New York Yankees Regretting Trade Deadline Acquisition?

The New York Yankees were quite busy at the MLB Trade Deadline last week, bolstering their bullpen with David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird, while choosing not to meet the A's asking price for former All Star Mason Miller.

They also added a couple of bats, with José Caballero being the big acquisition, being that he lends the club improvements on defense as well as on the bases. But they also brought in former Stanford Cardinal Austin Slater in a deal with the Chicago White Sox.

Slater, 32, made it into three games, and went 0-for-7 at the dish before landing on the IL earlier this week with a left hamstring strain. The timeline for his return is still to be determined. The hope has to be that New York will get him back before the end of the season and have him ready to go for a potential postseason run.

Slater was added to be a nice bat against left-handers. He is 18-for-73 (.247) against them this season with a .321 OBP, and all five of his home runs. That's a bat that can be useful during a postseason run in the right situation. He can also play roughly average defense in either corner outfield spot and has a strong arm.

The one caveat here is that at 61-54, the Yankees are in third place in the AL East, 2.5 back of the Boston Red Sox and 6.5 back of the East-leading Toronto Blue Jays. Of course, there isn't a dominant team in the American League either, so seeding may be a little less important in 2025.

That all said, there is no guarantee that the Yankees will be in the postseason. They hold a 1.5 game lead for the final Wild Card spot over both the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers, while the Kansas City Royals are four back.

In terms of strength of schedule, the Yankees have one of the easier schedules remaining, ranking No. 26 out of 30 MLB teams. Cleveland is 7-3 in their last ten and they have six games remaining against the Detroit Tigers, who hold the second-best record in the AL. That said, Detroit has been struggling more of late.

The Rangers on the other hand have one of the toughest schedules the rest of the way, with the fourth-hardest. Both team's schedules also include six head-to-head matchups where they can do damage to one another, which helps out the Yankees.

Regardless of whether or not New York makes it into the postseason, they still gave up a decently ranked prospect to land Slater, sending Gage Ziehl to Chicago. Ziehl is now ranked as the No. 14 prospect in the White Sox system, and he's been having a terrific first pro season.

Selected in the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of Miami, Ziehl has made appearances at a few different levels this season, but has primarily been stationed in A Ball. Overall he has a 5-5 record with a 4.15 ERA in 17 games (16 starts). He also holds a 1.22 WHIP and is able to spot his low-90's fastball well, leading to just a 4.1% walk rate in the minors this year.

He may not have the arsenal to blow hitters away, but if he's able to command his pitches, then that's a nice floor to work with.

Plus, if the Yankees fail to make the postseason or Slater is unable to return to the roster for some reason, then the White Sox will have pretty handily won this trade. This is just one trade in a slew of them for the Yankees, but it's also the one that could end up raising eyebrows later on.