Is The Yankee Season Salvageable ?

By Bill Murphy 

I was born in 1994, so I was around during the golden age of the New York Yankees, seeing them win seven American League Pennants and Five World Series. One of my earliest memories of watching baseball was watching the core four (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettite).  My  Dad and my uncle always told me, my brother, and my cousin that we were spoiled with the Yankees from seeing their dominance in the late 90s and into the 2000s; they told us they remembered the Yankees of the mid-60s and into the 70s that were always in the last place, Gone were the days of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Joe Dimaggio and Whitey Ford and the Core four were far into the future.  Are we seeing a resurgence of the Yankees of my Dad and uncle’s youth? The 2010s was the first decade since the 1910s that they did not appear in a world series and the first time since the 1980s that they failed to win a World Series. 

Now fast-forwarding to this season, and without sugar-coating it, the Yankees are an absolute disgrace.  As I have said a thousand times on the podcast, they’re falling apart, and as I have said every word in the book while watching them on tv. The Yankees are now 46-43  and are sitting at tied for third in the AL East and eight games behind the first-place Red Sox. Now, what’s the problem? Well, I would have an easier time telling you what isn’t their problem.  I can say that they can’t capitalize on runners in scoring positions and that they have left an average of 3.14 runners on base this year and have an average of .138, with runners in scoring position the worst in the league. The batting is inconsistent. For example, during the subway series, Aaron Judge hits a home run and then strikes out.  The pitching has been showing problems with Luis Severino injured. Corey Kluber shut down, especially Gerrit Cole, who has struggled throughout June but has shown guts in his last start against Houston, pitching a complete game 1-0 shutout.  Aroldis Chapman keeps blowing saves. On the bright side, they are winning the series, but they can’t complete sweeps. They are currently  3-9 when it comes to completing sweeps.

As we approach the second half of the season, what can be done to save the season? Is it worth salvaging at this point? As the trade deadline approaches, The Yankees should improve the pitching rotation if Brain Cashman and Hal Steinberner don’t want to break the bank and go over the luxury tax to obtain Max Scherzer (a rant for a different blog post ). Then we should think about getting  Jose Berrios from the Minnesota Twins or sitting at a 7-3 record with a 3.48 ERA or  German Marquez from the Rockies, who has a 3.36 ERA. When The season ends, the Yankees’ two free agents should try to jump on Joey Gallo from the Rangers and Trevor Story from the Rockies and be the most sought-after free agent once he becomes one in 2022. 

As the second half of the season is now upon us, can the Yankees improve, or are we going to be looking at another dry spell from the youth of my Dad and Uncle’s youth?