Why are Yankees insistent on finishing out lost, sad and awful 2023 season?

There are a week of games left in the 2023 MLB season. The New York Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs. There are countless questions heading into the offseason. But there's one thing we do know: the team's best, most expensive, and/or eternally struggling players don't need to see the field anymore.

For starters, shut down Giancarlo Stanton. Why do we need to see him fail over and over again? Why should he be subjected to take accountability after every game the Yankees lose because he can't hit the ball? Is this serving anybody?

Skip Gerrit Cole's last start. He just reached 200 innings. He leads the AL in ERA, innings pitched, ERA+, WHIP and hits per nine innings. The Yankees have already announced that Cole will start against the Blue Jays this week, but he really shouldn't.

Give DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres the week off. The Yankees need them healthy for 2024 (or finishing the year hot if trade talks are still on the table).

And for the love of GOD, get Aaron Judge off the field. Why is he "determined" to finish out this horrific campaign? So the Yankees can preserve their meaningless streak of consecutive seasons above .500?

Why are Yankees insistent on finishing out lost, sad and awful 2023 season?

All anybody cares about is finishing ahead of the Red Sox. The above .500 streak is an arbitrary stat because, like Judge said, any season that ends without a World Series is a failure. A winning record should not be prioritized over the health and longevity of the top players on the roster.

And if Judge (and the rest of the organization) thinks there need to be "a lot of changes" made this offseason, then why not give the rookies/fringe roster guys more run over the final week to see if anybody sways your opinion when it comes to personnel decisions?

Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells and Everson Periera still have a lot to prove. Guys like Jake Bauers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Estevan Florial could use some extra reps as they're likely headed for free agency. Give Franchy Cordero one last run in pinstripes. Randy Vasquez and Jhony Brito could use more work, which would justify shutting down Michael King and Clarke Schmidt. Trot Luke Weaver and Yoendrys Gomez out there, too. A broken Ron Marinaccio? Matt Krook? How does any of this hurt?

Nothing matters except playing spoiler against the Blue Jays, who are two games up on the Houston Astros for the second Wild Card spot, and 2.5 up on the Seattle Mariners, who are trying to sneak in. Other than that, Monday's game against the D-backs couldn't have mattered less for the Yankees, and the final series of the season against the Royals is just really, really sad.