If two weeks ago was a mixed bag for the Yankees, this past week was a outright tumble. They did manage to narrowly win a series against the Tigers to start off, but the offense’s lackluster performance outside of a couple key moments came home to roost in their trip up to Boston where they got swept in a four-game series against their archrivals. A humiliating result on several levels, New York got pummeled by the last-place team in their division giving the Rays the opening they needed to close
the gap and retake first place while also looking lifeless for significant stretches offensively — they scored just seven runs outside of extra innings across those four games facing nothing but lefty starters and nearly got no-hit by the last of them in former Yankee Sonny Gray.
Needless to say, the vibes aren’t great after that road trip. While June hasn’t been an outright bad month for them, they’ve played to an even .500 record and suffered from some streaky play within the rotation for the first time all year while the offense can’t find its groove. On top of that, the defensive alignments have regressed significantly with Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, and Ryan McMahon all out: José Caballero hasn’t taken to time in the outfield well, Ben Rice has had a rough showing when he’s manning first base instead of slotting in as the DH, and Amed Rosario is still prone to some maddening errors. Combine all this, and it’s easy to see how frustrating the month has been despite the overall record not being too damning. And as our own Michael Zeno pointed out in his analysis of the so-called June Swoon, the real catalyst for an oncoming slide is a poor performance in Fenway during the month. Buckle up and get ready to see if that trend holds true.
With all of that in mind, there’s still plenty of season left to play and a trade deadline now on the horizon as we approach July. Much can change in a matter of weeks, and as we get into the new month even day-to-day rumors should start to bubble up as the trade market forms. Will an overhaul of the team be on the horizon to buff out the rough edges, or will the front office target a key player or two hoping that one big fix brings relief across the board? How aggressive do you think the Yankees will be in dealing from their prospect pool? Can they avoid considering getting back their injured players as a “deadline acquisition” this time around? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.
Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of July 2nd will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
