Yankees: 3 roster moves struggling NYY need to make

Here are three roster moves the struggling Yankees need to make amid their three-game losing streak.

We are running out of words to describe just how poorly the New York Yankees have performed this month, as they currently find themselves a whopping six games off the pace of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

A four-game series against Baltimore — who are now just two games behind the Yankees, by the way– seemed like the ideal slate to turn the sinking ship around, but they dropped three straight after taking the opening game.

To say New York is struggling in all facets would be an understatement. When the offense provides some run support, either the starting pitcher or bullpen fails to hold the lead, and vice versa. In their latest loss on Sunday, the Yankees committed two errors (which resulted in three unearned runs) and finished with just four hits.

In the simplest of terms, this team is in desperate need of a spark, and manager Aaron Boone could provide just that by making a few roster moves. We’re obviously not talking about demoting any of the big guns, though some undoubtedly deserve it (cough cough, Gary Sanchez), but these three should suffice for now.

3. Demote Mike Ford/Sign Justin Smoak

We love Mike Ford as much as the next Yankees fan, but the offense needs players to produce and the slugging lefty just isn’t cutting it right now. Across 24 games (67 at-bats), Ford is hitting a lousy .149/.237/.299 with two home runs, 11 RBI and a .535 OPS. If he was needed everyday, we obviously wouldn’t advise New York to option him to its alternate training site, but that just isn’t the case.

In a corresponding move, the Yankees should look to Justin Smoak as a potential injection of power. We’ve been imploring the club to give the 2017 All-Star a shot for a while now, so why not now while wins, let alone a winning streak, are impossibly hard to come by?

Smoak isn’t going to give you average as he’s a career .229 hitter, but he offers solid power with his bat and reliable defense at first base. Luckily for the Yankees, the 33-year-old was designated for assignment by the Milwaukee Brewers this week, so he’s available and most definitely motivated to get another shot and prove the Blue Jays wrong for kicking him to the curb following the 2019 season.

1. Slice Erik Kratz/Keep Clarke Schmidt

This isn’t going to sit well with Yankees fans, especially on the heels of his heartwarming relationship with Devi Garcia, but beloved veteran Erik Kratz is going to be the odd man out when the Yanks realize they can’t be carrying all these backstops.

With how bad New York is playing, the club simply cannot afford to keep three catchers on the roster. There’s a slim chance that Gary Sanchez is ever the odd man odd, despite how lost he looks at (and behind) the plate recently. The two-time All-Star has gone down on strikes in seven straight at-bats and is now in the midst of a 4-for-41 slump that has seen his average drop to .130 on the season. Sanchez was rightfully benched on Sunday, but that likely won’t last long as he’s still considered baseball’s most lethal slugging catcher and can still “run into one” at any given time.

That brings us to the Yankees keeping Clarke Schmidt, who was admittedly knocked around in his official MLB debut coming out of the bullpen. To be fair to the young right-hander, he was put in an incredibly difficult and pressurized spot. We’d love to see what he can do as a starter, or at least as a reliever without ducks on the pond and a game on the line.

During a stretch where a slew of hurlers have underperformed, Schmidt deserves a chance to prove his worth. Even Miguel Yajure should probably still be here.

Kratz belongs in the Bronx as a coach for the next decade. But it’s either him or Kyle Higashioka (and we’d hear you out on that one, too!). It’s essential that the Yankees keep as much young pitching as possible, and keeping three catchers is a luxury this decrepit team can no longer afford.