March 3-0

April 15-13

May 17-9

June 13-14

July 12-13

How did it come to this? After a good start in March and April followed by an exemplary month in May, the Yankees have now had two months where their record is below 50%.

The tailspin meant that there were always going to be a good number of changes as the trading deadline approached.

Most of those who came in were on the pitching side of the roster, but first we’ll survey the batters and those who have left and those who have arrived during the last few days.

Let’s begin with the statistics and hopefully follow that with some erudite comments:

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Amed Rosario if	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000
DJ LeMahieu 2b/3b	6	16	3	7	0	0	0	1	2	6	0	.467	.529	.467	.996
Ryan McMahon 3b	6	20	2	8	2	0	0	4	4	8	0	.400	.520	.500	1.020
Cody Bellinger of/dh	24	99	21	32	5	2	8	20	4	8	1	.323	.350	.657	1.007
Aaron Judge rf/dh	19	66	17	19	5	0	7	18	15	23	0	.288	.407	.682	1.089
Giancarlo Stanton dh	21	74	14	21	2	0	8	20	6	27	0	.284	.346	.635	.981
Paul Goldschmidt 1b	21	75	10	21	9	0	0	6	3	17	0	.280	.308	.400	.708
Jasson Dominguez lf	20	81	12	22	3	1	3	9	5	20	4	.272	.322	.444	.766
Trent Grisham cf	20	64	9	16	2	0	3	8	10	11	0	.250	.360	.422	.782
Jazz Chisholm 2b/3b	24	89	13	22	3	0	4	13	12	26	4	.247	.343	.416	.759
Ben Rice 1b/c/dh	19	56	11	13	5	0	2	6	9	9	0	.232	.338	.429	.767
Austin Wells c	18	59	8	12	2	0	4	11	5	13	2	.203	.258	.441	.669
Jorbit Vivas 3b	7	11	0	2	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	.182	.308	.182	.480
Anthony Volpe ss	25	93	13	16	1	0	7	14	2	18	3	.172	.196	.409	.605
Oswald Peraza 3b	18	37	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	11	2	.135	.135	.135	.270
J.C. Escarra c	6	15	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	4	0	.067	.125	.067	.192
Austin Slater of	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

Catchers

Last month, we talked a lot about the lack of offensive production from the catcher position. The problem has not seen much improvement.

In June, Austin Wells hit .224 in 67 at bats. Ben Rice hit .181 in 72 at bats (only a percentage of these were as catcher). J.C Escarra hit .222 in 18 at bats.

In July, Wells batting average, during the month, fell to .203 in 59 at bats. Rice’s average over the 31 days headed upwards to .232. This was better but still not great. He was now more and more the second choice catcher. Escarra hit ony .067. By the 30th of July as the deadline approached, Escarra was demoted to Triple-A Scranton and it seems his fairytale is over.

Over the month, Ben Rice hit 7 extra base hits compared to Wells’ 6. The possibility of an stronger batting catcher, which the team definitely needs, seems more likely to be found in Rice. I still have my worries about his defensive abilities, but having reassigned Escarra and seemingly not considered signing somebody for this role before the deadline, the Yankees are locked into this approach until 2026, unless an injury changes things.

Infielders

Last month, we spent sometime discussing the fact that the Yankees were considering moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. back to a permanent role at second base and didn’t feel that DJ LeMahieu had the range to play third base these days. That situation has now evolved and become a reality with the Yankees designating LeMahieu on July 9th and then releasing him outright on the 10th. This was despite LeMahieu appearing in 6 of the first 8 games of July and hitting .467 as well as being walked twice. Meanwhile, Chisholm, who had a very strong month in June, saw his July batting average nosedive to .247. He was still hitting with power but the combination of Chisholm and Volpe was making a lot of errors.

Anthony Volpe has been taking a lot of flak from the New York tabloids and Yankee fans on the internet. And the louder they shout the worse the problem becomes. His number of fielding errors has skyrocketed in recent weeks and his batting average has gone in the opposite direction as he hit only .172 in July. Fortunately, he is hitting more home runs (7 in July), but there is little else to commend him for at this stage.

