The Yankees with a July record of 14-11 remained in second place in the American League East. They started the month two and a half games behind Tampa Bay. They ended the month two and a half games behind Tampa Bay. However, the Boston Red Sox were now casting a worrying shadow behind them – as Boston produced a 21-4 record in this seventh month of the year.

The Yankees were dependent on a strong month from their relief pitchers in order to power their month. But, as is our way, let’s begin looking how some of the batters helped out, even if others rather under-performed.

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Spencer Jones of	8	18	2	5	0	0	2	5	3	5	2	.278	.381	.611	.992
Ben Rice 1b/dh	25	96	13	26	4	1	8	19	13	29	0	.271	.364	.583	.947
Cody Bellinger lf	19	72	6	19	5	0	0	4	6	21	0	.261	.321	.333	.654
Anthony Volpe ss	18	50	2	12	3	0	0	6	4	15	0	.240	.291	.300	.591
Jasson Dominguez of	25	98	13	23	4	0	3	5	5	20	3	.235	.279	.367	.646
Jazz Chisholm jr 2b	21	77	11	18	4	0	4	12	6	32	6	.234	.286	.442	.728
Ali Sanchez c	15	27	3	6	0	0	1	4	0	6	0	.222	.241	.333	.574
Jose Caballero ss/3b/of	21	68	4	15	2	0	2	9	2	20	6	.221	.239	,338	.577
Max Schuemann of/if	14	32	5	7	2	0	1	4	3	8	1	.219	.306	.375	.681
Ryan McMahon 3b	21	51	6	10	6	0	1	3	3	17	0	.196	.268	.373	.641
Austin Wells c	20	48	6	9	1	0	3	4	6	14	0	.188	.291	.396	.687
Amed Rosario if	17	35	4	6	1	0	2	2	1	18	0	.171	.194	.371	.565
Paul Goldschmidt 1b/dh	21	76	6	13	1	0	2	3	6	28	0	.171	.232	.263	.495
Trent Grisham cf	24	85	12	14	3	0	3	7	9	16	1	.165	.242	.306	.548
Oswaldo Cabrera if	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

Catchers

The Yankees have made acquiring a new catcher at the trade deadline a clear priority with both Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone emphasising this need. Whether they will achieve this is unclear – time is growing short. In the meantime, Ali Sanchez has replaced J.C. Escarra on the majors roster. Escarra is now playing both in the catcher and designated roles at Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Railriders and his future is unclear. Of the two in the majors, neither is setting the world alight offensively but Sanchez has a clear advantage in the batting average column but Austin Wells is the better defensively. Let’s face it, the Yankees in 2026 have been a mess in the catcher’s role and unless they can bring in a big name, there is not much reason for optimism byond today.

Infielders

Ben Rice (.195/6 home runs in June) made a monthly performance in July which offensively was much improved (.271/8 homers). This was much closer to what we had come to expect of him in the earlier months of the season. This is something to be grateful for as Paul Goldschmidt simultaneously fell from a monthly batting average of .297 (June) to .171 (July). In June, Goldschmidt had been second in batting average behind Trent Grisham, who had spent most of that month injured. Now Grisham was one of the few who produced a lower monthly batting average than Goldschmidt.

At second base, Jazz Chisholm Jr (who after all is his own best publicist), needs to let his bat do more of the talking. However, he continues to struggle even as he talks a good game. He hit .234 with 8 extra base hits (4 doubles, 4 home runs) this month.

Second base, third base and shortstop are all positions where the Yankees could use an upgrade. Anthony Volpe ranked 4th among the batting averages this season, but this is only because the batting was so poor overall. He produced only 3 extra base hits and had no homers this month and his defensive work continues to be sub-standard. Third baseman Ryan McMahon batted only .196 and had 17 strikeouts compared to only 3 walks on the month.

The players on the bench are not reall adding strength either. Their virtue is that each can play more than one defensive position but their performances offensively are fading. it is difficult to identify who is contributing most or least. One is Jose Caballero. He leads this group in batting average this month with .221 but because he has only 4 extra base hits, he is unlikely to make the transition to being an everyday player.

Amed Rosario and Max Schuemann (.191 and .217 BA respectively this month) are beginning to look like their time in the majors may be short with one or the other perhaps likely to disappear from the roster if new faces are brought in.

Feeblest of all this month was Oswaldo Cabrera who took much longer than the Yankees had hoped to return from his ankle injury and then coming back in late June and staying around for a few at-bats in July failed to gather any hits at all.

Outfielders

If the Yankees’ infield was relatively easy to predict as a offensive weakness this season, then those flaws were expected to be overcome by particular strengths in the outfield, starting rotation and the relief corps. The starters and relievers have been uneven in performance as time as moved along but it is injuries that have undone their perhaps stongest expected strength – the outfield. The every day line up there was expected to be Cody Bellinger (leftfield), Trent Grisham (centerfield) and Aaron Judge (righfield). Judge went on the injured list (IL) in early June and I would not be surprised if he did not make it back this season. Less than two weeks later, Grisham joined him on the IL. He has had a very uneven season and he has really struggled in July. Bellinger also injured himself, heading to that list with a left hamstring strain on July 26th. I don’t expect to see come back until September.

So, then where do the Yankees go? Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez have had to bear more than their expected weight with Bellinger and then Grisham making up the numbers with one of the aforementioned bench players giving the Yankees options. Bellinger and Jones have done well but neither have contributed as much power as you might expect. Dominguez is also high on the table at the head of this article, but if you look more closely at his particulars, his .235 batting average this month is something he must improve upon. Jones has hit .278 and Bellinger’s .261 is marred by too much impatience at the plate.

Designated Hitters

Again, no return for the injured Giancarlo Stanton which means that Rice and the struggling Goldschmidt are most often seen in this role or alternatively the players who would be no more than bench-warmers, if Stanton was around.