to stay the course, more or less, as is. 

In years past, Cashman, before a given trade deadline, has discussed the Yankees in terms of showing themselves being “worthy” of major upgrades. Though the club looked into offensive upgrades in the outfield – Cody Bellinger was a target of interest before the Cubs got hot in recent weeks and he was yanked off the market – that need went unfulfilled.

Message sent and received as far as “worthiness” goes.

“We really haven’t helped our case,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said before the game of the players when it came to the buy-or-sell dilemma the Yankees found themselves in. “(We) put the front office in a weird spot.”

A spot that saw the Yankees add to what has been their most consistent area of strength this season – the bullpen.

But even that group has shown signs of decline in recent weeks, in large part because of overuse in the early part of the season, the result of few Yankees starters, other than Gerrit Cole, able to get consistently deep into games. So in that respect, Middleton should help.

The 29-year-old Middleton, described by one rival AL scout as “a decent addition to the pen but not a difference maker,” was acquired from the White Sox in exchange forJuan Carela,  a 21-year-old righthander who had a 3.67 ERA in 17 games (16 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley. Middleton, a free agent after this season, had a 3.96 ERA in 39 games with Chicago.  

The 27-year-old Howard, acquired from Texas for cash considerations, is 3-11 with a 7.20 ERA in 38 career games (29 starts) over parts of four big-league seasons. He posted a 10.80 ERA in three relief appearances this season with the AL West-leading Rangers, who were among the more active teams before the deadline, bringing aboard Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery to bolster their rotation.

“Hopefully we got a little better with Middleton and hopefully we can get better from within,” Cashman said. “That’s obviously what we’re doing. And hopefully we didn’t get worse by making a bad decision.”