The New York Yankees have dealt Aroldis Chapman, but they aren’t throwing the 2016 season away. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, owner Hal Steinbrenner still wants this team to make a push for October.
Hear Hal Steinbrenner will look at any trade concepts Cashman gets but will not allow firesale, wants to still try to make playoffs #Yankees
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) July 25, 2016
If you’re a Yankees fan, your only hope now is that Steinbrenner just doesn’t want to publicly consider his team a seller.
For New York to make the playoffs, it would have to be better than all but one of the following teams: Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and the Seattle Mariners.
In the case of the Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Astros, the Yankees would need to be at least four games better for the rest of the way. Realistically, those three teams are just better than the Bombers.
Andrew Miller is a star who remains under contract through 2018, so the Yankees are right to not want to deal him. But if the Yankees’ front office is looking to deal players like Carlos Beltran, Ivan Nova, and Michael Pineda, then it’s just not doing a good job.
New York needs to retool itself. Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter are gone. Soon, stalwarts like Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and C.C. Sabathia will be, as well.
The Yankees got some nice foundation building prospects back from the Chicago Cubs in the Chapman deal. Realistically, that’s the route that they should continue to go down.