Yankees Flounder at Trade Deadline

 The New York Yankees at the MLB trade deadline changed the tires on their car when the breaks have been squeaking for weeks.

Luis Garcia Jr and Heliot Ramos are going to be useful players for this ballclub down the stretch. But Brian Cashman didn’t address the two needs of his team at the trade deadline. The Yankees needed to get a right-handed hitting catcher and one more reliever to help the effective but overused bullpen. Reports had the Bombers in on both, but neither was traded for. Instead, Cashman decided to pivot to improving an offense that has been struggling recently. In the Yankees last 10 games the Yankees have scored three runs or fewer in eight of them. The Yankees pitching staff in those 10 games have allowed two runs or fewer in those games seven times. The record over those 10 games is 6-4. Upgrades were needed. Upgrades were picked up.

The head scratching piece of this deadline for Brian Cashman isn’t that he sat on his hands. It’s why he made the moves he did. The Yankees did need to sit the aging Paul Goldschmidt more. They didn’t need another slugging first baseman creating an interesting positional log jam. That’s what they got in Luis Garcia Jr. Garcia Jr did have the best slugging percentage in the National League before the trade at .560 along with 23 home runs, 20 doubles, and a .283 batting average. He was most likely the best bat available at the deadline. It’s not a bad thing that he will be here for the remainder of the season and all of whatever 2027 looks like. It just makes more of a headache putting a lineup together day-to-day.

The addition of Heliot Ramos is slightly more troubling. Ramos clobbers left-handed pitching. In 65 at-bats this season the 26-year-old outfielder is slashing .292/.343/.835 with two home runs, five doubles, and eight RBIs. The Yankees are in desperate need of slugging against left-handed pitching. But by acquiring Ramos it opens questions to the health of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. When are either of them coming back this season? Are they coming back at all? Ramos wouldn’t be an insurance policy if both sluggers were trending in the right direction. Ramos is also having a decent year against righties as well, but he has made a Major League career out of being a lefty platoon player. That’s exactly what he’s going to be when he arrives from Arlington Texas later tonight.

Still having Austin Wells and Ali Sanchez as the catchers for the remainder of 2026 is a glaring mistake by Brian Cashman. The Yankees offensive output from their catchers is as bad as you can get in baseball. Any sort of right-handed hitting catcher would have been an improvement. It didn’t have to be a splash. Even though for about an hour it looked like the Bombers were going to make a splash. Adley Rutschman was a possibility. The price tag for his service was deemed too high by the Yankees General Manager. Whether that had to do with the left wrist of Rutschman or the prospect haul or both only the Yankee brain trust knows. He could’ve been a player that changed the entire outlook of the rest of 2026. Instead, the 28-year-old catcher is now a Boston Red Sox. And yes, part of the sting of not getting Rutschman is compounded by him going to the scorching hot archrival Red Sox, but it’s also the fact that Cashman decided to just completely give up on getting any sort of reinforcement behind the plate at all.

Then comes the decision to not add onto one of the strengths of this team. The bullpen. While the Yankees have had the best bullpen ERA to this point in the season, 2.97, the group has been asked to cover a lot of innings recently. Fernando Cruz isn’t the same pitcher right now due to overuse. Tim Hill has not been able to find his footing all year. Angel Chivilli only has 15.2 innings pitched. Camilo Doval was so bad he was traded to try to help Pittsburgh. Yovanny Cruz was always rumored to be additional help from Triple-A when needed but he pitched just 5.2 innings and was shipped to Washington to help get Luis Garcia Jr. Brent Headrick and David Bednar have been fantastic but you cannot win a World Series with just two relief arms.

Another reliever was needed to truly bring this group together. Brian Cashman instead decided to put a lot of faith in his players and more importantly his coaching staff to keep those guys at their league leading pace.

Cry all you want; this is the baseball team the Yankees are going to try to win their first World Series since 2009. While this combination currently constituted or fully healthy may be good enough to get the Yankees back to the World Series, winning it doesn’t seem possible right after the trade deadline.