Yankees can’t be considered AL favorites in their current condition

The game of baseball is won by scoring runs. To the New York Yankees, this has been a foreign concept.

After Tuesday's 4-0 loss to the Angels, the Yankees have now been shut out in three straight games. That is only the tip of the iceberg. In the past six games, the Yankees have scored only five runs, and one came on an error. That’s only four earned runs in six games resulting in five consecutive losses (won the first game against the Royals 1-0 on the unearned run).

This follows a familiar trend most Yankee fans know: when Aaron Judge isn’t hitting, the Yankees aren’t winning. Over those six games, Judge is 2-for-20 with one home run. On the year, the Yankees own a 16.7 WAR value as a whole. Judge, by himself, owns a 5.9 WAR. Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells share the second highest WAR on the team at 1.7. This calls into question the depth of the Yankee lineup. But what happened to all those Yankee stars that helped the team achieve so much success early on?

Goldschmidt, who normally posts stark first and second half splits, has fallen back to earth, posting a .170 average in June. Trent Grisham, who broke out with an All-Star-type performance to start the year, is now hitting .243. After hitting five home runs in May, he is yet to connect for his first of June. Ben Rice, the rising star of the Yankees, is now hitting .229, posting a .129 average with one home run in June. Cody Bellinger, who hit .301 with five home runs in May, is hitting .226 with one home run in June.

But it’s hardly fair to lay the blame on any of these four players or Judge when no one else on the team is hitting at least .240 (DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton notwithstanding). Most of the team’s problems stem from the lack of production coming from the second half of the lineup.

Will the ship right itself with no outside help? Probably. At this point, it can’t get any worse. After all, it’s hard to do worse than scoring no runs. But in the postseason, this kind of unreliability can quickly eliminate even the strongest of teams (see the 2023 Atlanta Braves).

It has long been Brian Cashman’s plan to add another infielder. Watching the team right now, one might assume this trade deadline could be the difference between early elimination and making it to the Fall Classic.