The Yankees needed to see a massive improvement in their performance in July, Instead, they went 10-15 on the month.

The Yankees wanted to narrow the gap on the teams ahead of them in the wild card race. Instead, they slipped out of contention and finished the month in fifth place in the American League East.

The logic had been that psychologically the Yankees were struggling without their captain, leader, and best player, Aaron Judge. His time out of the team went on and on and it was the 28th of July before he returned.

But the Yankees need to be more than just a one-man club, however significant that absentee was.

Let’s see how few of the other batters were able to stand in the gap:

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Aaron Judge of/dh	3	7	2	3	0	0	1	2	6	2	0	.429	.692	.857	1.549
Franchy Cordero of	5	15	3	5	1	0	2	2	0	4	0	.333	.333	.800	1.133
Oswaldo Cabrera of/if	13	24	4	7	2	0	0	4	5	8	1	.292	.414	.375	.789
Isiah Kiner-Falefa of/if	18	48	7	14	3	0	0	6	11	10	1	.292	.419	.354	.773
Kyle Higashioka c	19	47	4	13	1	0	3	7	2	14	0	.277	.294	.489	.783
Gleyber Torres 2b	25	102	13	28	3	1	4	12	6	16	2	.275	.306	.441	.747
Jake Bauers of/1b	9	31	5	8	3	0	3	6	3	14	0	.258	.324	.645	.969
DJ LeMahieu if	23	77	7	19	4	0	1	2	14	14	0	.247	.359	.338	.697
Harrison Bader cf	22	76	9	18	3	0	1	11	2	18	3	.237	.265	.316	.581
Jose Trevino c	9	19	2	4	1	0	1	2	1	2	0	.211	.286	.421	.707
Anthony Volpe ss	25	84	14	17	3	1	3	8	7	24	3	.202	.272	.369	.641
Giancarlo Stanton dh/of	23	86	12	17	2	0	7	16	12	20	0	.198	.293	.465	.758
Billy McKinney of/1b	16	32	6	6	0	0	1	4	8	14	1	.188	.366	.281	.647
Anthony Rizzo 1b	23	90	6	15	2	0	1	4	7	27	0	.167	.235	.222	.457
Oswald Peraza 3b	7	20	1	3	0	0	0	3	5	10	2	.150	.346	.150	.496
Josh Donaldson 3b/dh	9	29	2	4	0	0	2	2	6	6	0	.138	.286	.345	.631
Greg Allen of	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.000	.200	.000	.200
Ben Rortvedt c	4	9	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

Catchers

As July came to its conclusion, and with only hours to go before the trading deadline, the Yankees had made no changes. There had been internal discussions apparently about whether they would be “buyers” or “sellers”, but their fans had not expected this complete lack of activity.

One of the most gaping holes was at catcher. During July, Jose Trevino who was already having a season that was a shadow of his 2022 performance went on the injured list with a right wrist tear. The significance of the injury makes it highly likely that he would not play again in 2023.

His replacement was obviously going to be Ben Rortvedt, who had bounced back from some long term injury problems and had been performing at a much higher level than anticipated offensively, whilst at Triple-A.

Ths meant that Kyle Higashioka became pressed into being the first choice catcher once again – a responsibility he had struggled with in the past. Thankfully, as well as producing a good defensive month, he hit .277 with 4 extra base hits.

But Trevino had only been hitting .211 with little power before his injury problem was diagnosed, and Rortvedt went hitless in his first 9 at bats

First position examined and largely one strike against the Yankees – little available depth at catcher in the short term.

Infielders

One more issue for the Yankees was that they had to transfer Josh Donaldson from the 10 day injured list to the 60 day injured list. He was unavailable from the 16th of the month with a right calf strain, but it quickly became apparent that this meant he was done, at least for the rest of the regular season. Donaldson had been only batting .138 on the month before his inury, and his contract is up at the end of the season. It is not hard to cast him as one of the worst acquisitions in Yankees history – a mere ghost of his former MVP self.

This has meant more weight falling on the shoulders of DJ LeMahieu. who has been struggling in recent weeks. He has improved with his batting average on an upswing in the second half of the month, to come to a .247 average by the end of July with five extra base hits. With Donaldson out and Anthony Rizzo‘s struggles since May continuing (.167 BA), the burden is heavily on LeMahieu at the corner infield positions.

Jake Bauers has been called upon to fill the first base role and, while he is not entirely comfortable fielding there, the adjustment has not affected his batting performance. On the month, he batted .258 with 3 doubles and 3 homers.

There had been suggestions in the media that the Yankees might be under pressure to trade Gleyber Torres to the Miami Marlins, but thankfully the New York hierarchy have not shown an inclination to trade him for a group of players who might meet their many shortcomings in the mode of a potential quick fix. In truth, the second baseman is one of their few offensive success stories this year, and leads the team in many categories. In July, he gave the team most at bats, most runs, and most hits. He does much better at second base than he did during his tenure at shortstop and is someone they Yankees should be seeking to keep around.

Speaking of shortstops, the jury is still out on Anthony Volpe who the Yankees have not decided to return to Triple-A Scranton despite some indications they might have rushed his promotion. This month he batted a mere .202, but he did contribute 7 extra base hits into the melting pot.

Oswald Peraza, who might have been more expected to be a regular on the roster than Volpe, spent a part of the month on the major league roster. He has done very well offensively at Scranton, but his stay in the Bronx produced a mere .150 batting average.

Outfielders

The Yankees outfield has, as previously indicated, really missed Aaron Judge, and they have tried to patch over his absence with several players who are makeshift defensively. Harrison Bader is the only one, that in an ideal world, they would have in the lineup everyday. Ironically, because he is out of contract at the end of the year, there was some suggestion that they might be willing to listen to offers for him. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem that any have come. He remains very strong defensively, but his average (.237) and extra base hits (4) were less than he needed to produced given the funk the Yankees have found themselves in.

Beyond that the numbers have been made up by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Oswaldo Cabrera, Billy McKinney, and the injury-risk Giancarlo Stanton. Kiner-Falefa did much more than might have been expected. He hit .292 and was a competent outfielder. Cabrera who was doing quite well also, and gives the Yankees more utility options, was surprisingly sent back to Scranton in the final third of the month. This left even more weight on the remaining pieces. McKinney batted only .188 on the month, and he and Kiner-Falefa provided no power.

Franchy Cordero was added to the roster at the end of the first week of the month, and obviously because he was batting quite well was sent back down on the same day as Carbrera to make room for Greg Allen who, returning from injury, went hitless in four brief appearances late in the month.

Aaron Judge only appeared in 3 games at the end of month, but at least he was there. He is unlikely to maintain the .429 average when we see a bigger sample of what he is going to do, but isn’t it good to have him back? Let’s just hope there is no repeat of that toe problem.

Designated Hitters

Another player working his way back from injury was Willie Calhoun. He was sent on a rehab assignment at the double-A Somerset Patriots. At the end of the assignment, the Yankees decided that they were done with Calhoun, and released him.

Giancarlo Stanton really isn’t hitting for average, but he is producing some power if he can stay fit. He led the team in home runs and extra base hits in July. Again, he isn’t the player they hoped they were signing, but they need his power to give this shambles a boost.