MLB Rumors: Grading the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox trade deadline

MLB rumors: Grading the New York Yankees’ trade deadline

Congratulations to Brian Cashman for leaving the New York Yankees fanbase, and even beating reporters befuddled by your trade deadline strategy and logic.

Entering deadline day, the Yankees have been playing horrendous baseball for nearly two months. While yes, Aaron Judge’s absence played a role in the decline, but it also highlighted how poorly constructed the roster is. The bats were lifeless, with veteran players like Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, and D.J. LeMahieu unable to step up in a time of need. Most of the batting order is batting below .250 this year. They had a wormhole in left field, with nearly 10 different players manning that position. Even catcher was a weakness, especially after Jose Trevino was ruled out for the rest of the year.

The Yankees have been playing awful all-around baseball, sitting in last place in the AL East. But, they had a 55-51 record on deadline day and were just 3.5 games back of the last Wild Card spot in the AL. So, there were two paths for Cashman to choose — buy to help make a push for a postseason berth, or sell and build for the future.

Cashman chose to do neither. Instead, he made a trade for Chicago White Sox middle relief pitcher Keynan Middleton, and basically paid for Spencer Howard to play for the Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. That was it. How does this help the team out, exactly? We get it, the trade market wasn’t great, but come up with something that can at least help address their areas of weakness, because what they have now isn’t working.

As the Yankees were being taken to school by the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night, Cashman spoke with reporters at the press conference room, and… didn’t help matters. Cashman said that he felt staying put was the best course of action, and that this strategy proves “we’re in it to win it.”

Pause for laughter.

Continuing on with the Yankees’ deadline strategy, a rival executive told The Athletic’s Marc Carig that the team was “frustrating,” and that they were “in-between land waiting to be bowled over for their rentals.”

It’s hard to disagree, as they did have numerous movable players that were set to become free agents. Sure, they wouldn’t have landed top-tier prospects, but they would have gotten something for them. It really did feel like Cashman was more interested in winning a trade than actually improving the team.

Cashman said of the fans disapproval of the team’s performance this season that he hopes to “turn the jeers into cheers.” Well, with a stretch from hell that includes postseason contenders in the Houston Astros, Miami Marlins, and Atlanta Braves for over the next week, that may be a challenge. That “games back” number in the AL Wild Card standings could grow.

Last year, Cashman made trades and all of them, with the exception of Harrison Bader, blew up in his face.  This year, after running back virtually the same roster that batted .173 and had an OPS of .579 in the postseason last year, Cashman made no effort to improve this roster and try to turn things around

An F isn’t a low enough grade for the Yankees. They’re getting an F-.

New York Yankees trade grade: F-