Yankees trade for another arm will come sooner than expected?

The Yankees inconsistent and fragile rotation is one injury away from disaster, and GM Brian Cashman knows that he must pull the trigger sooner rather than later.

The Boston Red Sox are rolling, and the Yankees must stay within close striking distance at the very least to ensure the division title. The very last thing GM Brian Cashman and the entire Yankee organization want, from the owners down to the bat boys, is to be in a one-game wild-card playoff, and potentially lose it, especially if they win 100+ games as projected.

Luis Severino, however dominant, cannot do it all alone. Masahiro Tanaka and Sonny Gray are good one game and the next not so much. C.C. Sabathia looks like he is pitching injured, laboring badly in each of his last four starts. Domingo German has not been nearly an adequate fill-in for Jordan Montgomery and is shaky at best.

The Yankees are stretching out Davis Hale and have been showcasing Josh Rogers who is ready to take his first stab at the bigs, but neither has the potential of a front end rotation pitcher, according to scouting reports.

Yes, we all know that Cashman would love to be able to wait at least another month and a half to see all the options from a better vantage point, but that is a very dangerous play.

Yankees must go through Boston to win the AL East, and that is and has always been the primary objective of the entire Yankee organization!

Everyone is always talking Houston, Houston, Houston. However, the team that best rivals the Yanks at the moment is the Boston Red Sox — and they have a lineup to rival the Bombers, and sadly, a far better starting rotation.

The Yankees have 13 head-to-head games remaining with the Red Sox; the majority of those games in August and September. This might be good in theory for Cashman to conclude that if he acquires a quality arm by July, his team will surely be in striking distance — if not half a game up as they are as you read this.

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That approach could backfire, and we only need to point to the Texas series to remember how the Yanks were setting all kinds of offensive records, but lost that series when the dust from those broken records settled.

First: Bullpen — lousy starting pitching with no depth in the games, and an overused bullpen were the reasons for that recent failure. Nothing has changed yet in the Yankee pitching staff for anyone except for the results.

Second: Availability and cost — The Yankees need a quality arm and not just an innings eater. There is not a lot out there, and the competition close to the deadline will be brisk. Does Cashman want to be at the mercy of the vultures to pick apart and empty his treasure trove of talented prospects? I don’t think so.

Third: Injuries — Another injury to his current rotation which is already down one starter would be disastrous, and what about possible ailments that arise to his trade bait, which might exclude them from the mix?

Next: Yankees need to figure out what’s wrong with Chance Adams

The Bronx Bombers must keep pace with Boston, and to do that GM Brian Cashman needs to bring a reliable arm over ASAP, if just for insurance. Because the Bombers, no matter how good the offense, and how many records broke, they cannot sustain their pace, keep up with the Red Sox and win the AL East without a better five-man rotation.