SNY’s Andy Martino will be responding to and breaking down answers to Yankees questions from readers. Here’s the latest…
Do you think the Yankees make a big splash before the trade deadline considering all the injuries and sluggish play? — @ny_breadman
Yankees people won’t say it explicitly, but it’s been clear since the beginning of the offseason that ownership has, at minimum, a very strong disinclination to exceed the $210 million luxury tax threshold this year.
The Yanks are currently about $4 million under the line. They have not been especially active in trade talks lately, despite dealing with injuries and underperformance.
That leads us to believe that a “big splash” trade that would require the team to add more than $4 million is unlikely.
There’s another type of splash, of course – the one that the Boston Red Sox made en route to a championship in 2004. Looking to tweak their culture, the Sox traded longtime fixture Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs.
We’re not the first to suggest that the current Yankees’ core seems a bit stale. Problem is, who do you actually trade? Aaron Judge is one of the best players in baseball, and the team would be lost without him. Gary Sanchez could be a candidate, but he is heating up. How much value does he have, anyway? Gleyber Torres might be intriguing to dangle, just to see what he’d bring back.
Really, though, it hasn’t been characteristic of the Yanks’ current front office to make drastic changes.
The Yankees haven’t set their trade deadline strategy yet, but all of this suggests that you should not necessarily hold your breath for splashy.