The Yankees dropped tonight’s 5-1 contest to the Rays. They’re at 55-51 heading into the deadline, last place in the AL East despite being four games above .500. New York is only 3.5 out of a Wild Card spot and recently welcomed Aaron Judge back, but they’ve gone 21-27 since the start of June.
With around 18 hours before the deadline, general manager Brian Cashman and his front office find themselves with a difficult balancing act. Whether to add for a playoff push, entertain offers on veterans, or attempt to walk the line by doing both is in question. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported before tonight’s loss that the Yankees were telling other clubs they’re willing to entertain trade offers on their impending free agents.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem the Yankees are strictly bucketing themselves as “sellers.” Buster Olney of ESPN tweeted this afternoon New York was still searching the market for outfield help. Meanwhile, Derrick Goold of the St, Louis Post Dispatch reports the Yanks are among the teams that have reached out to the Cardinals on starter Jack Flaherty — though it isn’t clear how recent that interest is.
It seems Cashman and his front office could entertain multiple moves that blur the line between buying and selling. Their impending free agents are having relatively disappointing seasons, though they could find varying levels of interest in each (not including Frankie Montas and Josh Donaldson, whose injuries and high salaries make them essentially impossible to move).
Harrison Bader has continued to battle injury issues, missing time with oblique and hamstring problems. He’s gotten into 57 games, connecting on seven homers but with a modest .283 on-base percentage. While it’s his second straight below-average offensive showing, Bader is an elite center fielder and has stolen 10 bags in 12 attempts. He’s playing on a $4.7MM salary and should have a decent amount of appeal on a trade market light on position player talent.
Left-hander Wandy Peralta would be a fairly straightforward target for clubs seeking relief depth. He’s holding same-handed hitters to a putrid .091/.242/.091 batting line in 67 plate appearances. Peralta has a 2.29 ERA in 37 1/3 innings overall. His strikeout and walk numbers are both subpar but he’s picking up grounders at an elite 64.1% clip while averaging 96 MPH on his sinker. He’s making $3.35MM in his final arbitration season.
There’d be less appeal with either Luis Severino or Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The former is playing on a lofty $15MM salary and having a nightmarish season. He’s been tagged for a 7.49 ERA across 12 starts. His formerly plus strikeout rates have fallen to a meager 18% clip. Severino’s velocity remains intact, but he’s not missing bats on either his changeup or slider at typical levels and is giving up tons of hard contact.
Kiner-Falefa, playing on a $6MM arbitration salary, has moved into a multi-positional role after serving as the primary shortstop in 2022. He’s spending the bulk of his time in the outfield, where he has slightly below-average reviews from public defensive marks. Kiner-Falefa is hitting .257/.322/.374 in 240 trips to the plate, making plenty of contact without much power.
Flaherty, of course, is an impending free agent himself. If New York’s interest in the Cards’ righty was somewhat recent, it’d obviously be with this season in mind. It’s hard to imagine the Yankees completely throwing in the towel in 2023. Each of their impending free agents is having a middling (or downright poor) enough season that they could move someone in the group while still looking for immediate help in other areas.
There could also be financial considerations at play. Roster Resource projects the Yankees’ competitive balance tax number just above $294MM. That’s a bit north of the $293MM that marks the highest tier of luxury penalization. Offseason reports indicated Yankees’ ownership was reluctant to go above that mark, although there are no non-monetary penalties for doing so. Offloading the money still owed to the likes of Bader or Peralta could allow them to dip below that number.
Players like Gleyber Torres and Clay Holmes are into arbitration and would surely attract interest from other clubs, though there’s nothing to suggest the Yankees on taking offers on players who can be controlled beyond this season. Both Torres and Holmes are eligible for arbitration once more.
.283 is not “modest”, it’s terrible. Billy Hamilton level terrible.
Bader is a defensive stud but yeah he can’t really hit great and as like most defensive studs is hurt constantly.
I feel like that’s what your character would say while Harrison bader was just around the corner, but within earshot.
LOL Harrison Bader. Only Joel Sherman would say he has decent appeal on the trade market. Mr. Defensive Cheerleader Bader is a hitting tick above Bret Phillips. Who got released months ago.
