Yankees’ Aaron Boone expecting ‘crazy 48 hours’ in MLB ahead of deadline
Late Sunday afternoon, Aaron Boone forecasted “a crazy 48 hours in the baseball world” ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
But the manager stopped short of including the Yankees in that prediction or going to bat for any specific area of need, insisting the Yankees already have “a very complete team.”
“We’ve been one of the best teams, if not the best team in the league and we’ll continue to be that, whatever happens over the next 48 hours,” Boone said after the Yankees fell to the Royals 8-6. “That’s where my focus lies.”
Despite the loss, the Yankees still ended Sunday as MLB’s winningest team this season. But their hot start has lost some steam of late, with their rotation and bullpen both emerging as areas the front office will be looking to address by Tuesday.
The Yankees filled another need last week by acquiring Andrew Benintendi from the Royals. The left-handed hitting left fielder went 1-for-10 with six walks and a stolen base in his first series as a Yankee, but more reinforcements could be on the way by Tuesday.
“You can always be better — I would say that for every facet of the game,” Boone said. “There’s always places you can go to get incrementally better. That being said, I feel like we’re a complete team and we’ve leaned on whether it’s starters, relievers, defense, baserunning, power, whatever it may be. We feel like those have all been overall a strength for us. If we end up strengthening those a little bit more, great. If not, we got a job to do.”
Giancarlo Stanton is expected to resume baseball activities early this week for the first time since landing on the injured list with left Achilles tendinitis on July 26.
“I would say probably in the next couple days he’ll start, whether it’s throwing and probably doing some tee work and upper body, hitting and stuff like that,” Boone said. “Just talking to him briefly [Saturday], he’s definitely encouraged by the last few days. The last few days, he’s noticed improvement and I think [they] have moved the needle how he would have hoped. Hopefully that starts to pick up speed this week.”
DJ LeMahieu went 2-for-5 with a two-run home run, his second long ball in as many games. He has now reached base multiple times in 17 of his last 20 games, a stretch in which he is hitting .345 with a .939 OPS. … Matt Carpenter went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, improving to .337/.432/.851 in his 29 starts.
Zack Britton is set to face live hitters for the first time this week as he continues his rehab from UCL surgery last September in hopes of pitching at some point this season.
“We continue to be encouraged, but what it all means, we’ll wait and see,” Boone said.
Luis Severino (low-grade right lat strain) will begin a throwing program on Monday.