The Yankees are far from matching the kind of production they’ve set as their historical standard, but manager Aaron Boone’s much-maligned unit isn’t exactly dead in the water. They’re five games over .500 and still a very reasonable 4.5 games out of the second wild-card spot. Most teams in their spot would be looking for additions to make a playoff push. The Yankees, of course, have no plans of fading into the background, and they’re surely set to make a splash or two here in the final week before the trade deadline.
Trevor Story and Starling Marte continue to be two of the most talked-about names on the market, and both Story and Marte have been connected to the Yanks in recent weeks. They’ve also checked in on Max Kepler, but the Twins’ asking price is said to be “exorbitant,” per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com.
Consider Story or Marte the more likely targets, then, but they’ll face plenty of competition for either player. Both players are, however, likely to move before the deadline. The hang-up will be on finding the right match of prospects to send to Colorado and Miami, respectively.
Speculatively speaking, Story would appear the more impactful addition, given how much his glove could improve the Yankees defense — and how much he would affect the other pieces of the roster. Sliding Gleyber Torres to second and DJ LeMahieu to first would put all the pieces in the right places, but Luke Voit would be in a position to either move to the bench or push Giancarlo Stanton to the outfield, where the Yankees are hesitant to play him. Still, there aren’t as many teams as it might seem with a hole at shortstop, and some of those teams with obvious needs to upgrade (i.e. the A’s) have been bearish on pursuing one.
Further, ESPN’s David Schoenfield suggests they might be on the lookout for bullpen help. That might be a little off-putting to hear at first, as their bullpen ranks third by fWAR this season, but there’s a lot of volume built into that metric. They rank eighth overall with a 3.67 bullpen ERA. The concern, more specifically, is their recent performance. The Yanks’ pen ranks 21st with a 5.19 ERA in July. That’s not necessarily enough to cause full-on panic, but there’s always room for another arm in the bullpen.
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