The New York Yankees have the second-best record in the American League at 31-22 and are 4.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East division. They have one of the best offenses in the league (second with a 114 Weighted Runs Created+), paired with one of the best starting rotations in the sport. New York also currently has the sixth-best record in the league overall, only behind the Rays, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Diego Padres.
Every team isn’t perfect, but the Yankees have their glaring holes that rear their ugly head, especially in losses when they get a light shone on them. Not even a $291 million roster is flawless. After all, this is the same New York team that is 1-4 against Tampa Bay in five games so far this season and has had some uncharacteristic defensive miscues in timely situations against them.
Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, and Cam Schlittler are three of the best players at their respective positions, and Gerrit Cole isn’t getting any younger. This is the year to get it done for the Yankees in a historically weak AL. They have to throttle the pedal.
New York’s bullpen is a ticking time bomb, with seemingly nobody coming out of the bullpen having any trust from the fanbase. They can’t even trust their closer, David Bednar, who’s blown two saves in May and always has traffic on the bases. He suffered a soul-crushing defeat against the Milwaukee Brewers at the hands of a Brice Turang home run. Bednar followed that up with a spine-crushing three-run home run hit by Tyrone Taylor of the New York Mets against him.
Camilo Doval has all of the stuff in the world, but he isn’t getting results, and his slider has been putrid. Fernando Cruz is hit or miss as a splitter specialist, Jake Bird is hot and cold, Brent Headrick’s been overused, and Tim Hill is good in lefty lanes.
The Yankees sent down Yovanny Cruz a few days ago after a dazzling debut, showing off his high velocity fastball and his intriguing slider to go along with it. For whatever reason, New York employs a bullpen with two long relievers in Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough instead of releasing one of them and going with a high-velocity guy from the minor leagues.
In an ideal world, the Yankees acquire a closer to demote Bednar back to non-save situations. Someone like Josh Hader would work wonders in the Bronx, but would Houston Astros owner Jim Crane be willing to send him to them? Hader is currently on a rehab assignment and is returning from biceps tendinitis, which sidelined him at the beginning of this season.
New York is in desperate need of velocity, and they could use one from either side to help bolster their faulty bullpen.
Current starting catcher Austin Wells has been a shell of his former self this season. You can only get away with being a good defensive catcher when you have a high offensive pedigree coming into the league for so long. At the worst, the Yankees need a catcher who has shown a good track record to platoon with Wells and hit left-handed pitching at a minimum league-average clip.
Among 48 catchers with at least 70 plate appearances this season, Wells is 36th with a 62 wRC+ and 37th with a .559 OPS. Wells is also 25th in Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement at 0.4 fWAR, 43rd in batting average at .165, and 44th among catchers with only six runs batted in across 140 at-bats this season. One of the only good things Wells has going is his 15% walk rate and 47% Hard-Hit percentage. To pair along with his 93 wRC+ in 77 AB’s and 94 PA’s against right-handed pitching this season.
Defensively, Wells is an elite framer, slightly above average at blocking, below average at throwing runners out, and is also in the 33rd percentile in pop time. Wells has three Defensive Runs Saved and three Fielding Run Value, according to Fangraphs, in 340.2 innings so far this season.
Outside of the summer of 2024, Wells has been a below league-average hitter, which is the polar opposite of what he was supposed to be according to scouts. Wells’ at bats either end in him grounding into a double play, getting out on a singular pitch, working a walk, or striking out in a big spot.
Now it’s time to start looking for his replacement. Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins makes the most sense here since he’s an impending free agent and is having a career season for a team that is currently 26-27. Jeffers, unfortunately, recently went down with a hamate injury, so they would have to wait and see how he recovers first before engaging in trade discussions.
Among catchers, Jeffers is first with a 167 wRC+, first in OPS at .949, eighth in home runs at seven, and sixth in RBI’s at 26. Jeffers is also fourth in batting average at .295, and fourth in fWAR at 1.7. Jeffers would immediately insert as New York’s starting catcher and be a massive upgrade with his 159 wRC+ against righties and 168 wRC+ against lefties.
Defensively, Jeffers is 56th percentile in blocking, 9th percentile in throwing runners out, 75th percentile in framing, and 31st percentile in pop time. Jeffers also has zero defensive runs saved and one fielding run value in 263 innings this season at catcher.
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Ryan McMahon has been one of the worst straight-up players this season as he’s remained a comfortably below-average hitter while not even playing stout defense like he usually has. Among 3rd baseman with at least 70 plate appearances this season, McMahon is 40th with a 60 wRC+, 41st in OPS at .559, 41st with a .187 batting average, and 36th with 0.0 fWAR.
McMahon also is 18th with four home runs, 24th with 16 RBI’s, and 7th in strikeout percentage at 30.6% in 147 plate appearances. McMahon’s at bats consistent of grounding out to first base, striking out, and hitting the ball to left field when he should be peppering the ball to the short porch in right field.
Defensively, McMahon has -3 Defensive Runs Saved and has zero Outs Above Average in 341.1 innings at the hot corner so far this season.
McMahon’s walk rate dropped from 11.9% last season to 8.2% this season, while seeing all of his hard-hitting metrics plateau this season as well. All while he’s on the hook for $16.5 million yearly for the next two seasons. This isn’t a contract you can easily get off your books; you have to pay a team to take him and attach legit assets with him in that scenario. At the absolute worst, designating him for assignment and washing your hands with him may eventually be in their cards.
There aren’t many third-base options on the trade market for struggling teams unless they want to re-engage with Isaac Paredes conversations this time with the Astros. Which is why they can call up someone like their top prospect, George Lombard Jr, who they’ll allow to marinate in Triple-A until he forces his hand and profoundly shows that he’s ready for the major leagues.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. was struggling immensely early on, but he now has close to a 100 wRC+, is playing good defense at second base, and has 13 stolen bases. To go along with that, Chisholm Jr. also has 1.2 fWAR, good enough for 54th in the league, and he’s been red hot recently.
Trent Grisham hasn’t hit for average (.196) or OPS (.696), but his underlying metrics and expected stats indicate that he’s been unlucky and hit into hard outs. Grisham also comes through with runners in scoring position and has six home runs and 27 RBI’s in 163 AB’s. Grisham is hitting .308 with a 1.246 OPS, 239 wRC+, two home runs, and 10 RBI’s in 13 High-Leverage AB’s and 15 PA’s.
The shortstop position probably comes back to earth offensively with Jose Caballero currently playing above his head according to the under-the-hood metrics on him, but he’s been so stout defensively that it’s fine for the time being. Anthony Volpe might have a shot at shortstop depending on how that goes, and Lombard is a shortstop himself after all, so they could also call him up to man that position.
If the Yankees want to go far this postseason and comfortably get into the playoffs, they need to make these necessary moves of adding multiple relievers, a new catcher, and a third baseman. If this current play continues, they can’t trot out their pedestrian bullpen, Wells, and McMahon by any means possible. They have enough ammo to swing some trades and bolster their team for the long haul.
It also doesn’t help that they’re currently in the midst of the worst offensive performance of their season, which shines a light on the holes in their lineup, along with players naturally slumping together.
New York has five top 100 prospects according to MLB Pipeline in Lombard Jr, Elmer Rodriguez, Dax Kilby, and Carlos Lagrange. It’s time to see who’s expendable and who’s untradeable out of that group to include in some trades to help them around the margins.
There was also an interesting rumor yesterday about Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, which would be great, would cost a ton, but would give the Yankees easily the best rotation in the sport. Imagine a rotation with Schlittler, Cole, Max Fried, Skubal, and Carlos Rodon.
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