New York Yankees: Why wouldn’t they start selling yet?

The New York Yankees have one of the worst offenses in the game and are already 6.5 games out of the division. Why wouldn’t they start selling some pieces?

Let’s go back a couple of years. The New York Yankees were kinda in it. They had two big pending free agents in Robinson Cano and David Robertson. The Yankees stayed the course and tried to make the playoffs. They didn’t and lost both via free agency. All they got for them? Draft picks.

The Yankees are a worse team this year. They lost Mark Teixeira for a while and when he was in was ineffective to say the least.  Let’s look at WAR at their usual starting lineup. The WAR rankings are per Fangraphs. (All numbers are going into last night’s action)

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C- Brian McCann 0.5

1B- Mark Teixeira -1.1 tied with Ryan Howard for last among all first baseman

2B- Starlin Castro -0.1

SS- Didi Gregorius -0.1

3B- Chase Headley 0.5

LF- Brett Gardner 1.0

CF- Jacoby Ellsbury 1.2

RF- Carlos Beltran 0.7

Only three teams have a worse WAR than the Yankees; the Phillies, Athletics and Brewers. Their 83 WRC+ is 27th in baseball. They are 28th in slugging and tied for 25th in on base percentage. They are 19th in ERA.

They may get some wins soon. They play the Twins and they are home more after only playing one home series over the past three weeks. If you watch this team, you can tell they aren’t going anywhere. But, for whatever reason, this news came out yesterday;

The Yankees continue to be their worst enemy. They need to add more youth and add more prospects while they wait for some other salary to come off the books.

Carlos Beltran won’t be coming back here. Put him on the market now and maximize his return. Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller can be game changers for contending teams. Trade them both now. Get a ton of prospects and then re-sign Chapman in the off-season. Have your cake and eat it too.

Brett Gardner should be made available. He wears down in the second half and the Yankees have five guys who have a similar game to Gardner who are younger and cheaper. If someone wants anyone out of McCann, Gregorious, Headley  or Castro they should be listening. If someone wants Michael Pineda and the price is right they should deal him too.

The Yankees need more upper echelon young talent and the guys that are close, like Gary Sanchez should be given a shot to see what they have. They need more in the system. Why? Let’s take a look at their top five prospects per MLB pipeline:

1- SS Jorge Mateo– FSL All-Star

2- OF Aaron Judge– hitting .233 in AAA and struggling with off-speed pitches

3- C Gary Sanchez– injured

4- P James Kaprielian– injured

5- SS Wilkerman Garcia– hasn’t appeared in a minor league game above the Gulf Coast League in low Rookie ball

They need younger talent that is closer to the major leagues and the way to do that is to start selling those assets. The Phillies realized it too late and it delayed their rebuilding process and the Yankees need to start cashing in some of their chips.

Next: Is this it for Carl Crawford?

Otherwise, things are going to get much worse before it gets better in the Bronx.