Yankees: Blue Jays bolster bullpen with another trade in bad development for NYY

The New York Yankees don’t know who they are. And that’s a problem with the trade deadline approaching at the end of the month.

Even if the Yankees couldn’t pinpoint their true identity, they’d perhaps think, “Hey, let’s try to get better as soon as possible!”

Instead, that’s what the Toronto Blue Jays are doing. The AL East division rivals are a solid team, but clearly not a contender. They’re missing a few pieces, namely in the starting rotation and bullpen.

However, they’ve taken initiative in recent weeks, acquiring two relievers via trade. They made a deal with the Miami Marlins to bring Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson, which helped their relief pitching and outfield depth.

Then, on Tuesday, the Blue Jays struck another agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers. They sent Rowdy Tellez to Milwaukee and are reportedly adding former Rays pitcher Trevor Richards to their bullpen.

Two trades in the span of a week addressing a glaring need. Hey Yankees, anybody home??

The Blue Jays getting better is bad news for the Yankees.

The Yankees do not need any further competition from their division, which is worlds better than New York had anticipated heading into 2021. That was the problem! The organization was banking on everyone else stinking instead of creating their own destiny. Now look at what’s happened.

As for the Blue Jays, they were expected to be a thorn in the Yankees’ side with guys like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Randal Grichuk. Now that they’ve exceeded expectations in the first half, they’ve decided to buy as early as possible in order to better establish themselves. They’ve already taken it to the Yankees in 2021. They’ll be even better during the second half.

Richards is by no means a relief ace, but he just racked up three wins with the Brew Crew and maintained a 3.20 ERA and 1.22 WHIP with 25 strikeouts in 19.2 innings of work. Though his peripherals aren’t phenomenal, his strikeout percentage, whiff percentage and chase rate are all considered “great” among MLB percentiles.

As for Cimber, it’s a similar deal. The fellow right-hander has a 2.63 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 23 strikeouts in 37.1 innings. He avoids barrels, hard contact and walks. His fastball/sinker/slider will complement Richards’ fastball/curveball/changeup combo. He bores away on righties, and as you might’ve heard, the Yankees have 10,000,000,000 of those.

The Blue Jays are being proactive and filling areas of need quickly. The Yankees are pondering what they might be doing depending on what happens over the next three weeks. Any reason these front office philosophies aren’t the other way around?

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The New York Yankees have to do a hybrid sell-off by trading some of their expensive talent. They have to. They suck a massive ton.