Yankees’ deadline haul didn’t match championship-or-bust hopes

The Yankees shot par at the deadline — one bat and two relievers who can miss bats. 

That was basically the minimum required. 

Will par be enough? To win the AL East. And, of course, a lot more than that. Because these Yankees were not assembled to shoot par. This is supposed to be a championship-or-bust season, only made more so by the presence of Juan Soto in his only certain Yankees campaign. 

The Yankees did not have a championship-or-bust trade deadline. They had restrictions, imposed financially by Hal Steinbrenner and due to a diminished and damaged farm system. And that kept them from, say, shooting way better than par by landing Garrett Crochet or Yandy Diaz. 

But you know what? No team got Crochet or Diaz. Or Tarik Skubal or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Or Blake Snell. So perhaps the best review of the Yankees’ deadline is that the Orioles also did not add impact. Zach Eflin is a fine starter, but not the type who will show up in a playoff series and turn the opposition to puddles in the pregame. Trevor Rogers is a project. The Phillies traded for two and the two struggling ones they were happy to let go — Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto — went to the Orioles. Eloy Jimenez was a White Sox salary dump. 

And in many ways this defined the deadline through the sport — the market was way more supplementary than superstar. It is going to be fascinating at the end to see which organizations unearthed the most usefulness and better from what was largely a sell-off from the Blue Jays, White Sox and the two Florida teams — really, maybe MLB should limit play there to just spring training. 

There is a scenario, for example, in which the bright lights and big city brings out the best in Jazz Chisholm Jr., who is a whirling dervish of skills the Yankees need from defensive maneuverability, lefty pop and basepath threat. But consistency has been missing from his game over the years. Will a veteran team and meaningful games focus him? 

Mark Leiter Jr. struck out 34.9 percent of the hitters he faced as a Cub this year. Enyel De Los Santos struck out 28.2 percent for the Padres. Yankees relievers were striking out 23 percent of hitters, 17th in the majors. Can Leiter and De Los Santos add late-game swing and miss? 

The best of what the Yankees traded, according to evaluators who follow the team, is the upside bat potential of Agustin Ramirez. The Yanks were never including Jasson Dominguez in a deal, and were loathed to move outfielder Spencer Jones or shortstop George Lombard Jr. The Yankees system, due to so many trades of prospects (particularly pitchers) in recent years, injuries and downturn in performance were not in possession of the kind of organizational quality depth that would have made a big trade useful. 

It is possible the best player drafted by the Yankees who was traded was Trey Sweeney, who was part of an underwhelming package that the Dodgers sent to the Tigers for Jack Flaherty. In the offseason, Sweeney — a former Yankees first-round pick — was traded to Los Angeles for Victor Gonzalez. To say, the Yankees need Leiter and De Los Santos to be much better than Gonzalez is understatement. 

But even if they are good, and so is Chisholm, it would be high-end complementary good. In many ways, the Yankees doubled down on what they had, which became a little more worrisome Tuesday when they announced Gerrit Cole was scratched with what the team said was general body achiness. Aaron Boone suggested Cole could start over the weekend. But the Yanks have yet to see much of Cole this year — and certainly not his Cy Young best. In his place to make his major league debut Tuesday was Will Warren, one of those prospects who took a downturn this season and did nothing against the Phillies to reverse that. 

Thus, Luis Gil and Carlos Rodon have to continue like they have recently, and Nestor Cortes — who was in trade discussions — and Marcus Stroman have to rediscover the first two months. And it would be helpful if Clarke Schmidt could return in full for the final five weeks. 

Besides De Los Santos and Leiter, can the Yanks basically reacquire Ian Hamilton and perhaps Nick Burdi and Lou Trivino from the injured list? Is the best of Clay Holmes showing up again? 

And are the complementary bats to the great Soto and Aaron Judge going to keep producing as they had in the past several games so the Yankee lineup is more than the modern day Ruth and Gehrig? And let’s go one step further — are players such as Trent Grisham, Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo going to become fully engaged enough to offer full effort and full attention for a full game for the rest of this year? 

Because when the Yankees are bludgeoning opponents, it might not matter. But when a tight baseball game breaks out, the Yanks can be too carefree and careless and that is more bust than championship. 

In a market that lacked stars, the Yankees did fine. They shot par with Chisholm, Leiter and De Los Santos. At their best, they should complement what the Yankees have. But the best compliment for the 2024 roster would be to definitively prove that it already was a championship cornerstone.