The Yankees need to hunker down around Judge and pray for a solid, healthy 2 months. They’re not out of this.
I wish Hal would sell the franchise. There are three problems with this team.
1. The moronic owner who thinks spending money is the same as spending money wisely.
2. The most overrated and out of touch General Manager in baseball..Brian Cashman.
3. And the absolute dumbest fanbase that are addicted to living vicariously through sport. If the fans would just stop giving their money to a broken product everything would change in a single year.
……you forgot about Boone
How is this on Hal? He just provides the money. Cashman spends it. They have the second highest payroll in baseball. Hal os doing what he needs to do, cashman is not
Because he’s a Hal hater, and secondly because he has no clue.
The need to clean out the whole front office, Cashman, Levine, etc….. they are all dinosaurs living off their late 90’s glory.
……..crickets…….
6 walks in 200+ plate appearances?? Good lord, take some pitches dude
Well he’s brought it up from .275 so there’s that
If this is a reflection of the Yankees’ thinking and not just Joel Sherman clickbait, then it’s almost funny. Peralta will have takers – he’s an effective left-handed reliever who doesn’t cost a lot. Bader? Lot’s of rah rah and fist pumping for a defense only CF who spends a lot of time on the injured list. They won’t get the equivalent of Montgomery back. Severino? Maybe a couple of low prospects – “Boonie” may think “Sevy” is still the guy from years ago, but I doubt many others do. Donaldson is too funny to even consider. And IKF – the solid 3rd basemen who the Yankees insisted on playing at SS and now use as utility player although he’s a bad outfielder – may interest someone but, like Bader, is unlikely t9 bring back much.. If this is the thinking, then all they really want to do is shed a little salary and blame bad luck for this season.
By today’s poor standards in baseball .283 avg is considered stellar…which is sad
Dude they are referencing his on base percentage, not batting average.
Read the article. OBP =/= AVG
Goold is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Cardinals’ front office so take anything he says with a grain of salt.
Yankees have been quiet this trade season. Never heard of them selling off pieces. Is cashman ok?
Trashman only buys trash and never ever sells trash! As a Yankee fan since 59′, I will refuse to buy a ticket, buy merchandise, and I will not watch YES until the ownership sells.
It’s bad.. probably my biggest issue with Cashman is several times we’ve had a great baseball team and gets rid of certain players for others that are technically better while destroying the team. He doesn’t understand the human element behind TEAM.
How can you classify yourself as a Yankees fan when you never watch a game?
Or do you perhaps have MLB.TV and watch the Yankees via their opponents’ broadcasts?
I’m not a Yankees fan but watch them often because I like Michael Kay, Paul O’Neil, David Cone, et.. al. It’s the second best booth in baseball behind Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.
Yes I watch the opponents broadcast. I’m just happy the Scooter, Barber, and Allen do not have to see this garbage. I do feel for the fans who have had the carpet pulled from under them.
64’ Yanks: be careful what you wish for.
For all you know, the Steinbrenners could sell to the Wilpons and get them back into baseball.
Please just sell. We might have a chance next year.
Hi, this Tiger. Yankee take Casey Mize for 1/3 of Stanton’s deal? Oh yes? A lot, all day!
Wowsers! Yankees selling. Smartest thing I’ve seen Cashman do in over a dozen years.
They sold in 2016 when they traded Chapman and Miller.
It’s a troll comment as they’ve made the playoffs every year since.
He hasn’t sold anyone yet so slow down
Peralta would fetch the Yankees a decent A or AA ball prospect. All the other rentals mentioned have no surplus value to other teams.
Wow, you really have MLB GM knowledge and know the team and its talent with that moment………..forgot, you and you’re 2-3 friends who agreed..
Yeah if that dude is a future GM, then everyone is in trouble for sure. I guess Peraza became Peralta over night?
Ok I’ll bite. Are the Yankees trading Peraza? If not than discussing him is irrelevant. The article mentioned Montas, Donaldson, IKF, Peralta, & Severino , & Bader as potential guys the Yankees could trade.