At first base, Paul Goldschmidt who had a miserable month in June, got back into his stride in July. He hit .280 with 9 doubles, which with Rice spending more time behind the plate is an improvement which has come just at the right time.

Last month, we said that the Yankees really didn’t seem to have a plan at third base. They had clearly decided they didn’t want Chisholm there on a regular basis, and that LeMahieu didn’t have the tools to handle the position anymore. Well, this month, they showed that they did have a plan. The plan wasn’t satisfactory but it was what they had decided upon. First, they would scrabble through most of the month using Jorbit Vivas (hitting .182 in July), Oswald Peraza (.135 on the month) and a combination of the players already mentioned. Then on July 25th, they signed Ryan McMahon (batting .400 after that date) from the worst team in baseball the Colorado Rockies. McMahon must have been dying to move to a contender. In exchange, the Yankees gave up prospects RHP Josh Grosz and LHP Griffin Herring. The Yankees had got a useful third baseman and the prospects they had given up were not at the top of their list.

The next offensive switch was to bring in utility player, Amed Rosario from the Washington Nationals. Rosario only had one at bat before the end of the month, so it is too small to tell us much of anything at all, but it went for a single so what’s not to like. Going in the other direction was Clayton Beeter who has spent some time in the majors with the Yankees (4.91 ERA across 3 games in 2024, and 14.73 ERA over 2 games in 2025). There is the possibility that Washington might make something of him. Also heading to Washington OF Browm Martinez who is another young prospect, but the Yankees are knee deep in outfield prospects and he would have been at the back of a long line if he had stayed.

Next in was Jose Caballero from the Rays who didn’t play for the Yankees before the end of July and indeed was traded halfway through a game which the Yankees were playing at the end of the month against those self-same Tampa Bay Rays. The Tampa Bay front office were willing to give him up in exchange for another outfielder, Everson Pereira. Caballero has greater versatility, can play both infield and outfield, and is very fast on the bases. Pereira was another prospect stuck in a line and didn’t look likely to get out of Scranton this year.

Within all this activity, the Yankees gave up third base man Peraza in exchange for Wilberson De Pena of the Los Angeles Angels and cash considerations. Given that the Angels wanted Peraza despite his huge struggles at the plate, this was a much more obvious move for the Yankees than for the Angels. De Pena has joined the Yankees team in the Dominican Summer League (DSL).

Outfielders

As well as the aforementioned Jose Caballero, another outfielder joined the Yankees at the deadline. This was Austin Slater of the Chicago White Sox – another losing team. The reason for the necessity of addressing short term outfield issues was an injury to the captain, Aaron Judge who landed on the injured list on the 27th of July (retroactive to the 26th) with a right flexor strain. The word is that Judge will be able to return to DH before he can throw from the outfield. Slater went 0-for-4 on his New York debut with 2 strikeouts but one RBI. Again, it is way too early to read anything into this. Traded from New York was right handed pitcher Gage Ziehl.

And the regular outfielders? Well, the pick of the bunch is Cody Bellinger, who started the season slowly but has really picked up. He hit 15 extra base hits in July and led the team in triples and homers. His .323 batting average was exemplary. He doesn’t strike out much (only 8 times in 99 at bats). Simply excellent.

Jasson Dominguez who hit .279 in June, stayed in the same neighbourhood with .272 in July. This month though, he produced more power with 7 extra base hits compared to only 3 in June.

Trent Grisham hit .250 with 5 extra base hits and his strongest suit continues to be his defensive work in centerfield.

The bad news, as previously alluded to, was the injury to Aaron Judge. His batting average has been in decline and too often he strikes out swinging, but some Judge is better than no Judge at all and Slater cannot fill that slot with any equality.

Designated Hitters.

The likelihood is that, in the short term, when Judge returns is that he will be playing at designated hitter. This once again gives the Yankees a surplus, because for obvious reasons, Giancarlo Stanton currently occupies that role and he has been getting into his stride.

in July, he played in 21 games and tied Bellinger with 8 home runs. Whether this makes Stanton a pinch hitter when Judge returns or whether they run the risk of him picking up an injury by playing him in the outfield remains to be seen. Difficult choices ahead.