Yankees Should be Buyers at the Trade Deadline

As of right now the New York Yankees sit 6.5 games back of first place in the AL East and 4 games back in the Wild Card, nearly an identical spot to where the Toronto Blue Jays were last year at this time.

Instead of selling, the Yankees should try to take a page out of the Blue Jays book when they traded for David Price and Troy Tulowitzki, despite the fact that their playoff odds stand at 8.8% according to FanGraphs.

Yes, maybe the last two weeks of good baseball has been a mirage of an otherwise floundering .500 baseball club and maybe the Yankees will regret only selling Aroldis Chapman.

However, if it is not a fluke, the Yankees need to go for it. The team has life for the first time all season and could use some upgrades to go for first. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean mortgaging the farm, but the Yankees should try to find logical upgrades for this team.

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General manager Brian Cashman should try to get creative at the deadline and not only look to the rest of this year but into next year as well. The Yankees could use a veteran middle reliever (preferably left handed) to help get hitters out in the 6th or 7th innings with Andrew Miller moving back to the closer role.

The Yankees should still try and trade impending free agent Ivan Nova for any type of prospect as he will not be given a qualifying offer at the end of the year. With Nova gone this would give way to putting Luis Severino back in the rotation, who had a dominant relief appearance yesterday.

Next, the Yankees should see if the cost of Chris Sale is reasonable, because the Cy Young front runner with three and a half years left on his contract, would probably be worth giving up some, but not all of their top prospects. We have seen with Price how one Cy Young caliber starter can change a pennant race and the dominant 1-2 of Sale and Tanaka could put the Yankees over the top. 

Lastly, it is time to give up on Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Aaron Hicks. The Yankees need to option Hicks to the minors to try to get his swing right, while calling up Aaron Judge. Hicks has done absolutely nothing all year and its time to see if Judge and/or Ben Gamel can electrify the lineup.

A-Rod and Tex are done, it stinks to admit, but they both look lost at the plate. Cashman should cut A-Rod and put Tex in a bench role, while calling up Gary Sanchez to catch and DH, allowing Refsnyder, McCann, and Romine to play more.

Next: Ranking the Yankees Stockpile of Shortstops

All in all, the Yankees season depends on the next series against the awful Rays. Sweep and they should buy, get swept or lose 2 out of 3 and we are probably looking at the last weekend in pinstripes for Carlos Beltran, Nova, and Miller.