Yankees: 3 rival trade scenarios that would be nightmares for NYY

You’re worried about what the New York Yankees are going to do this week ahead of the trade deadline, aren’t you? Valid. Understood.

You know what you should be truly terrified by, however? What the Yankees’ direct and immediate rivals plan to do. Remember this offseason when New York laughed at the Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox — three rosters that seemingly got worse — and planned to rule the American League with an iron fist?

Well, now it’s the Bombers who are treading water while those three aforementioned teams have eclipsed 60 wins, with the Sox leading the division, the Rays 1.5 games behind them, and the Astros leading the AL West by five games. The Yankees are closest to the Rays, whom they’re eight games behind.

So if those three teams theoretically “got worse” in the offseason and have wildly exceeded expectations, why wouldn’t they shift gears and look to make a blockbuster move before Friday at 4 p.m. ET? They just spent nearly 100 games proving they can contend for a World Series.

Well, they’re all going to. In fact, the Rays already have, and they’re not even done yet.

The Yankees should be worried about these three rival trade rumors.

3. Max Scherzer to the Rays

This spot was reserved for “Nelson Cruz to the Rays” … but Tampa already did that last week! We know our rivals all too well, don’t we?

Instead, we have another reason to be sick about the Rays, and it’s because there was a loose mention of them being connected to a Max Scherzer trade rumor. Is sounds like the antithesis of a Rays-like move, doesn’t it?

Well, even after acquiring Cruz, Tampa ranks 26th in MLB with a payroll just under $75 million. They can still acquire Scherzer and remain under the $90 million threshold. With fans back in the stands, even the cheapest of owners couldn’t turn that down if they were able to make such a deal.

All the Rays truly need is starting pitching. Their bullpen is always nails. Their defense is always good. Their offense never really goes away. Last year, starting pitching was their strength, but they let Charlie Morton go, traded Blake Snell, and watched Tyler Glasnow go down with an elbow injury. They’ve managed to be this good with Rich Hill (who they just traded), Ryan Yarbrough, Shane McClanahan and Michael Wacha mostly starting games.

If they can add Scherzer into the mix and get Glasnow back for the final month of the season, the script will be totally flipped.

2. Max Scherzer to the Astros

Yup … another one with Scherzer. We apologize for the redundancy, but the Houston Astros are reportedly in on the right-hander (and aggressively so), which makes this all the more nerve-wracking. Also, while the Rays likely won’t strike a deal for Scherzer, it’s much easier to envision that nightmare rather than wondering what two replacement-level players they’ll insert and immediately groom into Yankee killers.

Perhaps even more dangerous, though, is Scherzer going to the Astros, who appear to be the bonafide AL powerhouse. They’ve weathered an intense injury storm. They lost George Springer. They have had guys like Luis Garcia, Framber Valdez and Jake Odorizzi step in and get the job done for a rotation that’s missing Justin Verlander. Their bullpen has largely unrecognizable names but has held opponents to a .228 average (12-best in MLB) and struck out 369 batters (also 12th in MLB).

They won’t go away. They might never go away. And they’ll exist to troll the Yankees for the foreseeable future. Somehow, Houston holds the narrative of owning them this year despite being 2-4 in their six contests! That’s just how it goes.

So for them to acquire Scherzer — who is a guy the Yankees absolutely need in their largely broken rotation right now and should have signed nearly seven years ago — would be among the most emphatic backhands across the face. Remember when the Astros swiped Gerrit Cole from the Yankees in that weak trade with the Pirates? Remember Michael Brantley reportedly wanted to come to the Yankees this offseason but … the Yankees said no and he went back to Houston?

Yeah, we really can’t afford another morale-breaking trade/transaction of this magnitude.