Yankees Mailbag: Cashman’s direction and Sevy’s struggles

Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Keiter71 asks: What will Cashman do at the deadline? Try to fill a hole in left or third? Will he spin someone off pick up prospects? Do you trust him to make a move?

There’s no debate about the left field situation, in my opinion. The Yankees have done their best to salvage a terrible situation (that they put themselves in, to be fair) by having Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jake Bauers among others out there, but the cost in terms of defense has been monumental. A true outfielder is a necessary addition for this lineup, and finding one with a solid bat wouldn’t hurt to boost an offense that is stagnant more often than not. Third base is a harder situation to figure out, mostly because the Yankees themselves seem committed to riding out Donaldson’s last year on his contract, but they should probably reconsider that position.

As to whether I trust Cashman to make a move, I certainly trust that he’ll do something. No amount of talking up adding Carlos Rodón and Aaron Judge from the injured list will make up for the gap that they have between them and the top teams this year, and considering Judge’s timeline is still nonexistent they need more immediate help to hold off the field for the Wild Card. Do I trust him to make the right moves? That’s a bit murkier of a question — his overall track record on trades is relatively good, but Cashman has excelled more at under the radar deals of late and has fumbled the past few trade deadlines. I think he truly needs to pull out a win at this deadline, for the sake of the season and for himself personally.

BFear04 asks: With free agency looming, do you think we ought to trade Sevy as I don’t see him in pinstripes next year. Also do you think we’d get much if we traded Torres as well?

So we talked about Severino and his uncertain future a few weeks ago in the mailbag, and in the time since his situation has only become more worrisome. As it stands, I don’t see a world where the Yankees can keep running Severino out every five days for long — be it an IL stint or a demotion, he’s playing his way out of the rotation. Unfortunately, it’s such a nosedive that, combined with the extensive injury history, I don’t know which team would want to gamble on acquiring him either. It’s a no-win situation burdening one of my favorite Yankees of this Baby Bomber era, and it’s a shame to see this kind of a collapse from Severino.

Also, we’re not trading Torres folks. It just isn’t happening.

TripleFFF asks: Hamilton returned to the bullpen last week. Rodón is expected back in the rotation on Thursday, hopefully Cortes isn’t far behind. With all that, how do you see the pitching staff shaping up in the upcoming weeks? Name your 5 starters and 8 relievers ... (assuming there are no other injuries of course...)

The pitching staff at full strength currently should feature a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Rodón, Domingo Germán, Clarke Schmidt, and Nestor Cortes. Severino either is shelved for a few weeks to rest up or works things out in the minors, and the core relievers Clay Holmes, Michael King, Tommy Kahnle, Wandy Peralta, Ron Marinaccio are all guaranteed to be in. Ian Hamilton and Nick Ramirez are also here to stay, leaving one spot left to go to either Albert Abreu or a spot starter/long man like Randy Vásquez or Jhony Brito. I’d give the upper hand to Abreu since he’s stayed on the roster throughout, even if he’s mostly tasked with mop-up duty, with Vásquez up first from the minors in case he’s needed.