Michael King's Astros comments reveal 2022 issue Yankees fans expected all along

The 2022 New York Yankees started to show some cracks around the All-Star break, when general wear and tear as well as injuries (surprise) began to take their toll. But what followed was unimaginable.

The once blistering hot Yankees, who were on pace to break the all-time regular season wins record and best the Seattle Mariners' 116 mark from 2001, turned into one of the least impressive teams in all of MLB.

During the first half, they were 64-28. Then they morphed into a .500 club (35-35) with August (10-18) being the worst stretch baseball some of us have ever seen. Something was wrong and many assumed it was what had occurred at the trade deadline.

Gleyber Torres was reportedly dangled in talks and he proceeded to have a negative impact the entire month of August (he hit .204 with a .464 OPS with two homers and five FBI and 33 strikeouts in 25 games). Frankie Montas proved to be an awful acquisition (and still is). Andrew Benintendi didn't help whatsoever in his 33 games prior to suffering a season-ending injury. Blindsiding Jordan Montgomery with a trade to St. Louis for an injured Harrison Bader was initially viewed as unforgivable (but the tenor has since changed). Apparently, parting with Joey Gallo, which was a necessity, was somehow a mistake? Don't ask us how.

But again, this was all conjecture. We could only assume this adversely affected the team's ability to perform ... until this weekend when Michael King made an appearance on SiriusXM MLB Network Radio.

Yankees' Michael King confirms trade deadline threw off NYY's locker room

We're going to ignore all those comments about the Astros and pretend they never happened because Houston fans will be all over them anwyay. And do we really think the Astros have "no chance" to beat New York when the Yankees are rolling? The Yankees were on fire in late June when the Astros came to the Bronx for a four-game set and New York didn't lead for a single inning despite splitting the series (they won on two walk offs).

Anyway, King slipped that bit in there about the trade deadline and those who were too hung up on him giving the Astros more fuel might've missed it. King also suffered a season-ending injury before the Yankees made any of their trades. As someone on the outside looking in, these comments certainly hold considerable weight.

For all the folks on Yankees Twitter claiming we're operating as Captain Hindsight, then go ahead and pull out the receipts. The 2022 trade deadline was not viewed favorably whatsoever. It was pedestrian, in fact, and then when general manager Brian Cashman shipped Montgomery out of town, it was viewed as downright bad.

The results yielded nothing, too. The Yankees were supposed to be the best team in the AL and got swept in the ALCS. They nearly lost to an upstart Cleveland Guardians team in the ALDS because of a series of bush league gaffes. Any moves made at the deadline should've propelled this team further into World Series contention -- not held them back for six weeks.

King just confirmed all of that to be true, whether you want to believe it or not.