Brian Cashman foolishly built a Yankees roster that couldn't support Aaron Judge's return

From June 1 through the August 3 deadline, the New York Yankees were hurting for offense. The club ranked 28th during that span in OPS with a .672 mark. They were 26th in runs scored with 214, an average of 3.96 per game during that 54-game period. The Yankees collectively slashed a putrid .221/.283/.389.

As a result, Brian Cashman went out and bolstered the offense. He acquired Heliot Ramos, who was brutal at the start of his tenure in New York, but has bounced back over the past three weeks. Ramos, though, was an upgrade on the margins as a platoon bat brought into mash lefties. The real get was former Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garcia Jr.

Garcia Jr. has looked like a budding star, so this next part is tough. He joined an already crowded first base-DH rotation that includes a fringe MVP candidate in Ben Rice and a former MVP who still plays like one against lefties, Paul Goldschmidt, with a 1.006 OPS this season against southpaws.

It made sense, except for one gigantic looming development. The Yankees were expecting to get Aaron Judge back before the end of the season, who would have a much greater impact on New York's offensive output than any external addition could have by a wide margin.

That created a situation that when Judge returned after missing over three months of action, he'd immediately have to jump back in to right field. The Yankees were unable to protect his body and easy him back in at DH thanks to the logjam Cashman created, and as a result, Judge is heading back to the IL after just seven games back. Now, his status for the playoffs is in peril.

Brian Cashman's lack of trade deadline vision put Aaron Judge and the Yankees' World Series hopes at risk

First, a caveat. Judge could have wound up with a calf injury even if he wasn't playing right field. We can get into whether or not he needed more time to ramp up and was brought back too fast, but that's a discussion for another day.

The fact of the matter is that Cashman went out at the deadline and reconstructed the roster in such a way that Judge could only play right field upon his return. That was a mistake.

Now, the market wasn't exactly flush with options, but with some creativity and a willingness to be bold, Cashman could have still completed the necessary task of upgrading the offense while ensuring Judge could be protected by being inserted into the DH spot upon activation.

For example, rather than relying on George Lombard Jr. to man shortstop and provide a spark, he could have gone out and gotten an established young star at the position like Zach Neto or CJ Abrams. Neither player moved at the deadline, but for the right package, they would have. It might have cost Lombard Jr. to get it done, but as we've seen sometimes holding on to even the best prospects can end poorly.

Another lever Cashman could've pulled would've been flexing the franchise's financial might and absorbing Rafael Devers' contract. Yes, Devers just underwent season-ending core muscle surgery, but his blistering .275/.375/.611 second-half performance would have at least bridged the gap until Judge was ready, and perhaps he wouldn't have suffered the same fate had he been dealt here.

Devers has played mostly first base and DH, but while he's not a great third baseman, that's where he has the most experience, and he could've benefited from playing next to the rangy Lombard Jr. Maybe not an ideal solution, but it would've solved the logjam.

Lastly, he could have thought outside the box and beat the Dodgers offer for Tarik Skubal. This wouldn't have helped the offense, but hey, if you struggle to score, you can still win if you make it even harder for your opponent to scratch runs across. In the meantime, the coaching staff could try to figure out why the bats had been so putrid yet hit the third-most homers in MLB (76) during that otherwise horrendous 54-game stretch.

At the end of the day, Cashman did what he always does and went out and got the controllable player with projection over the established star in order to keep his prospect cost down. As a result, he created a logjam that put unnecessary risk on his three-time MVP. If Judge isn't ready in time for the start of October baseball, it will be a devastating blow to the Yankees' World Series aspirations, and it was all completely avoidable.

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