Yankees: MLB insider’s update makes it feel like NYY is punting season

The Yankees seem hell-bent on sticking with the guys in that room, plus a few minimal cost-effective upgrades.

Start printing those postseason tickets! Just don’t include a year on them.

After Jeff Passan lit a fuse under Yankees fans while talking Trevor Story trade after Monday’s brutal loss, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal turned off the pilot light in a segment that aired on FOX Tuesday.

Will the obviously-undermanned Yanks and Brian Cashman hunt for trade upgrades at the deadline, perhaps even calling the Rockies about Story, a soon-to-be free agent? Um … can Colorado pay his salary?

So far, the Bombers’ acquisitions (with about $3 million to go until they reach the luxury tax) have included the dirt-cheap Wandy Peralta, who cost them Mike Tauchman, and Rougned Odor, whose Yankees tenure the Texas Rangers have chosen to pay for. And he’s hitting second in the Bronx! What a country!

Adding true impact talent will push the Yankees over the taxation line, and Rosenthal checked in Tuesday to remind everyone he has no indication that’s happening.

Ken Rosenthal’s update on the Yankees’ trade market is straight-up bad.

Got it! So in other words, no clear upgrades, no stretching of the budget, and four more months of Aaron Boone saying his team put up “better at-bats” in their latest 9-2 loss? Fantastic. Mix in a few of Cashman’s patented metaphors comparing the Yankees to a caterpillar that got stuck in “pupa mode” and I’d call that a classic 2014-era punt.

If they’re willing to throw out a punt lineup once or twice a week, why not an entire season? The Red Sox did it under Dave Dombrowski at the 2019 deadline, right? Got him fired.

The Yankees’ braintrust has more security than that, though. If they choose inactivity over progress, they’ll be doing so under Hal Steinbrenner’s mandate, and all parties involved will return in 2022 — except maybe Boone in favor of a different marionette with a longer leash.

Who can the Yankees trade for and stay under the luxury tax?

Is this the most pessimistic possible reading of Rosenthal’s update? Of course it is. There are trade targets the Yankees could acquire without bypassing the luxury tax threshold who could be of service.

Joey Gallo costs about $3.1 million for half a season, and they can find a way to offset the salary, they can squeeze that under budget. Andrew Benintendi, Bryan Reynolds, Jesse Winker … there’s a way, especially if Clint Frazier is included to even out the scale.

That’s if you want to operate with your glass half-full. After a week of updates that amount to shuffling deck chairs on Hal Steinbrenner’s Titanic while Aaron Boone fiddles, though — check Joel Sherman’s latest, too! — who wants to be an optimist? Prepare for a major bummer instead.

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