Yankees face 3 glaring questions as they sputter to halfway point of season

NEW YORK — There was a heated debate in a Citi Field elevator before Game 2 of the Subway Series on Wednesday. Yankees fans argued with Mets fans over which team would get no-hit, with the group wearing pinstripes and No. 99 jerseys claiming that this current iteration of the Bronx Bombers lineup would be lucky to get one run across against the Amazins. 

Huh. 

Yankees fans, who have enjoyed a mostly smooth ride atop the American League East, think their team can’t beat the Mets, who have struggled to even reach .500? Looking at the entirety of the Yankees’ season thus far, that’s a surprising sentiment from members of the club’s fan base. But take a peek at the surging Mets, the Yankees’ recent underwhelming performance with a rotten 2023 season still fresh in their memory banks, and the way that debate was going starts to make a lot more sense. 

The Yankees are in a better spot halfway through the season than they were a year ago at this juncture, but some familiar cracks from 2023’s mediocre product are beginning to show. They’ve lost five of their past six series and four in a row. Key injuries are piling up. Underperformance from the lineup, though some of it was expected, is making for far too many automatic outs. But there’s also a new, somewhat early concern that was the furthest thing from an issue last year: Gerrit Cole doesn’t look like himself after returning from a spring elbow injury. 

Yes, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto sport two of the top three fWARs in MLB, but now that Giancarlo Stanton is injured and Anthony Volpe has cooled off, the superstar duo is creating chances that the rest of the Yankees offense is struggling to take advantage of. Anyone who actually believed trading for Soto would solve all, if not most, of the Yankees’ problems is currently getting a rude wake-up call. 

General manager Brian Cashman might not be in panic mode thanks to the club’s scorching hot start. New York is, after all, 23 games over .500 and sporting the third-best winning percentage (.642) in the major leagues. But Cashman at least has to be agitated by now, because the team’s myriad roster problems are beginning to stack up. 

So, let’s attempt to answer three of the Yankees’ most glaring questions. 

1. Why did the Yankees seemingly rush Cole back?

From Cole’s body language to the gunk he was throwing from the mound, the reigning AL Cy Young winner looked nothing like himself in his second start off the injured list. The ace coughed up four home runs for just the second time in his career Tuesday, becoming the first Yankees pitcher in franchise history to allow four or more home runs, four or more walks, and register zero strikeouts in a game. His final line against the suddenly red-hot Mets — six earned runs across four innings — inspired little confidence in Cole’s recovery from a right elbow injury that didn’t require surgery. 

Making matters more confusing, the Yankees indicated Cole was still building back up to his typical velocity and workload in his outing at Citi Field. Judge said Cole was essentially still in spring training. That much was clear, as Cole’s velocity was down a few ticks after the first inning. Three of the Mets’ four home runs off Cole came on fastballs that were below 94 mph. His previous outing against the Orioles wasn’t smooth, either. In two starts this season, Cole has surrendered eight runs in eight innings. 

If Cole is not built back up yet, and probably could’ve used one or two more rehab starts in the minors, why did the Yankees seemingly rush him back? The rotation was doing just fine without him, rocking a 2.86 ERA for the best mark in MLB from Opening Day to June 18, the day before Cole returned. The way the Yankees are describing it, they’re not at all surprised to see this subpar version of Cole. So, if these shoddy results were predictable, why run him out there until he’s 100 percent ready? 

Cole will have plenty of eyeballs on him the rest of the season to see if he can really bounce back from the elbow scare. If the injury is limiting his Cy Young ability, it puts into question how effective Cole can be for the Yankees down the stretch and in a potentially deep October run. For now, in addition to all the other roster holes Cashman has to address before the trade deadline, starting pitching could become more of a priority. 

2. How are they going to address their infield problems?

It’s not a great place to be when the Yankees need upgrades at three out of four infield positions, including the entire right side of the diamond. Anthony Rizzo is on the shelf until mid-August at best with a right arm fracture. The Yankees called up catcher/first base prospect Ben Rice in the interim, and it would be a boon if he could be a force for the lineup, but thus far the rookie appears to need more time and reps to adjust to big-league hitting. Yankees manager Aaron Boone should give guys like Rice and catcher Austin Wells all the opportunities possible, because the rest of the offense looks bleak.

Gleyber Torres, who was benched Wednesday against the Mets amid a hard-to-watch contract year, and DJ LeMahieu, whose best years are long behind him, are the two infielders being counted on by the Yankees to wake up fast. Boone said as much after the Yankees were shellacked by the Mets on Tuesday in a 9-7 loss that looked better on paper after Judge hit a grand slam. Boone has no choice but to put more pressure on Torres and LeMahieu to produce unless/until Cashman supports him with outside additions. 

The trade market hasn’t fully taken shape yet, as several teams are still in a position to push in the wild-card race. But one attractive addition for the Yankees was right in the other dugout during the Subway Series this week. First baseman Pete Alonso will be a free agent this winter, and though the Mets are among the hottest teams in baseball right now, things can change quickly around here. 

Just two weeks ago, the Mets looked like guaranteed sellers. It’s always unlikely that the Mets and Yankees would engage in such a blockbuster trade, but the Yankees are desperate for lineup help and have a hole to fill at first base, too. Could they be desperate enough to give up multiple prospects for the Polar Bear? The Mets would make a solid trading partner, as they need to continue beefing up their farm system in tandem with owner Steve Cohen’s incautious spending.

Internally, infield help is a moot point largely because Oswald Peraza has been a disappointment and the Yankees have few better options than the dispirited bats they’re currently running out there. LeMahieu is under contract through 2026 with over $30 million still owed to the former two-time batting champion, so the Yankees will keep playing him and hope for the best. Torres, who leads all major-league second basemen with 12 errors, has seen better days in New York. But these next few weeks truly seem like they could be his last.  

3. Will this Yankees’ offense survive key injuries and underperformances?

Nothing encapsulated the state of the Yankees offense better than the first innings of the Subway Series on Tuesday and Wednesday. In both instances, the Yankees’ top-heavy lineup managed to load the bases … only to leave them full due to automatic outs in the middle and bottom of the order. The Mets put up crooked numbers in both games versus their New York counterparts, building eight-run leads in each contest and exposing the Yankees’ flaws in the process.

For a better idea of how desperate things have gotten for the Bronx Bombers, they traded with the Oakland Athletics for utility infielder J.D. Davis this week and had him bat cleanup Wednesday. Davis seemed a little shell-shocked and looked out of place, to say the least. In reality, his 92 OPS+ fit right in with Soto, Judge and the seven dwarfs. 

This Yankees lineup has looked dramatically different since Stanton and Rizzo, typically key offensive cogs, landed on the IL. Alex Verdugo was hitless in his last 21 at-bats before he finally singled in the sixth inning Wednesday. There are no spark plugs after the top three hitters in Volpe, Soto and Judge, and even Volpe’s production has dropped; after a .812 OPS in May, he has a .618 OPS with just four RBIs in June. Stanton, who was producing closer to his career norms with 18 home runs and a .795 OPS through 69 games this season, could take a handful of weeks to recover from his hamstring strain. 

So, the Yankees will have to march on with their two-man show, at least until Cashman picks up the phone and green lights a deal that could change their outlook. 

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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