Even at Fringe of Wild Card Race, Yankees Should Sell

The New York Yankees have struggled to stay around the .500 mark all season. With five teams ahead of them for the second Wild Card spot and no signs of a turnaround, the time has come for them to commit to a rebuild.

A few wins against the miserable Twins shouldn’t change anything. It’s clear now that the Yankees should sell at the 2016 trade deadline. They have spent exactly one day above .500 since April 14, are fighting to stay out of the AL East basement, and have slim 11% odds to grab a Wild Card spot coming into Saturday’s game according to Fangraphs. Too many key contributors from last season’s club have been hurt, ineffective, or both to reasonably expect a turnaround at this point. Even if one or two rebound, there is just too much dead weight on this roster.

The good news is, New York has enough attractive assets remaining to turn their fortunes around quickly if they finally commit to rebuilding. The sharks have already begun circling around Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. The Nationals, Giants, and Cubs have expressed interest in the pair, and there are few contenders who wouldn’t at least check in if the Yankees made those two available. If they can ignite a bidding war, each should be able to bring back at least one young big league ready impact talent.

With the starting pitching market virtually non-existent after the recent injury to Rich Hill, Nathan Eovaldi would be another much sought-after name if the Yankees decide to move him. While he recently made it known he would be open to an extension, it will certainly be pricy to lock him up long term. He’s already got one TJ surgery under his belt and his value may never be higher. It would probably be smart to at least listen. A club looking for rotation depth might give up a fringe prospect for Ivan Nova. As for their other starters, selling low on Michael Pineda probably doesn’t make sense, and the Yankees aren’t going to eat enough money to make trading Masahiro Tanaka or CC Sabathia realistic.

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The list of available outfielders is also fairly thin, ensuring that Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran would be in high demand. A number of clubs could use Beltran as their primary DH, including Cleveland and Kansas City. The Indians were also linked to Gardner this offseason and could be willing to pay a premium because of their depleted outfield. The Yankees have plenty of internal interesting internal options to step up even if they move both players. Aaron Hicks, Rob Refsnyder, Ben Gamel, and even Aaron Judge could all receive regular tryouts down the stretch.

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If GM Brian Cashman really wants to blow things up and start fresh, he could look at eating some money to remove some of the big salaries clogging up his roster. Giving another season’s worth of at-bats to Alex Rodriguez is not an attractive proposition at this point. The team may be better off with cutting ties now. Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann are still useful, but could net some nice pieces if New York is willing to use its financial might to absorb some salary. It’s hard to see either one ever being the star player they were supposed to be when they signed at this point.

With so few sellers and little talent available, the Yankees have an opportunity to make a killing by dealing their veterans over the next month. One of Cashman’s biggest missteps in recent years was not trading Robinson Cano or Hiroki Kuroda in 2013 when the club was clearly not a contender. The team’s brass needs to learn from their mistake and go for a full rebuild this time.