The dust has settled in the wake of the 2023 MLB trade deadline, and few teams — if any — came away from the midsummer roster shuffle with a more disappointing haul than the Yankees.
New York went into the deadline needing to establish an identity for its team. The Yankees could either be buyers and aggressively work to upgrade what had been a lackluster big-league squad or sell off their expiring contracts in the hopes of retooling in 2024.
Instead, the Yankees remained completely inactive until the final minutes of the deadline. At that point, they acquired middle reliever Kenyan Middleton from the White Sox for minor-league pitcher Juan Carela and sent cash to the Rangers for starter Spencer Howard, who has a career ERA of 7.20.
MORE: Full list of every deal complete from 2023 MLB trade deadline day
All told, it was an uninspiring deadline for the Yankees. But general manager Brian Cashman still assured fans the team is "in it to win it" in 2023 despite staying the course.
"Obviously, we've got Nestor [Cortes] coming back as well as [Jonathan] Loaisiga soon, and we know that we have better baseball in us," Cashman told reporters. "We haven't shown that and proven that. But we've got two more months to show that now."
The Yankees need to do it quickly. While they do have a winning record at 55-51, that still put them last place in the difficult AL East entering Tuesday. They were 10 games back of the Orioles in the division race and 3.5 games back of the Blue Jays in the wild-card race.
With that in mind, Cashman admitted that the Yankees were hoping to be more aggressive in pursuing roster upgrades. The deals for which they were searching just never materialized.
"We were aggressively trying to do more and be open-minded to a lot of things coming our way, but when the dust settled, we stayed the course with what we had," Cashman explained. "We felt that given the options that were available coming our way, or the options that we were unable to secure, this was the best play for us with the team we had."
Cashman did express optimism in Middleton's ability to "reinforce the bullpen." He also acknowledged that Howard would provide them with depth and innings if needed.
MORE: Grading every MLB trade deadline deal
But more importantly, he believes that his team is going to play better than they have over the first few months of the season. Why? Because they have a veteran-laden squad and their slumping offensive players — namely Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu — have a lot of experience under their belts.
"They're professionals," Cashman said when asked about the trio. "They're obviously extremely talented. Hopefully, they're saving the best baseball for the last two months."
So, while Cashman knows that fans are unhappy with the team's decision-making, he is still keeping the faith that his team can turn it around in the final months of the season.
"We've got a shot, still," he said. "Stay tuned. We'll see if we turn those jeers into cheers."
