Should the Yankees be Buyers At the Trade Deadline?
By Ben Fadden
The New York Yankees have been banged up all season with injuries, so should they be buyers at the Trade Deadline?
The Yankees currently sit in first place ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, but they have been playing less than average teams like the Baltimore Orioles and the Seattle Mariners.
Aaron Boone has a couple of holes in their roster, but they will also have key players returning from the Injured List around the All-Star Break including Didi Gregorius and possible Giancarlo Stanton. There is no timetable to when Aaron Judge will return from the left oblique strain he suffered April 20.
Those holes include starting pitching and third base.
Starting Pitching
CC Sabathia is on the Injured List, and he is, of course, going to retire at the end of the season. The Yankees should not be banking on Sabathia to be healthy down the stretch.
Domingo German has been their best starter this season, as he has posted a 2.60 ERA. Masahiro Tanaka also has an ERA under three, but no Yankees fan would trust Tanaka and German to deliver in a postseason game against Justin Verlander or Chris Sale.
How do they solve those problems? Well, Luis Severino is not going to be back until at least August, and no one can predict if he will be consistently effective when he does come back.
Dallas Keuchel is still available and he has been rumored to be interested in signing with the New York Yankees, so that would provide some stability in the rotation.
Brian Cashman has a plethora of options when it comes to trading prospects being traded to a team like the Indians and Rangers who have some starting pitching the Yankees would be interested in.
The Cleveland Indians are already 8 games back of the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central, and Jose Ramirez has not been hitting so I would assume Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber would be available.
Mike Minor is pitching well in Texas for the Rangers, and they might try to extend him so he can pitch in their new ballpark in the future, but I am sure Minor would love to pitch in the postseason.
The Blue Jays have already expressed that they are willing to trade Marcus Stroman, and wouldn’t it be interesting for him to be wearing pinstripes.
The only barrier for the Yankees is that A.J. Preller has much more depth in the farm system to relinquish so if the Padres really wanted a starting pitcher, whether that be Bauer or Minor, or Stroman, they could get a trade done.