Yankees: 3 September roster moves to avoid a monumental collapse
By Tim Boyle
To avoid a monumental collapse, the New York Yankees should consider these three roster moves.
The MLB season is long and full of terrors. The New York Yankees are experiencing some of them. Their lead in the American League East isn’t what it once was.
While making the playoffs shouldn’t be a problem, the way they have played makes it appear that they could end up as a wild card club. This has some severe disadvantages including tougher opponents, more games to win, and less home-field advantage.
The once mighty Yankees don’t look so great right now. Are there any September roster moves they can make to avoid a monumental collapse?
1) Yankees need to play Oswald Peraza often and anywhere they can while he is here
The Yankees hit an emergency switch when they promoted Oswald Peraza to the major leagues. Probably not quite ready to join a pennant race in September, it’s important the Yankees at least give him some consistent at-bats before making any judgment on what he can or cannot offer them in the next few weeks.
Peraza hit .259/.329/.448 down in Triple-A this season. It came with 19 home runs and 33 stolen bases. He clearly has some tools that could be useful for a Yankees squad in some desperate need for offense.
How can New York get his bat going? Peraza isn’t used to sitting. While here, they need to use him as much as possible wherever they can.
The Yankees have an incredibly low amount of roster flexibility at the moment. Nearly everyone on their 40-man roster is already in the major leagues or on the IL. The cavalry has already been called in and Peraza is one of the guys leading the charge.
Peraza will need some sort of consistency to get his bat going. Even if all he does is get on base once a game, it’s better than what the Yankees are getting from so many other members of the offense.