You are absolutely correct. I am not a MLB GM. But I could prolyl do better than Cashman. He has nearly no rentals anyone wants and a nearly all right handed lineup of old guys while playing half of his games in a little league stadium with short porch in RF.
I love that for the most part the proposed Yankees “sell off” players are a bunch of schlubs they would probably be happier and maybe even better without
“Really twisting my arm here, but I guess you can take IKF”
IKF is a winning baseball player. He’s not your problem. You have a terrible pitching staff and your sluggers aren’t slugging.
The “terrible pitching staff” is ranked top 10 in baseball. The bullpen has been ranked #1 all year, but I’m not sure if that’s changed recently. The problem is that yes, the sluggers aren’t slugging, but there’s also no spark. There’s no fire. Watching my Yankees play the last few seasons has been like watching paint dry. Same story but a different year. Heck, it’s not even amusing to watch the 50 camera shots of Boone picking his nose or his ear anymore, because the sight of him is repulsive. Too much long term money invested in old underperforming players. The Stanton, DJL, and Rodon contracts are albatross. Hicks will still be on the books for a few more years. And all that money will come off the books just in time for Cole and Judges contracts to be ugly. There’s no contention window. There’s no top farm system in place to save them in the near future. And Hal doesn’t care because he’ll still be able to make his yacht payments, and Boone and Cashman will continue to be his clueless little yes men. The Rays are the Rays. The Orioles turned the corner. The Blue Jays have a solid core. The Red Sox are about reloaded. Could spend the rest of the decade in the AL East basement.
Just freaking cut or trade the majority of
Just freaking cut or trade the majority of Bauer, Bader, Cordero, Calhoun, Allen, IKF, McKinney, Abreu, Bowman, Garcia, Krook, Misiewicz while putting German and Gomez in the pen and throwing Florial,Periera,Wells,and Peraza out there to see if that sparks the group.
They have nothing to lose at this point and if Gleybar can get them something,trade him as well.
You’re using ERA I would guess. Based on WAR, the Yankees staff ranks 20th
Agree that IKF is far from being the Yankees problem, but what is a “winning player”? For his career, he is a below average offensive player – 17% below average – and while he offers versatility, he is a below average fielder at any position he plays outside of 3rd (oddly enough, the one position he has almost never played while a Yankee). So what makes him a winning player as opposed to a pretty ordinary and easily replaced player?
IKF is a decent SS. The issue with him is that Cashman (Hal?) wants to play Golden Boy Volpe there. So they send IKF to the OF and that causes the NYY to get below-average production from two positions. And four other positions are occupied by players that are 33 or older.
Like most other teams making deals are selling off superstar players?
Another armchair GM genius heard from.
@Oddball-Yeah Harrison Bader, Gleyber Torres, or Wandy Peralta definitely couldn’t help a playoff team out there! Yeah maybe it’s time to go back to sleep? Smh.
From a stuff standpoint, there is not much that has changed with Severino’s arsenal from last year to this year. No idea what it could be but I’m sure a better pitching organziation would be willing to take a flyer on him this offseason
Don’t know, but wondering if he’s missing the tack?
From 2022 to 2023? I doubt it
Just dip below 293 so they don’t use that as an excuse in the offseason.
This Yankees team got old really fast. What are they going to do next year? Sure the have Volpe and Peraza but neither one are setting the league on fire yet. Aside from those two, where is their youth going to come from? Can they really spend another year rolling out DJL, Stanton, Rizzo, etc. and hope they find the fountain of youth? Judge & Cole will still be studs but that’s about it. Maybe Torres has a big year in his FA walk year and Rodon has a healthy season, but there are a lot of “if’s” in there and there doesn’t seem to be the next wave of players coming from the minors anytime soon. Judge, Cole & Rodon will be making over $100M combined next season and their other veterans are expensive too. Their only recourse appears to be to spend like drunken sailors again next year in free agency and push the payroll north of $280M if they want to compete and that doesn’t even guarantee a playoff berth (see NYM).
