ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The USS Yankee has spent the past three weeks taking on water, but Brian Cashman is trying to steady the ship.
Cashman was already planning to be at the team’s complex in Tampa this week ahead of the MLB draft starting Sunday, but he made the trip to Tropicana Field on Tuesday to be with the Yankees as they entered their series against the Rays having lost 16 of their past 22 games.
The longtime general manager acknowledged the Yankees’ recent woes while also maintaining belief that they are capable of getting back on track.
“Man, it’s just been a struggle, obviously,” Cashman said inside the visiting dugout. “Thankfully we got out of the gates really strong, so hopefully that cushion will allow us to work through this, hopefully sooner than later because it’s gone on long enough. But yeah, it’s been a tough stretch for us.
“You can hit some rough spots. We’re certainly as rough as they come right now.”
A little over three weeks ago, the Yankees had the best record in baseball at 50-22, with a rotation that was thriving despite missing Gerrit Cole and a lineup that was mostly supported by the otherworldly seasons of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
Since then, they had gone 5-15 coming into Tuesday, a brutal stretch due largely to their rotation struggling once Cole returned and most of their lineup falling into slumps outside of Judge and Soto.
The Yankees still entered Tuesday with the majors’ fifth-best record, but on shakier footing than they had a few weeks ago.
“I’m always concerned,” Cashman said. “That’s my job, to be in a position to never assume anything. Ultimately, today’s a new day, and we’re hoping to get back on track today. We have the draft coming up, but the trade deadline is as well. We’ll stay connected with everybody out there, wait for our [injured] guys at the same time to continue to get better and hope the current crew that we have out there can get back on the winning ways.”
Cashman declined to publicly discuss the Yankees’ biggest needs ahead of the July 30 trade deadline — chief among them is the bullpen and perhaps a corner infielder — but said he would be “open-minded to a lot of different things.”
Though the Yankees were flying high through the first 2 ¹/₂ months of the season, the past three weeks have exposed plenty of areas for improvement, whether internally or externally.
“My deadline plans are to see if we can run into as much that can improve our team as possible,” Cashman said. “You’re always evaluating what you’re watching and staying in touch with our manager, our coaching staff, as well as our scouts about what this team’s strengths and weaknesses happen to be. You’re always wanting to keep your strengths your strengths and improve your weaknesses. When you’re at the deadline, see if you can do the best we can on that and shore it up and take your final best shot.
“But we have learned, clearly, a number of different things along the way. Hopefully we’ll be able to take care of business when it counts by the end of the month.”
This marks the third straight year the Yankees have had some kind of summer swoon, though it remains to be seen how damaging this one will ultimately be.
In the meantime, Cashman said he did not feel the need to address the team while he was in town — leaving that up to Aaron Boone, who he continued to support.
“He’s charged every day with pushing the right buttons the best he can with what he’s got,” Cashman said. “I think he’s navigating that as well as he possibly can. It was a tidal wave of success here for the first two months, and then here, as we closed out June and entered July, we’ve hit a really rough patch for an extended period of time. Ultimately it all comes together with what our current record is, but we gotta be playing better than we currently are right now as an entire unit.”
