Yankees should be ashamed if they don’t make significant trade during off day

Here we go. Five more New York Yankees games before the trade deadline (well, on a technicality, the fifth one comes 40 minutes after the deadline horn, but ... nobody's sprinting to the stadium in time). Five Yankees road games. Three games against the Yankees' chief rivals (Boston) and two against the current World Series favorite (Phillies). All of these will be significant individual challenges.

It would be a great idea for New York to add a piece or two before the dust settles on July 30 in order to take a slice of the burden away for these all-important games before the schedule softens just a bit. And what better way to pivot the momentum than with an attention-grabbing trade in an otherwise empty Thursday travel day?

Remember, before everything clattered to the ground, how reassuring it was to hear seconds after a plodding loss to the Mets that the team had acquired Andrew Benintendi? It felt like a significant, All-Star addition. More importantly, it felt like the first of many maneuvers, and a direct acknowledgment that the team's efforts weren't good enough. In 2022, Brian Cashman acknowledged the myriad flaws of a team that started off 61-23 by acting early (Benintendi) and acting often (Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino, Scott Effross, Harrison Bader).

The content of the moves ended up questionable at best, but on merit, the sheer volume and pace of them were sound. He wasn't afraid to reinforce a June contender with a jolt, and he wasn't afraid to open the deadline window a bit earlier to improve at the margins. This summer, he must execute the exact same strategy, with a far higher hit rate. And the perfect time to announce Bombshell No. 1 is ... right now.

Yankees' transformative trade deadline must start now on off day before Red Sox, Phillies series

The Yankees' front office should be ashamed if they don't take Tuesday's lineup, featuring Jahmai Jones leading off and JD Davis cleaning up, as a call to action.

Of course, they should also be ashamed of a lot of other things. They should be ashamed of relying foolishly on a DJ LeMahieu bounce back. They should be ashamed of not figuring out a way to turn Gleyber Torres into Pablo López at the 2022 deadline. They should be ashamed of watching their roster wake up the Red Sox during the process of Alex Verdugo's boisterous trot. They should be ashamed of giving away the vast majority of a 10+ game lead on a playoff spot prior to the month of August, when their regularly scheduled swoon usually occurs.

But, if they still feel some variety of shame, the process of correcting this team's current path should begin with a Thursday announcement, as the rest of the team travels to Boston and attempts to land a blow on a squad that feels great as the Alex Cora buzz rises in volume. The more time these stale Yankees receive with their trade additions, the better, and there's no better time to provide a roster present than the present.