“push the payroll north of $280M if they want to compete and that doesn’t even guarantee a playoff berth ”
According to b-ref’s (“VERY unofficial”) estimates, with arbitration increases, their payroll for next year already sits just below $260 million (~$180 million plus another ~$70+ million in arbitration estimates). Not a lot of room for improvement unless they can make some trades right now. 2025 doesn’t look much better, either.
baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/new-york-yankees-…
Volpe is better than Jeter. The Martian is coming. And they have Judge 2.0 because he is tall like Judge so gotta be amazing.
@dream, judge 2.0 are you referring to Spencer Jones?
Get what you can from Torres now before it’s too late. A long term deal with him will look ugly.
Tear it down
Unfortunately the only team to give anything of significant value for some of these guys was the Yankees.
Yankees don’t have anyone that a contending team would want. That Cole guy being the exception. What would they want in return? Maybe the Dodgers will offer them Grove, Pepiot, and Dustin May if the Yanks pay 66% of Cole’s remaining contract?
DJ needs to go.
This has not been a complete team since 09.
They let the core four walk off into the sunset, to leave room for the baby bombers. But they all disappointed in year 2/3 besides Judge. They held onto them for too long, hoping they’d come around.
Then came the years of injuries…
They finally add the #2 starter they’ve been desperately needing for years — and then they don’t budge on hitting. This team has been one step forward, two steps back for years.
Cannot wait for Sevy to be gone for good. Each year it’s, “when Sevy come back from his injury it’ll be like we just traded for an ace.” Still waiting on that one…
When Nestor comes back… the offense will still be bad.
The big question is the real Nestor coming back, or is he Sevy?
After Moneyball, they went after OPS players like Ellsbury, Hicks, Lemahieu, and Gallo.
But ultimately, it seems they’re looking to recreate the dynasty years, somehow — create a young core, build around it, all while keeping costs relatively low. When the last straw of the baby bombers implodes (Sevy), they’ll be onto the dynasty attempt 2.0 since the 09 team.
I believe they’re inspired by the 2019 Nationals team — they built a core of batters — Harper (who they were unwilling to retain in 19, unlike Judge), Rendon, Turner, and Soto. But they went out and bought pitching with Scherzer and Corbin, while Strasburg was also on hand.
Yankees went out to buy Cole and Rodon, but they’re letting a new core of batters rise up with Volpe and others. But they’re betting the farm on it and the timing may be off with when that next group comes up and if they be successful or another flop.
Getting a core group of batters to all succeed at once is no easy feat, and risking the future on it while not pursuing a trade for someone like Soto now may be costly.
As is saving a few million just to trade for Stanton when Harper/Machado were waiting in the wings the next year. 3B is not easy to fill, and Judge was even recruiting the man.
@WS, many other teams have brought up a core group of batters around same time. HOU, ATL, BAL, CIN just to name a few right now. And combining home grown talent with key free agents has always been one of key ways to build a team.
So basically to some it up. They have just absolutely failed at building a legit contender. After Cole the rotation is a mess. The bats in lineup just do not complement each other in a way conducive to producing alot of runs.
The point is where the money is spent.
The Nationals model was to buy starters because they couldn’t build a rotation in their system. And then build the batters internally. They felt this was the best allocation of funds.
This points to a potential strategy for how the Yankees will move forward at the deadline.
They may not trade for Soto, not because they don’t have the pieces but because they don’t want to also pay him 30M+ in two years. They’d rather gamble on their three rising prospects, similar to what they did with Volpe. Not a overtly novel concept, but for Yankees fans, it is.
… None of those “OPS players” produced an OPS high enough to be on a Playoff Team. Moneyball still works, Cashman-ball (someone think of a better term than that) has a quarter century of not working
@ws/tigers,the issue is those teams all had low draft picks and better player development staffs. NY can’t handle the Yankees being bad because they’ve been accustom to winning. Most fans are too young or werent alive to remember the late 80s and early 90s NYY teams. And of course the great Gene Michael and the scouting staff.
“Cashball”
Yankees should petition Manfred to temporarily move them to the AL Central and move the Cleveland team to the AL Central.
Do what you did in 2016, get rid of the overrated players’ and let the prospects play as they cant be as bad as the hitters up here. Ad a decent bat to see if you can sneak in the postseason as the rotation still good enough.
Burn it to the ground, Cash. This current roster failed, time to start anew.
