As reporters awaited the trade deadline on the field at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Harrison Bader walked by.
The centerfielder, an impending free agent and rumored trade chip held out of the evening’s lineup, smiled and said hello. He then asked, “Am I still on this team?” With roughly an hour to go before the 6 p.m. deadline, he then jogged away laughing at his joke.
Meanwhile, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, another Yankee on an expiring deal, wondered how he would get his goldendoodle, Bella, to a new location in the event of a trade.
“It’s part of the business,” the utilityman said, “but the outside stuff is the harder part.”
But Bader, Kiner-Falefa and the rest of the Yankees’ major league roster stayed put. Brian Cashman failed to swing any earth-shattering deals, only acquiring right-handed relievers Keynan Middleton from the White Sox and Spencer Howard from the Rangers.
While an argument could have been made for more aggressive buying, the Yankees’ performance on the field hasn’t exactly made a compelling case. The team began the day 55-51 and 3.5 games out of the American League’s third Wild Card. The Blue Jays occupy that spot, while the Red Sox and Angels led the Yankees in the race. Toronto and Los Angels committed to buying well before Tuesday.
“We really haven’t helped our case,” said an honest Kiner-Falefa, whose Yankees’ recorded losing records in June and July. “We’ve tried to play better, but we haven’t. And we put the front office in a weird spot. So whatever they do, it’s on us.”
A weird spot indeed. As of 4 p.m., even Aaron Boone wasn’t sure what direction his team would go in, if any at all. He called that “a little bit different” compared to previous seasons.
“You could see everything from nothing to guys leaving to guys coming,” Boone said.
Some fans were split between investing more in this season and selling in an effort to retool for the future. But “nothing” is more or less what the Yankees did.
Howard, a former top prospect with years of control, has a 7.20 ERA for his career. Middleton, another impending free agent, is a useful reliever, but he’s no difference maker. There weren’t many of those to begin with on the market, and the Yankees’ 11th-hour approach to the deadline left even fewer options on the table as the days passed.
The reality is that no one was going to contribute more to a turnaround than the players the Yankees already have. Trades or not, the team can’t make a legitimate — and still attainable — run unless incumbent hitters like Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu produce consistently. If they don’t, there’s no reason for opponents to pitch to Aaron Judge, who is trying to carry a failing offense on a toe that is not 100% healed.
While members of the aforementioned trio have all had stretches of success for varying lengths this season, none have come close to playing to the backs of their baseball cards. There’s been little reason to believe they will.
Stanton entered Tuesday hitting below The Mendoza Line. Rizzo has looked lost at the plate since June began. LeMahieu has swung the bat better since the All-Star break, but he’s been below league average this season, and fear of regression is reasonable.
It takes two to tango in trade talks, as Cashman likes to say, but not upgrading this roster in a serious manner speaks volumes when it comes to the front office’s belief in the 2023 Yankees.
Yet the team has publicly maintained faith in its holdovers all season (while also acting like the returns of injured players count as additions when they don’t). Having made no moves of significance on Tuesday, the Yankees will have to hope that that repeatedly stated faith is rewarded over the final two months of the season, no matter how misplaced it appears.
“Our focus in that room is trying to get some certain individuals going that have struggled, and as a team ultimately going,” Boone said. “I don’t think we’ve lost belief in that.
“There’s confidence that we can turn it around. But that’s the task at hand for all of us.”
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