Like a fidgety, frantic trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the swings from buy-buy-buy to sell-sell-sell, are all too real with the New York Yankees. Drop two against the San Diego Padres, sell. Take three against the Cleveland Indians, buy. As I remarked in a previous story, it behooves the Yankees to go in one direction or the other.
At 44-44, if one believes the Yankees magic number for a Wild Card spot is 88 victories, they’ll need to go 44-30 in the second half. So, how do the Bronx Bombers arrive at the number? Well, when it comes to making up ground in the standings, they’ll have plenty of opportunities within the division, starting with ten of their 16 post-All-Star break, pre-trade deadline games against American League East foes. Should they go 10-6 the rest of July, it would get them to 15-11, which is about where they’ve been record wise the past two months
Of course another hitch is the Yankees record against AL East opponents and against winning clubs. New York is 10-17 against the East and 24-30 against squads above .500. In the second half, the Yankees face AL East teams 49 times and have 58 games against teams currently sporting a winning ledger.
Mapping out the remaining second half schedule with the current roster, I see the Yankees going 40-34. If that’s the case, it would bring their record to 84-78. Hence, it wouldn’t take much for the Yankees to add a few pieces or make a blockbuster trade and catapult themselves into a postseason spot.
Looking around MLB, the Yankees could go after Carlos Gonzalez and Mark Reynolds from the Colorado Rockies and obtain some corner power in the process. Perhaps a Jake Odorizzi or Matt Moore could be had from the hapless Tampa Bay Rays. Then there’s the fire sale Atlanta Braves and Julio Teheran and Freddie Freeman. Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds is also reportedly on the block.
Any combination of those aforementioned names would help the Yankees immensely. One might argue more than even 88 victories.
Given the amount of parity in baseball and the logjam of teams in the Wild Card hunt, it might only take a few of those players for the Yankees to not only jump ahead but create some separation. If you have the resources (and they do), going big and going for a playoff spot could be worth it.
They just have to think big and be bold enough to do it.