@phuckinphill, Cash is the problem. Cash failed putting together an MLB roster. You won’t turn this around with Cash at the top. He benefited for 30 years from a team he inherited from Stick.
They rip the team up now, or be faced with having to do it next winter/spring.
I’m curious as to who these impending free agents that the Yankees have that any team would actually want? This is the worst Yankee team I have seen in the past 15 years. Offense is bad, outside of Cole the pitching is lucky to be average. As far as the bullpen goes? its a strength in terms of the middle relief innings but they are really missing a closer. I think the Yankees try to sign Hader next year for a similar contract that Diaz got
Not happening — if there’s one thing the Yankees have proven they don’t do anymore is overspend in areas they can get cheap talent. And that has proven to be true for them, albeit flawed, over the last several years now.
they’re still overspending in areas they could get cheap talent: they overspent at 3B (Donaldson) last year and this year & LF (Hicks) this year, next year and the year after & $30 million on two closers just last year… looks like they overspent for DJ & Rizzo now too based on their lack of performance & regression… the only places they’re NOT overspending is the players still in their arbitration years (their catchers, SS & middle relievers) and their reclamation projects (Bauers, McKinney, Franchy)
Why does everyone think Hicks makes so much? He makes $10M. By comparison, IKF makes $6M. Torres also makes $10M
Sure, save some money at 3B, undo the Donaldson trade, and you have Urshela at $6.5M. Still around the same as IKF and slightly under Hicks and Torres.
But that doesn’t put you over the top. Could say the same about spending on Rizzo vs. keeping Voit around. They need some players to put them over the top. And Donaldson just wasn’t the right player at $21M. And neither was Stanton. What they needed was Machado.
But to my earlier point, if they’re going to spend, it’s going to be on difference maker bats. But more than likely at this point, they’re focused on bringing up new, affordable talent on the hitter front. And spend more on the frontline pitchers like Cole and Rodon, while also retaining their homegrown stars like Judge and maybe Volpe down the line.
MLB league average salary is $4.9 million this year… paying more than DOUBLE that for the production we got from Hicks the last 3 years IS overpaying… IKF is worth the $6 million as a utility player, Gleyber is not overpaid… yet.. but will be when he hits free agency.
The Angels sure can use Clay Holmes.
Sounds like shopping at a thrift store!!
Nothing. Absolutely nothing is what the Yanks should do and that’s exactly what they’ll do.
It’s funny that even baseball reference can’t inflate IKF’s WAR to make him seem like an above average player in the 3-4 range, now that his defense is bad and he isn’t a shortstop anymore.
Of course, but that is always the same when you play a GG-level SS out of position. If the NYY had IKF’s .696 OPS at SS, instead of Volpe’s .660, the IKF’s glove makes him a reasonable player.
But when you take a SS with a weak bat, and try to make a LF out of him, I don’t see how it could work. FWIW, I’d have no problem with the RS signing him to a cheap one-year contract waiting on Mayer’s development.
Sell the team!
Sell Sell Sell. The only untouchables are Judge, and Cole! Restock the minors, Fire Boone and Cashman and have Brian Sabean as GM and Don Mattingly manage!
Yankees need to back up the truck and dump everyone they can who is dumpable (is that a word?). No matter, you get my drift.
There’s something that just isn’t meshing with this roster. The same could be said about the Mets and the Padres. Yes, money can’t buy happiness, and those three teams underscore that in a big way.
Build around Cole, Judge and Volpe and get rid of everybody else even if you have to give them away. The Mets and the Cardinals have seen the light, or the darkness, and are dumping every time their phones ring. The Yankees should follow suit.
Agreed but the phone isn’t ringing or at least we can’t hear it as fans…..if Cash is initiating the calls, the other team is asking for unrealistic returns of 2-3 for 1 of theirs….that’s not going to move the needle…..hopefully, there is a plan here…….
Yanks are between a rock and a hard place, everyone except Judge and Cole are under performing. Torres, King, Schmidt, German, and their minor league prospects will get some good return in a trade right now. They really need to try and move Rizzo, DJ, and Stanton. They went from being the best team in baseball last year, to a .500 team, but their are a least 20 teams in the majors that rarely reach .500. The bad thing is that they only have one prospect in the top 100, so they need the players they have to start playing up to their baseball card.
