2024 SEASON THUS FAR 

This year’s Yankees have ranged from awesome to awful.  We began the season with a lot of teamwork including a non-forgiving lineup to opposing pitchers.  We have since ended our games played this past weekend (before the All-Star Game break) by playing like we have only about a third of our players who have played hard and had success thus far.  They include these 8 players:
 
Aaron Judge - His offensive numbers thus far equate to his MVP year in 2022 as he’s currently batting with a .306 Average, 1.112 OPS, 34 Homeruns, 72 Walks, and 85 RBIs.
 
Juan Soto - His at-bats are relentless including his .295 Average, .984 OPS, 23 Homeruns, 79 Walks, and 66 RBIs.
 
Ben Rice – He’s this year’s rookie phenom thus far – he just joined the Yankees on June 18.  His early offensive numbers include:  6 Homeruns and an OPS of .809 in just 79 at-bats.
 
Marcus Stroman – Although his numbers look “okay”, his efforts and focus are always clear towards his continuous strive to give the best he’s got for each of his starts.  He keeps the team in the game with a chance to win often, which is very valuable.
 
Luis Gil – Except for a couple of hiccups, he’s been one of the best starters in all of baseball!  He currently holds impressive numbers including a WHIP of 1.08, an ERA of 3.17, 10 Wins/5 Losses, and 118 Strikeouts in 102.1 innings.
 
Jake Cousins – Although he’s only just begun pitching for the Yankees, he’s preliminarily become one of my favorite relievers in quite a while and has demonstrated impressive number including a 1.05 WHIP and 18 Strikeouts in 12.1 innings.
 
Luke Weaver – Similar to Jake, Luke has demonstrated excellent preliminary numbers thus far.  Those numbers include a WHIP of 0.80 and he’s achieved 58 strikeouts in 54.2 innings.
 
Michael Tonkin – He was designated For Assignment by the Mets twice and the Twins once.  Once he put on the pinstripes and received a few tips from our pitching coach, Matt Blake, he’s turned around his numbers IMMENSELY!  His WHIP is 1.03 and he’s achieved 48 Strikeouts in 45.2 innings.
 
Both Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo have epitomized our "awesome to awful" season with their on-off contributions!  Because of their good periods and "mostly" good defensive efforts, I’ll give each a pass.  I’ll also give a pass to our former ace/Cy Young winner, Gerrit Cole.  He's done pretty well since his return from the IL just recently, after not pitching at all until then.
 
The rest of the team has underperformed and haven't shown any consistent efforts.  Our closer, Clay Holmes, has a 1.31 WHIP and is not the worst closer in baseball, but certainly not the best either, especially with the most blown saves.  Almost every time he enters the game, we Yankees’ fans have to hold on tight!  The one player that has frustrated me the most is DJ LeMahieu.  His value to the team has dropped faster than the Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoon has dropped from a cliff!  His offense is downright awful.  It's so bad that I can’t even type his stats in this article!  His defense, especially at third base is very lackadaisical!  Someone needs to wake him up.  He’s reached the Aaron-Hicks-grade at this point and the Yankees really need to either throw him into a trade along with someone of value or bite the bullet and let this detrimental player go already!
 
With the trade deadline slightly over 10 days from now, the Yankees really need to make moves.  We need another starter to ensure we have enough arsenal from that standpoint, we could add another bullpen guy (perhaps a closer if we don’t have to trade away the farm system in that deal), and (in my  strong opinion) we primarily need a very good third baseman - preferably a righthand hitter with decent power, an above .265 Batting Average, and above average defense.  We do not have anybody in our farm system ready with those qualifications.  That type of third baseman would be very complementary to the lineup if he batted behind Soto and Judge.  In essence, the whole lineup would then be stronger because the teams would pitch to them more directly.