The New York Yankees are hard to figure out.<\/p>\n
They won\u2019t have Aaron Judge for the foreseeable future, yet they\u2019re just three games back in the American League East. They looked horrible, recently losing 15 of 20, and then they rolled off four straight wins before the All-Star break. They have Ben Rice mashing and Camilo Doval melting down.<\/p>\n
Who are these guys?<\/p>\n
Are they title contenders? Pretenders? A little of both?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s sort it out by looking at the Yankees\u2019 biggest second-half storylines to watch before they return to action Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
How Philly landed the All-Star Game for America\u2019s 250<\/p>\n
Tyler Kepner and more<\/p>\n
They need Aaron Judge back ASAP<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big week in the Bronx, even if there won\u2019t be any games until Friday.<\/p>\n
Sometime this week, doctors will perform tests on Judge\u2019s first right rib, which has a stress fracture that has kept him off the field since June 1.<\/p>\n
The Yankees don\u2019t expect it to be fully healed, but they do hope to see improvement to the point where he can begin upper-body workouts \u2014 his biggest step toward returning to the field.<\/p>\n
Judge is the biggest key to their future. The 35-year-old three-time MVP is the best hitter in the game, and when he\u2019s out of the Yankees\u2019 lineup, they don\u2019t have nearly the firepower to replace him. (To be fair, no team could fully recover from losing a player of Judge\u2019s caliber.)<\/p>\n
Before Judge went on ice, the Yankees had scored the fourth-most runs in MLB (305 in 59 games) and were second in wRC+ (116). Since then? They\u2019re 22nd in runs (157 in 37 games), and 23rd in wRC+ (93).<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t sign Cody Bellinger to be their No. 1 offensive option, and Rice can\u2019t do it all by himself. He\u2019ll need help from Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm Jr., in particular. The Yankees will also need Giancarlo Stanton (right calf strain) back at some point. He last played April 24.<\/p>\n
But more than anything, they need to hear Judge will begin workouts soon and get himself back on the field. If Judge can return by Sept. 1, it should give him enough time to round into playing shape for October.<\/p>\n
Will the shortstop dilemma resolve itself?<\/p>\n
The Yankees have signaled they don\u2019t fully believe in Anthony Volpe. In their biggest series of the season last week against the Tampa Bay Rays, Volpe started in one of the four games. He then started in just one of the three games against the Washington Nationals. As of now, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s not viewed as a starter.<\/p>\n
But Jos\u00e9 Caballero isn\u2019t a much better option. Both Caballero and Volpe have a 95 wRC+. Volpe has better underlying metrics and has graded out more favorably in the range-based defensive metric, Outs Above Average.<\/p>\n
George Lombard Jr. (sprained fingers) began a rehab assignment Monday, and the Yankees hope their No. 1 prospect will return to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre soon. Should Lombard show his injuries are no longer an issue, and he sustains quality production, he could find himself playing shortstop in the Bronx well before the calendar turns to September and rosters expand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been pushing himself before the injury,\u201d Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said last week. \u201cDefinitely was thriving and conquering the final level.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to getting him back and active. He might be a choice at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees could use upgrades at the trade deadline<\/p>\n
It might not seem like it to many who watch the team daily, but the Yankees have the best bullpen ERA in the American League (3.10).<\/p>\n
Still, they could use at least one more high-leverage reliever. David Bednar, Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick are their top three relievers, but that\u2019s not enough to get a club through October. Paul Blackburn has emerged as a trustworthy reliever. Among all pitchers with at least 30 innings since May 14, Blackburn\u2019s 1.16 ERA is the best in baseball.<\/p>\n
Outside of those four, the Yankees\u2019 bullpen is a mixed bag. Doval has the highest upside, but he hasn\u2019t had sustained success because of his struggles against lefties. Tim Hill is unhittable against lefties but can\u2019t pitch against righties. It\u2019s hard to envision him having a role in the postseason. Jake Bird, Ryan Yarbrough and Angel Chivilli are the lowest on the bullpen trust tree.<\/p>\n
The starting pitching is in good shape, especially if Max Fried and Carlos Rod\u00f3n return from their injuries. It could allow the Yankees to explore moving Ryan Weathers or Will Warren into the bullpen before October.<\/p>\n
They could use some of their pitching depth to add another high-impact bat before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Who knows how Judge and Stanton will look when they return from their injuries. Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have slowed down over the past several weeks, and Chisholm has not been able to maintain any hot streak.<\/p>\n
Adding another bat might not be the biggest priority \u2014 aside from catcher \u2014 but the Yankees should at least consider the possibility, if only to provide more insurance against continued underperformance by several key hitters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Yankees are hard to figure out. They won\u2019t have Aaron Judge for the foreseeable future,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2704,85],"class_list":["post-802666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}