The good news for the New York Yankees is they would be in first place if they were in the American League Central.
The bad news is they aren’t.
It’s been a struggle for the Yanks all season, especially since defending MVP Aaron Judge has been out with torn ligaments in his toe. But their last four games might be their rock bottom for the season.
For the first time since 1990, the Yankees are in last place in their division during the month of July.
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Since Judge landed on the injured list June 6, the Yankees are 14-20, tied for the seventh-worst record in all of baseball. When Judge was placed on the IL, they were a season-high 11 games over .500 at 36-25.
The Yankees have scored the third-fewest runs in the league with Judge out, and, in that span, their .223 average ranks 29th and their OPS is fourth-worst in baseball.
Yankees fans were hoping the All-Star break would be exactly what their Bombers needed to begin a turnaround, but they lost two out of three to the lowly Colorado Rockies over the weekend, including a type of loss never before seen in team history.
On Sunday, the Yankees blew a two-run lead in both the eighth and 11th innings, marking the first loss the Yankees ever had when blowing two separate two-run leads in the eighth inning or later.
Just a day later, they held another two-run lead over the Los Angeles Angels, but they opted to not walk Shohei Ohtani in the seventh inning, and he made them pay with a two-run blast, his MLB-leading 35th of the season. Los Angeles won in extra innings.
With the trade deadline two weeks away, the Yankees have decisions to make. Whenever Judge returns, they will be better. But they need to stay afloat without him before it’s too late and they drop out of the postseason race.
So, given their payroll and their supposed star power on the roster (much of it hardly tradable), combined with Judge’s seemingly imminent return and names like Juan Soto, Ohtani and Cody Bellinger on the market, they could very well be buyers at the deadline.
However, giving up prospect capital while likely still not being a legitimate contender is cause for concern.
The Yankees are in danger of missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2016. That season, they sold Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran and Andrew Miller at the deadline, marking the first time in a generation they were sellers.
This season isn’t quite as bad as 1990. The Bombers sit at 50-45. The Yankees went just 67-95 in 1990. The Yankees are 2½ games out of a postseason spot and need to jump the rival Boston Red Sox to catch the Houston Astros.
