As Monday afternoon’s 4:00 PM trade deadline quickly approached, I rapidly refreshed Twitter to see if the New York Yankees made a deal to bolster themselves for the stretch run.
Four o’clock came and went, and word finally came in from a few beat writers. Yankees GM Brian Cashman didn’t pull the trigger on anything.
It’s a fair point. The Yankees have a number of big names on the injured list, most of them are expected back this season. Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring), Gleyber Torres (left hamstring/quad) and Aaron Judge (right calf) will return before season’s end. Reliever Zack Britton (hamstring) and Kyle Higashioka (oblique) made their returns last night against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Although it would have been nice to add a starting pitcher like Kevin Gausman, as I wrote about last week, I think the Yankees have enough to get by as long as their current starters pitch close to their capabilities. J.A. Happ and Deivi García were stellar in their last outings (García’s MLB debut).
With sixteen teams making the playoffs in this crazy year that is 2020, the Yankees just have to play well enough to get in. Once the playoffs start, anything can happen. The hottest team at the time makes the longest playoff run. It’s happened before. The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series with a regular season record of 83-78. Historically, many 90 win teams have missed the postseason! Cashman was right to not mortgage the future. There is no reason to trade the team’s very best prospects in a year when more than half the teams in Major League Baseball will reach the postseason.
So let’s see what happens when the big guys come back. Let Judge, Stanton and Gleyber heal up for the playoffs. There is enough on hand to get them there.
The Titanium Spine 