Yankees: Time to move on from Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird

With both Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez struggling at the plate, the Yankees could use them as trade chips for a frontline starting pitcher.

The New York Yankees are on a roll. Nearing the halfway point of the season, they have the best winning percentage (.690) in baseball with a +105 run differential. They lead the major leagues in team offense with 120 home runs and a .466 slugging.

However, there are two glaring holes in the lineup that rookie manager Aaron Boone will need to address. It’s time to do something about Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez’s offensive inconsistencies.

General Manager Brian Cashman has already been calling around the league for starting pitchers. Like the Astros, when they got Justin Verlander last year at the trade deadline, a package of Sanchez and Bird could potentially net a frontline starter, which is precisely what the Yankees need.

The Rangers and Blue Rays are out of playoff contention so Aaron Sanchez or Cole Hamels could be available. If the Giants find themselves out of the hunt, Madison Bumgarner would be ideal.

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The upside for Sanchez is enormous. He’s only 25, with barely three years in the league. He boasts a career .261 batting average and .534 slugging, which is amongst the league leaders for catchers. However, his numbers have been on the decline since his first year. He slugged .657 during his rookie campaign in half a season and then dipped to .531 last year. This season, in 60 games, Sanchez has slugged only .432 with a Mendoza-line like .197 batting average. His defensive metrics have slipped as well, having thrown out 40 percent of runners in 2016 to 25 percent this year.

Greg Bird’s health has been a mystery, and since 2015 when he slugged .529, the 25-year-old hasn’t been the same. Since then, he’s missed an entire season (2016), batted only .190 in just 48 games last season, and this year he’s slashing a miserable .213/.298/.440.

The Yankees have made up for the Sanchez and Bird power outage as the rookie core of Miguel Andujar, and Gleyber Torres have each stepped up and produced. However, rookies tend to run out of gas as the season carries on (Aaron Judge swooned in the second half of last year), and the Yanks will rely heavily on Judge and Giancarlo Stanton to carry the load.

Austin Romine has proven to be a reliable backup for Sanchez. Romine is hitting .324 with a .554. It is yet to be seen if he can handle being an everyday catcher, but Boone is already facing a difficult decision to keep him out of the lineup.

Also, if the Yankees are to move Bird, former Red Sox first baseman Hanley Ramirez is sitting at home as a suitable replacement. Ramirez is only two seasons removed from posting 30 homers and 111 RBIs — and during last year’s ALDS he tore apart Astros’ pitching with a .571 batting average.

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Not to mention, the Yankees still employ Neil Walker, Tyler Austin and Brandon Drury — all capable of playing first.

Naturally, the hope is Sanchez and Bird start hitting (as Sanchez showed with a two-run shot on Wednesday night) but if they don’t start putting together a sizeable amount of good at-bats, their days could be numbered in New York.