Caught between buying or selling, Yankees stay mostly quiet at MLB trade deadline

NEW YORK – A virtually empty Yankees trade deadline period ended Tuesday with general manager Brian Cashman neither adding anything significant to his struggling club, nor subtracting from it.

That left a largely veteran, underachieving group to find its way out of last place and into October.

"Hopefully saving their best baseball for the last two months,'' Cashman said flatly in a Yankee Stadium conference room, while the Yankees went through another listless performance on the field.

"Fire Cashman!'' chants could be heard from the dwindling crowd in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, dropping the Yankees to 11 games behind the first place Baltimore Orioles.

Because of a botched two-out fly ball in the ninth, the Yankees managed to score twice and send the tying run to the plate, whereupon pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton struck out.

In another quiet Yankees clubhouse, Aaron Judge didn't attach any deeper meaning to management's inaction while division foes Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto made significant improvements via trades.

"It’s tough to look at the standings and see where we’re at, what other teams are doing, but we’ve got to stay focused on us,'' said the Yankees captain.

"We’ve got plenty of stuff we need to work on here. We’ve got to execute our plan, we’ve got to prepare better, we’ve got to make adjustments.’’

Brian Cashman: We're in it to win it

As the baseball world percolated with trade activity again Tuesday, the Yankees remained silent until nearly the last minute.

Just before MLB's 6 p.m. deadline, the Yankees obtained reliever Keynan Middleton from the Chicago White Sox and minor league right-hander Spencer Howard from the Texas Rangers.

Seeking upgrades in the outfield, the bullpen and at catcher, the Yankees were willing to move big league talent or prospects and take on salary in the right deal.

However, Cashman described the Yankees as "cautious buyers'' once they stumbled out of the second half gate.

Ultimately, “there wasn’t a big thing to add…that was going to solve the immediate problems that we have,’’ said Cashman, choosing to keep players on expiring contracts such as Harrison Bader, Wandy Peralta and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

“In terms of trying to pry that away from us, I’d rather just keep it and take a shot.’’

That meant passing on rentals such as Mets outfielder Tommy Pham, or players with years of control, such as Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson.

When the Cubs chose to hold onto lefty-hitting Cody Bellinger, a potential free agent after this season with a swing built for Yankee Stadium, the Yanks most realistic opportunity to make a deadline splash seemed extinguished.

Similar to Judge's take, Carlos Rodon said they had the present cast to turn things around.

"It is what it is, what we've got is what we've got,'' said Rodon, who yielded four runs in four innings Tuesday, pushing his ERA to 6.29 after five starts.

Aaron Boone: "We've got to find it from within''

With a record of 55-52, and 3.5 games out of a wild card spot, "We are definitely not playing very good baseball,'' said Rodon. "We're going to have to scratch our way out of it.''

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About two hours before the deadline, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the team was still in position to go in any direction and wasn't sure what to expect.

Afterward, Boone struck a familiar chord.

"It's on us. It’s on the people in that room,'' said Boone. "I know it’s bad right now, we understand that, but we’ve got to find it from within now.''

Aaron Judge: ''We've got to make adjustments''

As reinforcements, the Yanks should get Nestor Cortes (shoulder) back in their rotation and Jonathan Loaisiga (elbow) in their bullpen in the coming days. Judge returned to the lineup last weekend, but his injured right big toe requires constant maintenance and occasional rest.

Earlier Tuesday, Kiner-Falefa said, “we really haven’t helped our case’’ for management to seek big pieces to improve their postseason chances.

“Whatever they do, that’s on us.’’

It was a different story last year, when the Yankees swung five trades around the deadline, nearly all of which soon collapsed on them due to injuries to Frankie Montas, Lou Trivino, Andrew Benintendi and Scott Effross.

Bader was on the IL when he arrived from St. Louis and has made two IL trips since.

This time, "we didn’t probably make a lot of moves that people thought we would, but...we’ve got to step up and do our job,'' said Judge.

"Comes down to us. We’ve got to pick it up as individuals.''

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yankees trade deadline quiet amid limbo in AL standings