The New York Yankees seem to be looking for a bit of everything ahead of the MLB trade deadline.
A third baseman, a starting pitcher, a relief pitcher. They’d all be considered helpful.
But that could make it tough for the Yanks to land everything they need.
That’s why Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer predicts the Yankees to be the “biggest losers” of deadline season.
Here’s his logic:
It won’t be easy for Cashman to win any of these battles given what he has to barter with.
The Yankees aren’t flush with expendable talent at the major league level, and their farm system is one of the five worst in the league. Spencer Jones has surely upped his value with his recent heater, but he remains a borderline top-100 type on account of his huge strikeout rate (i.e., 31.7 percent) at Triple-A.
Meanwhile, the Yankees are also firmly in “Cohen tax” territory with an estimated luxury-tax payroll of $308 million. Every additional dollar they add will further inflate a tax bill that is already set to cost them $50 million.
All this feels like a setup for a situation where the Yankees overpromise (at least implicitly, if not explicitly) and then underdeliver. Such an outcome probably wouldn’t ease tensions amid the club’s ongoing slide down the standings.
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Even if Jones is enough to net a good talent amid his current minor league hot streak, that might even upset Yankees fans. He gives off enough Aaron Judge vibes because of his 6-foot-7 frame that it seems like New York fans want to keep him around.
Because a lot of the players the Yankees want have expiring contracts, the costs will still be manageable. But there are a lot of other teams in these trade pictures, too.
It’s believable that the Yankees end up underwhelming a bit, for sure.
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