Yankees, Brian Cashman still quiet as trade deadline dominos continue falling
BALTIMORE — Over the course of the past few days, a handful of the teams surrounding the Yankees in the American League playoff race began to pounce in the trade market.
And on Sunday, two of the outfielders that had been connected to the Yankees came off the board — the Rockies traded Randal Grichuk to the Angels and the Cubs decided to keep Cody Bellinger.
Amid all the hoopla ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, the Yankees remained quiet entering Sunday’s 9-3 loss to the Orioles, with those in the clubhouse trying to keep their focus on the game at hand.
“You see [other trades] with interest, of course, being in the game and following the sport,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “But in the end, our focus is on getting our guys going and trying to win a series tonight against a really good team. So that’s all stuff out of our control. I see it, I acknowledge it, but it’s not something for me to worry about. We gotta get our guys ready to go. Especially getting [Aaron Judge] back is a big deal. Getting Nestor [Cortes] and [Jonathan Loaisiga] back are all going to be significant things that happen.”
Brian Cashman and the Yankees haven’t made a move yet in 2023. Charles Wenzelberg
In the meantime, the Yankees’ competition continued to add from the outside on Sunday.
The Blue Jays, who are 3 ½ games ahead of the Yankees for the final AL wild-card spot, acquired hard-throwing reliever Jordan Hicks from the Cardinals with closer Jordan Romano going on the injured list.
The Rangers, who are leading the AL West but are close to dropping into the wild-card standings, also added ex-Yankee Jordan Montgomery a day after trading for Max Scherzer.
Jordan Hicks went to the Blue Jays in a deal Sunday. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
And then there were the Angels — they finished Sunday a half-game behind the Yankees in the wild-card chase — who reeled in starter Lucas Giolito and reliever Reynaldo Lopez from the White Sox before trading for Grichuk and first baseman C.J. Cron.
This weekend’s series at Camden Yards was expected to have an impact on how aggressively the Yankees’ front office attacked the deadline.
Games like Saturday’s 8-3 win over the Orioles provided the blueprint for why the team still believes it is capable of making a run, but Judge said he was not getting caught up wondering what trades may or may not be coming.
“It’s out of our control,” the captain said. “We got a job to do on the field. We’re here. We’re fully capable with the guys we got in this clubhouse to go out there and compete on a daily basis to the end of the year. That’s out of our hands. We’ll let [the front office] do their part and we’ll do ours.”
Boone was not going to publicly campaign for what he thought the Yankees needed, either.
The Cubs took Cody Bellinger off the trade market following their recent surge. Getty Images
“I think it’s a slight to the people I have in our room that I feel like are totally capable of still reaching all of our hopes and dreams,” Boone said. “So I’m not going to go lobby for something that may or may not happen and then if something doesn’t happen, then what? I know our guys individually and our team feels very confident to get right and play a high level of baseball these final two months and that’s how I look at it.”
Source: New York Post
