Insider Warns Yankees Are a Playoff Risk if Brian Cashman Whiffs at Deadline

At one point, it looked like the Yankees were cruising. Seven games up in the AL East by late May. Seventeen over .500 in mid-June. Gerrit Cole was still rehabbing, but the rotation was holding. The lineup had just enough firepower. And the bullpen was surviving without smoke.

Then came the skid.

Since June 13, the Yankees are 11–19, with series sweeps at the hands of the Red Sox and Angels kicking off a slide that hasn’t really stopped. They’ve lost ground in the division, dropped winnable games, and watched the offense go from streaky to stagnant.

Now, as Bob Nightengale put it in USA Today, they’ve got “less than two weeks to see if they can find the right mechanic to get them rolling again.”

That means a third baseman. That means a starter. And that means doing it in a trade market with very few sellers and even fewer clean fits.

The Yankees are known to move late, but they can’t afford to strike out at the deadline. Because this isn’t just about chasing a title anymore—it’s about staying afloat.

A team that once looked like a postseason lock is now staring at the possibility of missing October altogether if they can’t patch their lineup and rotation. Aaron Judge can’t carry it all. Gerrit Cole is back, but he can’t pitch every fifth day and hit.

The Yankees need reinforcements. And if they don’t get them by July 30, the only thing they’ll be driving come October is a golf cart.