Yankees don’t make any significant moves, stay quiet at the trade deadline

After weeks and weeks of speculation, the Yankees didn’t upgrade their starting rotation or bullpen before the trade deadline. The only move they made was acquiring left-handed pitching prospect Alfredo Garcia from the Colorado Rockies for RHP Joseph Harvey.

Today wasn’t a good day for the Yankees. Even though they beat the Diamondbacks they failed to make any significant moves to bolster their pitching staff before the 4 pm trade deadline. To make matters worse the Astros made a last-minute blockbuster to acquire Arizona ace, Zack Greinke to join Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole atop their starting rotation.

They also acquired Blue Jays pitchers Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini in a separate deal to upgrade their bullpen. The Yankees did nothing but acquire a 20-year-old pitching prospect from the Rockies system who had an ERA of 6.00 at Single-A in 22 starts.

The Yanks were never going to acquire Greinke because he was on their no-trade list and he wouldn’t have even accepted a deal to New York anyway. However, for them to not to make any moves at all to add to their major league roster is extremely puzzling.

Yes, the starting pitching market was very weak, especially after Marcus Stroman got traded to the Mets and Trevor Bauer to the Reds, but the Yanks could’ve at least made an addition or two to their bullpen. Sam Dyson was one name who could’ve helped them but he was traded to the Twins, another AL contender they might have to go through to make it to the World Series. They were also interested in Aaron Sanchez who has great stuff and should fare much better out of the bullpen with Houston than he did as a starter with Toronto.

I don’t blame GM Brian Cashman at all for not wanting to overpay for Robbie Ray by trading Clint Frazier, Clarke Schmidt and more in a package as Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported. That would’ve been far too much for a pitcher of Ray’s caliber but that doesn’t mean there weren’t other starters out there they could’ve acquired to help them without giving up too much.

Tanner Roark, who was traded to the A’s today, is better than both J.A. Happ and CC Sabathia and the Yankees probably wouldn’t have had to give up much to get him. He’s not a guy you’d project to be a difference-maker come October but for the rest of the regular season, he would’ve helped considering all the struggles their current rotation has gone through over the past two weeks.

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Now the Yankees are going to have to hope that Luis Severino and Dellin Betances come back healthy before the end of the season and pitch like they have in year’s past. If each of them can do so they can make a bigger impact than anyone they could’ve acquired via trade before the deadline.

That being said, if they don’t pitch up to their potential or don’t even return at all the Yanks could be in serious trouble come October. That’s because outside of the Red Sox, every other AL contender got better before the trade deadline. They all made moves to upgrade an area of weakness on their rosters, or in the Astros case, made an area of strength an even bigger one. The Yankees did nothing to improve their team and it could very well cost them down the road.

Although it’s not the end of the world for the now 68-39 Yankees a lot of things are going to have to go their way in order to win a championship this season. Now more than ever they need their key players who are on the IL to come back healthy and produce and need the players who have struggled of late to step up and turn things around as soon as possible.

That’s a lot to hope for but now that the deadline has come and gone that’s the reality the Yankees face. It’s not going to be easy by any means but nothing has come easy for this team all season long which is why fans should still have faith that this team is good enough to win #28.