How can Yankees GM Brian Cashman fix this?
Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes walks to the dugout after being taken out of the game during the fifth inning against the Rays in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Maybe we’re asking the wrong question about the Yankees when it comes to the July 30 trade deadline.
Forget about strategic additions to this roster. Who is actually worth keeping?
Luis Severino, the Bronx traitor now thriving in Queens, had it right. Other than Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, what’s to fear in this Yankees lineup?
But you don’t have to be someone with Severino’s inside knowledge of the Yankees to provide that scouting report. Anyone who’s watched them the past month can make the same assessment.
And it’s not just the lineup. The rotation also has taken a turn for the worse ever since Gerrit Cole went from assistant pitching coach back to ace again.
Cole’s fine. In his past two starts, he’s looked every bit like the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.
But Cole’s supporting cast? Saying it’s a regression toward the mean doesn’t feel adequate.
After Nestor Cortes teed up three of the Rays' four homers in Saturday’s 9-1 no-show by the Yankees, that punched a hole in his previous Bronx invincibility (1.81 ERA in 10 home starts going in) and continued the backsliding for the non-Cole department of the starting corps.
Check out the past month. Cortes slipped to 1-4 during that stretch with a 5.06 ERA. That actually puts him at the top of the class compared to Sunday’s starter, Marcus Stroman (1-2, 5.68 ERA), Luis Gil (1-4, 7.25) and Carlos Rodon (0-5, 9.67).
That no longer reads like a division-winning rotation, never mind one that can carry the Yankees deep into October (and they have to survive the next two months, too).
Despite taking two of three from the Orioles in what should have been a weekend sweep right before the All-Star break, the Yankees still have lost 19 of their last 28 games, including a split of this first pair against the Rays. That’s no small sample size, and making Taj Bradley look like Pedro Martinez for seven innings Saturday — Ben Rice’s leadoff double was the Yankees’ only hit off Bradley — was not a very encouraging sign for the future.
“Everybody’s saying how bad we’ve been playing,” Cortes said, “but you could look across the league and see we’re right there with them. I think we’re 59 wins, which is tied for the most wins in the American League. It seems we’re just a tick away from being great. And I have no doubt in my mind that we’re going to be better and the front office is going to make this team better.”
Cortes isn’t wrong about the 59 wins. As of Saturday afternoon, the Yankees were tied with the Orioles and Guardians, and only the Phillies (62) had more. To put that in perspective, however, the Yankees were the first team in the majors to get to 50, but that was on June 14, and this sputtering version isn’t playing anywhere near the level of the first 2 1/2 months.
As we mentioned, it’s not just one thing. Giancarlo Stanton’s annual hamstring strain certainly was a contributing factor and — shocker — his rehab is going to stretch beyond the expected month timetable (maybe he’ll be back around the trade deadline). In the meantime, manager Aaron Boone has done what he can to shuffle around everyone not named Soto or Judge, but it’s the old deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic problem.
The latest brainstorm was the overdue booting of Alex Verdugo from Stanton’s vacant cleanup spot and inserting .216 hitter Austin Wells for Saturday’s game to give Boone his lefty divider between Judge and Gleyber Torres. Dropping Verdugo had to be done, but we’re skeptical that Wells is going to change much. He went hitless (0-for-3, two strikeouts) in his cleanup debut, but Boone praised him afterward for hitting a 103.7-mph grounder that the Rays turned into a 4-6-3 double play in the fourth inning.
If we’re passing out awards for hard contact, Rice gets the gold medal for Saturday’s effort: He twice registered 107.8 mph on the radar gun. But the Yankees aren’t trying to win Garfield dolls at the circus. They need some actual production from the other seven guys on the lineup card, and here’s a snapshot of what five of those mainstays have done over the past month: Torres (.244 batting average, .678 OPS), Rice (.218, .779), Anthony Volpe (.190, .484), DJ LeMahieu (.171, .474) and the aforementioned Verdugo (.148, .431).
More like the Bronx Bummers. If you’re general manager Brian Cashman, how do you fix all that over the next 10 days? He’ll wind up with his usual bullpen upgrades by the deadline, but Cashman also has issues at third base and leftfield. He also has to keep his fingers crossed that maybe Volpe will snap out of his midseason funk (he doubled again Saturday) and that Torres will remember that he’s supposed to be on a free-agent salary drive.
“We got to make it happen right now with what we have and piece it together,” Boone said. “We’ve got enough to get it done. Just got to try as best you can to get everyone clicking, and then you never know what’s going to happen moving forward.”
But the Yankees haven’t been very good for a while now. And pretending otherwise isn’t going to help.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
