Yankees Legends Slam Team for Struggles

The New York Yankees have lost two games since this week’s trade deadline, despite a revitalized roster they hoped would solve the worst of their problems.

During last night’s rain delay at the Speedway Classic, former Yankees stars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter discussed the poor state of the Yankees, and what they can do to salvage themselves.

“Here is my biggest concern,” Rodriguez said, as transcribed by Thomas Gamba-Ellis of the New York Post. “You bring in seven guys and you’re still miles away from winning a world title. … You’ve got to restructure this roster. I like a lot of the players individually but together it just doesn’t work. I’m not sure where you go from here.”

Derek Jeter gave the floundering Yankees some timeless advice: “play better.”

“They make way too many mistakes,” Jeter said. “And you can’t get away with making that number of mistakes against great teams. It just doesn’t happen. They had base running mistakes today — you saw the guy getting thrown out at home plate. You can’t continue to do it. You have to clean it up.”

The Yankees’ sloppy play has been the root of their issues for weeks, and a baserunning blunder by Jazz Chisholm yesterday was only the most recent in a string of mistakes that should not be made at this level. Austin Wells, in the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 30, miscounted the outs and began to make his way back to the dugout in the middle of play. He was tagged out and later said he was "just being an idiot." Chisholm, who was out on a routine pop up to second, said he would not do anything differently on a similar play in the future.

Their 8-4 loss to the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays on July 24 was especially emblematic of the Yankees lately; they made four errors in one game, not counting Cody Bellinger losing a ball in the lights in the outfield. In response, Yankees manager Aaron Boone echoed Jeter's perspective (and everyone else's).

"We've got to, obviously, tighten it up," Boone said. "Confident we will. We'll continue to work at it. We have good defenders here, but tonight was obviously a rough night for us."

All three of the Yankees’ new relievers and one of their new infielders contributed to their first loss against the Miami Marlins this weekend, so it looks like their troubles are far from solved by their most recent moves. They'll need to develop some cohesion and discipline if they're going to contend with an AL East that is rapidly passing them by.

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