Josh Donaldson pregame drama shows Yankees can’t do anything right

The New York Yankees have been treading water ever since Aaron Judge went down with his toe injury. Though the pitching has been serviceable, the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu and Josh Donaldson have failed to pick up the slack in Judge's absence.

No player's struggles have been magnified more than Donaldson's, however.

The 37-year-old didn't feature in Saturday's 1-0 win over the Rangers, probably because he had been hitless in his previous five games. For the month of June, Donaldson has just two multi-hit games and six hits in total across 64 at bats.

As a result, Yankees fans barely stand to watch Donaldson play and want the club to end the experiment once and for all. For a minute on Sunday, it seemed like their collective prayers were about to get answered.

Aaron Boone was nearly 20 minutes late for his pregame press conference and Donaldson told reporters he didn't have time to talk.

Eventually, though, Boone revealed that he was merely having a lengthy chat with Donaldson, who'll sadly live to see another day in the Bronx.

Josh Donaldson's pregame drama is another strike on the Yankees franchise

Here's how the drama played out on Twitter.

Then came the buzzkill of all buzzkills.

An "important conversation," you say? Perhaps Boone communicated to Donaldson that his roster spot is hanging on for dear life? Maybe Yankees fans just have to hang in there a little while longer for the DFA announcement?

It's anyone's guess, but Boone dumped salt in the wound by uncorking a familiar quote to the media after his chat with Donaldson.

The sheer hoops the Yankees continue to jump through for Donaldson is sad. Make no mistake: the former AL MVP isn't going to play much at all. Boone just has to maintain the illusion that he will play because the front office refuses to rip off the band aid.

On top of being a zero in the dish, Donaldson was caught sleeping and got picked off at first base (!) on Sunday Night Baseball last week. A few days prior, he made an error at third that opened the floodgates in Boston's 15-5 rout of the Yankees. He's actively playing losing baseball and yet there's seemingly zero incentive within the organization to make a change.

Throw in the retirement speculation and this is all a sorry look for the Yankees.

It'd be best for everyone involved if Donaldson and the Yanks went their separate ways. Somehow, that seems obvious to everyone but Donaldson's current employer.