Scouts discuss spiraling Yankees, what Brian Cashman can do at trade deadline to save season

The dilemma grows by the day for Brian Cashman. The approaching trade deadline is looking more and more like a necessary shopping spree to save an all-in Yankees season that is currently in a 6-17 free-fall, yet his top trade chips are prospects that evaluators around baseball consider to be largely untouchable.

“Cash always seems to be able to add good pieces at the deadline without giving up too much,” is the way one major league scout puts it. “But I feel like he’s going to have to pull a rabbit out of a hat this year to get what he needs without giving away the farm.”

Other scouts and evaluators I spoke to in recent days offered similar observations, with the consensus being the Yankees will be the most fascinating team to watch at the July 30 trade deadline.

Much of that fascination revolves around trying to make impactful deals to help A)Their less-than-dominant bullpen, B)Their suddenly-struggling starting rotation, and C)Their top-heavy lineup that is among the most feeble in the majors after Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.

And make those deals, by the way, with a farm system that was compromised by dealing off four significant pitchers last winter in the Soto trade, and without giving up remaining blue-chippers Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones, and Chase Hampton.

“The way they’re playing really puts them in a tough spot,” said another scout. “It feels like they have too much at stake this year not to go the extra mile, especially with the Soto situation. Cash is usually rational about these things but his head must be spinning a little bit right now. He has to be asking himself, ‘What happened?’”

Actually, how could he not?

Less than a month ago the Yankees were 50-22 — the best record in baseball — and they were about to get their ace, Gerrit Cole, back from his injury-delayed start to the season. For Cashman it was looking like sweet redemption after his profane rant at the GM Meetings last winter in which he essentially said criticism of him and the Yankees’ seemingly analytics-driven decision-making process was both unfair and misguided.

“You’ll see,” he said, or words to that effect.

And for two-plus months it seemed he’d been right, that injuries had been the real culprit in 2023, their first season without playoffs since 2016. Also that he’d made all the right moves, most notably adding Soto, Alex Verdugo, and Marcus Stroman to piece together a championship-caliber ballclub for 2024.

But then the lack of offense behind Soto and Judge began to take a toll. Gleyber Torres wasn’t hitting enough to offset his habit of making boneheaded mistakes; DJ LeMahieu looked older than ever; Anthony Volpe suddenly stopped ascending; and Giancarlo Stanton, to no one’s surprise, got hurt again.

None of that was as surprising as the dominant starting rotation turning into a pumpkin just as Cole returned. In fact, over their last 21 games, including another early-innings implosion by Carlos Rodon on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees starters have compiled a 7.04 ERA, worst in the majors during that stretch.

And, finally, closer Clay Holmes has slumped, giving up eight runs over seven appearances since June 13 to make the late innings a minefield.

“There’s nothing fluky about it,” said a scout of the Yankees’ recent play. “They’ve been bad any way you look at it. Judge carried them for a while and Soto is great but they need help. What does it tell you that they signed J.D. Davis (after he was waived by the Oakland A’s) and plugged him in at cleanup, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

“I will say the (Ben) Rice kid has a chance. He’s got good strike zone awareness, he seems very composed, and he’s got a swing built for Yankee Stadium. So maybe they get lucky there, because I don’t think (Anthony) Rizzo (out with a broken arm) has much left.

“But there are a lot of holes. A month ago I would have said Cashman’s only job at the deadline was to add some swing-and-miss to his bullpen, preferably a lefty. Swing a deal for Tanner Scott (from the Miami Marlins) and the job would have been done. Now he still needs a guy like Scott but he also needs to figure out how to best allocate his resources to address other holes.”

There has been speculation the Yankees would be interested in an infielder like Ryan McMahon of the Colorado Rockies or converted infielder Jazz Chisholm from the Marlins. Each would cost them valuable prospects and further whittle away at the organization’s farm system depth.

If they were to go for the big fish, Chicago White Sox hard-throwing starter Garrett Crochet, scouts say that would come at a very high cost — such as Jones or Hampton — because the lefty Crochet has two more years of control before reaching free agency.

“He’s the wild card because he could be a dominant postseason pitcher,” said one evaluator, “either as a starter or in the bullpen.”

Crochet’s potential innings limits looms as a reason teams might consider moving him to the bullpen, where his 100-mph fastball, which largely accounts for his league-leading 146 strikeouts, might play up even higher.

But would the Yankees give up what it would take? The consensus among scouts I spoke to was no, especially in the case of Dominguez, who might be taking Stanton’s spot right now if he hadn’t gone down recently with an injured oblique, or Jones, the lefty-hitting Double-A outfielder with Judge-like size and power.

And trading Hampton, their top pitching prospect, would be difficult even if the Yanks were willing, as he has been out all season with a shoulder injury.

So can the Yankees’ season be saved? Scouts believe Cashman will make sensible deals for a reliever and perhaps a hitter like McMahon, which will help, and then have to hope for some semblance of the April-May Yankees to reappear.

“That’s probably what it comes down to,” said one evaluator. ”He can’t reinvent his team at the deadline. He doesn’t have the depth of (high-ceiling) prospects to do it and there probably won’t be many difference-makers available.

“As bad as the Yankees are playing, you can’t forget those first two months. I wouldn’t have thought this going into the season, but they really need Stanton in that lineup. His presence alone changes everything, and before he went down he was showing he’s still a force as a power hitter.

“If they get Stanton back and get anything out of Torres, and Rice proves he has some staying power, they could still be dangerous. Cashman will fix the bullpen. He can’t fix everything.”