3 Yankees who should be off the roster after 2022 trade deadline

The 2022 New York Yankees remain extremely good, but no longer historically so. Luckily, their struggles arrived just in time for the trade deadline, when the rich get richer and the poor decide just how poor they’d like to become.

Unlike other recent trade deadlines, the Yankees are now under firm pressure to induce a major shakeup and vault themselves past the other upper-echelon teams. In 2020, the season was bizarre, and no one could decide whether a jumpstart was worth it, so Brian Cashman held pat. In 2021, Cashman pursued a desperate, last-ditch attempt to wake up his roster with the high-profile acquisitions of Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo, and it worked! Even the Gallo thing kind of helped.

This season? The Yankees don’t need a reimagining. They just need a few gaps filled to distance themselves (as best they can) from the Astros and Dodgers, teams that have nearly drawn even with the Bombers as New York’s flaws have been exposed.

Those deadline deals will, inevitably, leave a few players on the current roster high and dry. That’s the way it oughtta be.

Several Yankees with minor-league options will be the first to go (JP Sears, your destiny is to ride the roller coaster), but there are a few other Bombers who should find themselves either attached to larger departing deals or DFA’d when the time comes for major upgrades. And the clock is ticking.

3 Yankees players who must be gone after 2022 MLB trade deadline

3. Domingo German

Otherwise known as “The Worst Pitcher to Ever Take a No-Hitter Into the Eighth at Fenway,” as well as “The Most Fitting Pitcher to Watch a No-Hitter Into the Eighth at Fenway Become a Loss,” Domingo German proved (yet again) on Thursday that, even as a depth piece, he has no place on this current Yankees roster.

Sticking back their man through a domestic violence suspension that rocked the end of an otherwise-feel-good 2019 season, German returned in 2021 thanks to the Yankees’ decision not to “give up on” pitching depth. Sure. Fine. These days, though, there’s far better depth ahead of German in JP Sears and Clarke Schmidt. Every time German appears, fans should ask themselves, “Why isn’t this JP Sears or Clarke Schmidt? It could’ve been.”

The pitching-starved Yankees might’ve chosen to bend over backwards to accommodate German back in the day, but with a big-ticket rotation addition coming in a few weeks’ time as well (gotta hope!), there’s less than zero reason to preserve the homer-prone and regressing swingman on the roster. The right-hander is still living off a surprise 18-4 2019 season (again, which ended with a season-altering suspension), and barely held on in ’21 despite a 35th-percentile exit velocity, 45th-percentile hard-hit rate … and elite curve and fastball spin. Dammit.

Everybody knows the Yankees never want to cut bait on what they perceive to be talent, but keeping German past the deadline would be a bigger gaffe than starting him in the second game of a doubleheader against mighty Houston to make his season debut.

1. Joey Gallo

Brian Cashman took a valid chance at the 2021 trade deadline and acquired slugger Joey Gallo using four prospects, three of whom were on the 40-man chopping block at the end of the season regardless. If he hadn’t cashed in those chips for a 40-homer wild card, the Yankees would’ve had several different internal debates weighing on them at the end of last season. “JP Sears or Josh Smith? Oswaldo Cabrera or Ezequiel Duran?” Things that were already uncomfortable would’ve hit an additional level of awkwardness.

There was no issue with trying Gallo then, and there remains no issue a year later. It was a valiant attempt at a deadline spark plug using pieces who would’ve been jettisoned for nothing a few months later. Unfortunately, something happened when Gallo entered the Bronx that has taken any consistency in his swing and done away with it.

If and when he thrives elsewhere — and it will happen — Yankee fans shouldn’t be upset. They should attempt to muster up a cheer for someone who went through the wringer in the Bronx for a year, failing repeatedly to live out a childhood dream. Watching Sonny Gray succeed after he blithely shrugged through his time in the Bronx was one thing. Watching Gallo succeed will feel cathartic for both he and this fan base.

For now, though, it’s over. There is nothing more for Gallo to do. For as long as he’s in the Bronx, this is his profile.

Ending his Yankee tenure with a home run against John Schreiber of the Red Sox at home, just before the All-Star break, would’ve been ideal. Ending it next week, however, will be the next best thing.

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