New York Yankees got a much-needed 2-1 win on Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. 3-7 in their last 10 games, the past month and a half has been one for the Yankees to forget.
After starting the season as the best team in baseball, they don’t look to be any bit of the team they once were, a discouraging sign given the talent on the roster.
However, New York now knows exactly what they need at the trade deadline. There have been rumors for the past few months that they want to upgrade Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, and Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo has already been somewhat replaced by youngster Ben Rice, but it’s not guaranteed that he’ll continue to be the every-game starter when Rizzo returns.
As for LeMahieu and Torres, the Yankees have to do something to get them out of the lineup every night. They simply haven’t played to the level that’s needed for them to be World Series contenders, and it’s been on full display with the offense struggling recently.
Similar to other contending teams around Major League Baseball, pitching will be a priority, too. While a lot of the focus has been on the lack of offense, New York’s pitching staff, especially in the bullpen, has been a concern in recent weeks.
According to Jim Bowden of The Athletic, the front office understands that and they’re planning on addressing all of those issues.
“The Yankees’ starting pitching has stumbled over the past month and their overall staff has the second-worst ERA in the majors over the past 30 days. They’re optimistic the starting pitching will improve after the All-Star break but do have concerns about the bottom half of the lineup, in particular second and third base, where they haven’t gotten much production from Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and company…
“Even though Giancarlo Stanton should return from his hamstring injury “shortly” after the All-Star break, the Yankees know he’s a high risk for another injury, so they will consider trading for a DH/outfield bat as well to protect themselves. I think they’ll also need to pursue a veteran starter to protect against injury and address concerns over Luis Gil’s mounting innings. And like most teams, they’ll probably try to add a reliever too.”
The Yankees understanding that they have problems they need to solve is step No. 1 in this process, which is as important as anything else right now. If they make moves to better the roster in the coming weeks and start to play better, no one will remember some struggles in June and July.
At the end of the day, while every game is important, these games don’t matter as much as they do in August, September, and October.
As long as they’re ready to go then, all of this will be forgotten about.
