And With The First Game After The All Star Break The New York Yankees Are On The Clock

Okay now go read that title again but this time pretend I am saying it with my best Bud Selig at the MLB draft voice. Hopefully that didn't turn you off and make you stop reading, didn't think about that actually that sounding like Bud Selig may make readers click away. Anyway...

Tonight the New York Yankees start the second half of the baseball season and they are on the clock. Specifically the soon to be free agent General Manager of the Yankees, Brian Cashman, is on the clock. The next 68 games will tell a lot about what the Yankees will do this winter and whether Cashman will be the one doing them. These next 68 games will determine whether a lot of these current players will be on the squad as well.

The Yankees have free agents at third base, Kelly Johnson, shortstop, Derek Jeter is retiring, second base, Brian Roberts, right field, Ichiro Suzuki, starting pitching, Hiroki Kuroda and Brandon McCarthy, and the bullpen, David Robertson, and conceivably none of them could be on the team next season. I don’t personally see the Yankees letting Mr. Robertson go because they don’t have the fiscal restraints that the team seemingly had in the 1996 season when the torch was passed to Mariano Rivera from John Wetteland but I’ve been wrong before.

If the Yankees are going to make a run at this a lot has to happen and a lot has to go right but the good news is this is a team that is beyond due for some good luck and fortune. Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, and company will really have to get it going on the offensive side. Cashman is going to have to find a way to piece together a rotation until Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda get back and at the very least try and replace Chase Whitley. We also need Shane Greene to keep pitching beyond his years and need him to keep pretending this is the playoffs for the Trenton Thunder circa 2013 all over again because Greene may be the piece that holds this season together.

If the Yankees are going to make a run they also need an injection of youth on the team. I’ve said it a million times and listed the names of prospects tearing up Triple-A pitching and made the argument that if worst came to worst they should be hitting .200 in the majors and not underperforming veterans. I’ll make the argument once again today but I will spare you the list of who’s in and who’s out and just plea with Cashman once again to make a move. It’s glaringly obvious that the moves need to be done and it’s glaringly obvious that there isn’t a messiah and a savior (that we have the pieces to obtain anyway) out there on the trade market.

The next 68 games are upon us and the Yankees are going to have to do it on their own. Can they do it? We’ll see because they are now officially on the clock.