All is not well with the New York Yankees, and especially not since they lost American League MVP Aaron Judge to the injured list with a sprained toe.
In the 15 games that the 31-year-old has been out of the lineup, the Yankees have gone 6-9 to fall 9.5 games out of first place in an AL East division where all five teams hold a winning record.
If Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner had his way, everyone would practice patience while the team does its best to weather the storm.
He told The Michael Kay Show on ESPN 98.7 FM:
"I want to know what the vibe is out there, and I understand they're upset. I'm a little confused this year, being the third week in June, why they're so upset. But they're upset, and that's going to get my attention, of course. Everybody just needs to know that we're working hard on all fronts to get this back on the rails and start playing the way we were for a couple of weeks there in May."
Yet urgency should be the name of the game. Though FanGraphs still gives the Yankees a 61.5 percent chance of making the playoffs, it also gives them just an 8.7 percent chance of returning to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
Fortunately for them, each day that passes brings Major League Baseball closer to its Aug. 1 trade deadline. So, let's go shopping on the Yankees' behalf.
What Do the Yankees Need?
Help at third base, for starters.
It has never been clearer than right now just how much the Yankees offense relies on Judge.
Even though the 6'7", 282-pound slugger played in the club's first two games of the month, Yankees hitters have batted just .193 as a team. That's the second-lowest monthly mark in the team's history.
Going off wins above replacement, third base and left field are the two positions the Yankees need to upgrade the most. And despite Steinbrenner's insistence to the contrary, Anthony Volpe's .637 OPS and erratic defense ought to have the team thinking about demoting him in favor of a short-term upgrade at shortstop.
The starting rotation is also crying out for help. Yankees starters not named Gerrit Cole who've made at least five starts have a combined 5.09 ERA. Even if Carlos Rodón does make it back from elbow and back injuries, there will still be room for one more reliable starter.
It'll take more than mere Band-Aids to patch up wounds like these, so the five trades we're about to pitch are all of the impact variety. We even ranked them as such, with the least impactful deal on the bottom and the most impactful deal at the top.
And with prospect rankings from MLB.com and validations from Baseball Trade Values, we've done our best to make fair proposals.