Max Fried injury threatens to expose the Yankees' trade deadline failure

The New York Yankees had been keeping their heads above water amid injuries to everyone from Aaron Judge to Cody Bellinger to Giancarlo Stanton to Carlos Rodon, but with one of the league's worst offenses struggling terribly to score runs, it felt like the camel's back was one straw away from breaking. Unfortunately, that straw may have come on Monday night, when lefty Max Fried landed back on the IL with a bone bruise in his pitching elbow — the same injury that cost him more than two months earlier this summer.

In the short term, at least, a Yankees team that leads the Majors in starters ERA and fWAR this season has the requisite depth to cover for this loss, especially with Rodon set to make his return to the big-league rotation on Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles. Rodon, Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Ryan Weathers and Will Warren is still a starting five that plenty of teams would love to roll out there.

But the goal in the Bronx is never just to get by; the goal is to win the World Series for the first time since 2009. And if this latest setback costs Fried the rest of this season, that goal is in serious jeopardy as Brian Cashman's failures at the trade deadline get exposed.

Projected Yankees rotation after Max Fried injury

Again: The Yankees rotation is not about to collapse even if Fried has to miss significant time (or even if he's unable to make another start this season). This starting five remains capable of a deep postseason run:

Schlittler, Cole and Rodon are all frontline guys you feel just fine about taking the ball in October, and Weathers has been one of the hottest pitchers in the sport since he made some crucial changes to his pitch mix. New York can say with some confidence that each of those four can give them a chance to win a playoff game, which isn't something that even most contenders can lay claim to right now.

But of course, that rotation doesn't exist in a vacuum. Brian Cashman put the Yankees in a position where they had to be overly reliant on their starting pitching depth to make a deep postseason run — not just to buoy an offense that's currently flailing, but to remake a bullpen that got hung out to dry at the trade deadline.

Yankees' quiet trade deadline could send their season spiraling

As shocking as it was that New York let the deadline go by without adding catching help or a more proven righty bat than outfielder Heliot Ramos, Cashman's decision to not add a single reliever — while sending righty Camilo Doval to the Pittsburgh Pirates — was even more baffling.

The Yankees bullpen has put up respectable top-line numbers, but they've also been protected by that sterling rotation, throwing the seventh-fewest innings in the league entering play on Monday. And any fan who's watched this team on a regular basis could tell you just how desperately Aaron Boone need at least one and preferably two more arms he could trust in high-leverage spots, as there are precious few reliable relievers here beyond closer David Bednar and lefty Brent Headrick.

But Cashman kept his powder dry, hoping that once Rodon returned and the playoffs rolled around, both Weathers and Warren could transition into relief roles and provide that needed boost. That was always a risky strategy, and it looks downright foolish now that Fried's injury has thrown his status into doubt. What if he's sidelined for the rest of the year? What if Weathers has to start games in October rather than helping the bullpen? What if another injury strikes Rodon or Cole or any of the other pitchers here with a checkered health history?

Cashman knew he had a good thing going in his rotation, and he took it for granted rather than aggressively adding everywhere he could when he had the chance. Now the worst-case scenario might be happening, and his team is woefully unprepared.

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