Yankees GM Brian Cashman is usually more of a midseason augmenter than someone who goes to the top of the market.
They are in on Cincinnati ace Luis Castillo.
They have not won a championship since 2009, which in Yankee years feels as long ago as, say, 1986. The Yankees would have to epically crumble to not win just their second division title in a decade.
His presence in full would go a long way to fortify the Mets to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and win the NL East for the first time since 2015. His disappearance last July coincided with the Mets’ collapse. What the Mets can hope is that deGrom is present for those contests, which begin with three games next week in Washington. They also will inquire on Juan Soto, but perhaps the best outcome for them is that Soto will be gone for Washington’s final nine games against the Mets, since the Nationals have enough inspired suitors to shun trading him within the division. 231 batting average against and a 24.4 strikeout percentage. 181 batting average against and 51 percent strikeout rate and the Met bullpen has a 3.79 ERA. They still are looking for another bat and a reliever or two. The Mets already have begun by acquiring Daniel Vogelbach to try to address a lack of power, in general, and a woeful designated-hitter situation in specific. And they are just the kind of organizations - with now this 60 percent of seasonal information - to see themselves as heavyweights and go diligently after upgrades.
The New York clubs will face each other at Citi Field a week from the trade deadline and with both teams feeling the urgency to mend or upgrade or just motivate the current team with action. Is that just a normal downturn even in a special season? Or is it more than that? Is it possible that the best the New York teams are going to play this year already occurred in the first half? Are the Mets at the brink of reenacting the second-half swoon that opened the door last year to the Braves winning the NL East and a World Series? Are the Yankees once more staring at being very good, but not great enough to even represent the AL in a Fall Classic? Aaron Judge APĪnd yet what is that gnawing feeling? Both teams are wobbling right now. The Subway Series that begins Tuesday does not have to be oversold as a potential World Series preview. Baseball Prospectus has the Yankees second and the Mets fourth. Fangraphs has the Mets third and the Yankees fifth. Projection systems now have nearly 60 percent of a season worth of information and, just a sampling: Baseball Reference has the Yankees as the championship favorites and the Mets fourth. It is no longer a theory that they can win a championship. They have changed the calculus of possibilities. Yet perspective is difficult, in part because the New York clubs, by their play, have raised expectations. The Yankees and Mets arrive with two of the four best records in the majors and two of the better cases for a championship parade. Would it be better than the Mets, knowing they were going to be without Jacob deGrom for at least two months, sporting the second-best record in the National League and, to date, holding off the defending-champion Braves in the NL East? Would it be better than reality? Would it be better than the Yankees sporting the American League’s best record and doing a Secretariat at The Belmont against what was expected to be the majors’ best division? Imagine being tasked at that moment with establishing the best-case scenarios for the New York teams entering their first Subway Series meeting on July 26. Let’s transport to April 7, before the first pitch of this season was thrown.
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