They should shop Stanton immediately (convince him to accept the trade back home to CA) to the SD Padres who are looking for offensive part time DH and outfield help…..Cash…offer to pay down his salary….he’s the block to everything better happening to the Yankees…..move him, and immediately things look better financially which gives us fans a chance to re-build the team……..all else is window dressing…..he’s the first and most important move……
Donaldson and Rizzo have similar salaries, a clean 60+ mill of the books would be wonderful
Donaldson is gone at the end of the season. You don’t have to worry about him any longer, his contract is up. We are still stuck with Rizzo for another year, unless we can offload him to some chump
Problem is Stanton is just so so bad this year. Its sad because he does work his butt off and isn’t just cashing the check like many other players we see. Perhaps just a complete change of scenery is needed. I’ve posted for years to just package him with Cole to the Dodgers.
Give stanton away to anyone who will take him for free. of course nobody would want him and his bloated salary, unless the Yankees were willing to kick in some money. But of course they would not be, cheap Hal is not going to do that.
When Hal wakes up from his 5 year coma and finds out about all this, he’s going to be pissed.
You know the first thing he’s going to say is, Brian what have you done? And you now make 5 million a year?
Then he should call the police and have Cash arrested for armed robbery and conspiracy to sign old players to terrible contracts.
The dented can section at the Dollar store. It’s amazing how both poor management and non-performing players can degrade a team. The Yankees have some assets, but this is just not a good combination. Some of these guys will go off to have good careers elsewhere, but I’d imagine the clubhouse is dead, and there’s nothing to drive change. All that overspending has left them with worse/fewer draft picks as well. A good management team would take a hard look at what they are stuck with, what they can build on and act accordingly. This is not a well-managed organization.
it takes a “special” talent to screw up a 300-million-dollar payroll.
If Cashman was commissioned with the money to build a mansion, we would end up with an outhouse.
Haha. You’re being kind, he would screw that up too.
TL:DR – Yankees are trying to dump almost entirely useless players before the deadline (except Peralta) so they can get better talent.
Too late Yanks, you should have started this process months ago and maybe you could have gotten some fliers on really low prospects. It would have also given you time to try out talent in your own system and fill holes as needed.
I really don’t understand why they just ran in place thinking Judge coming back would solve all their problems. To Boone’s credit, this team really doesn’t even have enough talent to be as close as they are in the division/WC chase.
The league figured out you can just walk him and there’s nobody behind him to make you pay
100% correct. Cashman is inept, he continues to hope and pray based on no evidence that his over the hill veterans will somehow revert back to their old store form from five years ago. Well I’ve got news for you, it’s not happening. So the Yankees are in the state that theyre in because none of this was addressed in the off-season. of course if they spend some of the money they had on position players of need, such as left field instead of a pitcher which is great, but optional, maybe we would not be in this mess right now.
Dave Dombrowski of Philly loves proven veterans and will spend future prospect assets to win NOW….Cashman should ask Cole if he would accept trade to Philly….Yanks tell Phillies ..that Cole is the magic ticket, we are sending a mini-van to your AA and AAA sites and loading up for the ride to the Bronx…Phillies have plenty of solid talent at those levels, Yanks could remake the team…Keep Rizzo and Lemahieu as solid veteran presence…move Stanton for a A ball lottery ticket even paying most of his salary, just get him gone…..Yanks are old and slow and homer dependent…half the team cant go first-third on single to right center….Frees up lotsa money for appropriate future free agents
Burn it down and start over
Agree Stanton must go before anything can get better. I never liked the trade.
Hope Yankee’s are only Sellers
Boone aside, Cashman isn’t the problem.
But holding on to Boone, is a big problem.
His lineup would be better if he picked it out of a hat.
Teams have finally figured out to not pitch to Judge.
Something like LeMahieu,Rizzo,Judge…Bader batting 9th.
Guys who (historically) make pitchers work and get on base in front of him is imperative, not a possible extra AB in the 9th inning.
The Yankees might as well put their impendings on Temu.