Yankees betting that they have what they need in-house may be their riskiest yet

The Yankees began this trade deadline season with several glaring needs. By 6:01 p.m. Monday, a team with World Series aspirations and the rare starting rotation good enough to realize them had not made trades that met – well, most of those needs.

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But late Monday night, when the deadline was long gone, the Yankees made what might end up being the most consequential move of this season and those to come, sending down shortstop Anthony Volpein a move that will clear the way for top prospect and shortstop George Lombard Jr. to be called up Tuesday.

His arrival is as important as it is symbolic: After an uninspiring deadline showing in which they refused to join their division rivals in unloading handfuls of prospects for upgrades, the Yankees are betting the upgrades they need will be coming from within.

“And as we move forward in this, we do think we have the players – not just on the infield side, but overall – that can compete for a championship,”Brian Cashmansaid. For a team that once looked like the best one he and manager Aaron Boone have had in their shared tenure before injuries and a summer swoon raised doubts, the stakes around that bet are as high as baseball stakes can be.

The Yankees needed a catcher. Cashman all but admitted that earlier this summer as his compiled a league-worst .515 OPS through the first half of the season. But despite talks with several teams about those options – including with the Orioles about Adley Rutschman before the Red Sox made an offer Baltimore couldn’t refuse – they did not add one.

“We do believe that we have quality catching, but obviously the offensive side, which has been a struggle for our team overall, made us certainly shop in that aisle. It was a thin market of opportunity,” Cashman said Monday night, hours before Austin Wells went 2-for-4 with a homer. “…At the end of the day, there was no opportunity that existed for us that we felt good enough about to push on.”

Wells, once an offense-first catcher whose sudden decline at the plate early this year qualified as stunning, has a .973 OPS since July 8. Maybe he has recovered.

Even with a league-best bullpen, they needed a reliever or two – in part because so many pieces of that bullpen are unproven in October, in part because they treated the relievers they did have as if they were going to upgrade. In the 72 hours leading up to the deadline, they traded away Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird, and Camilo Doval in a three-day sale that suggested they might be replacing them Monday. Even as the Red Sox and Rays added relievers, the Yankees did not reach for one.

Still, David Bednar has been sturdy, Brent Headrick has been a revelation, and flame-throwing prospect Carlos LaGrange is on his way back from a shoulder injury. Toss Ryan Weathers in there for the playoffs and let his electric left-handed stuff play up in short spurts? Maybe the Yankees have enough.

They also needed a productive offensive infielder, one who could play second, third, and maybe even shortstop, since Ryan McMahon and Volpe have struggled offensively and Jazz Chisholm Jr. is having a down year. That infielder could play anywhere, really, just not first base, where they are already covered to the point of saturation with Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt. They traded for Luis Garcia Jr., who has played mostly first base for a few years now because his defense elsewhere in the infield was too inconsistent to stick.

“I don’t think there was a lot of opportunities that existed that were upgrades for us. We like the players we have and we like the players we have on the come,” Cashman said. “…There was nothing we were able to find there. It was gonna be a high bar. And as we move forward in this, we do think we have the players – not just on the infield side, but overall – that can compete for a championship.”

Garcia could play second base, maybe even third base if they need him too. And he showed off the easy, Cano-esque swing that could make him a perfect offensive fit at Yankee Stadium with a go-ahead homer Monday night. By the numbers, Garcia was the best hitter traded at this year’s deadline, so he will help wherever he plays. Plus, Lombard need not be an immediate superstar to provide an upgrade at shortstop. If he plays the consistent defense for which he is known and is not totally overmatched, he will help. In a fully healthy Yankees lineup, he need not do much more than provide competitive at-bats.

But this Yankees lineup, which is currently without Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger, is not fully healthy – and that created a need for a right-handed hitter that Cashman did meet Monday.

Mar 27, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos (center) gestures after hitting a double against the New York Yankees during the second inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

They traded for Heliot Ramos, the former top Giants prospect who is a right-handed hitting outfielder with a .736 OPS but an .835 mark against lefties this year. He is under control for a few more years. He is a better right-handed hitter than the one the Yankees were using in the outfield, still-evolving, switch-hitting Jasson Dominguez. But he has not yet been a lineup-changing force in his career.

The lineup-changing right-handed force the Yankees need, of course, is Judge. But he is still shut down from baseball activities with the somewhat mysterious stress fracture in his rib that has kept him out since the end of May. Judge and the Yankees have been adamant that they expect him back this season, but Cashman admitted Monday there is no timeline even for re-imaging the area – which means there is certainly no timeline for a return to baseball activities, which means there is reason to wonder if he will be able to return this year at all.

“That’s a fair question on anybody’s side. Is that possible? It’s always possible that things don’t go the way you want,” Cashman said Monday.

“I can’t rule out any of it. I can only follow the guidelines so far, the timeline, time frame – a high likelihood and optimism that he fits that time frame to get back and join us,” he added. “That’s what I’m hoping for and holding on to. That’s what he believes, and that’s what the doctors believe.”

And that – a return to full health for Judge and the rest of the Yankees lineup – is what Cashman and this organization are betting on now. They are betting they have what they need in-house, betting that those players they need will be healthy, betting… well, betting that not adding major star power at the deadline won’t leave them without it in October.

Their in-division competition got better. Their championship competition, the Los Angeles Dodgers, added Tarik Skubal. With some aging clubhouse anchors and a championship rotation healthy now, this might be Cashman and the Yankees’ riskiest bet yet. That doesn’t mean they can’t win it.

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