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This is exactly how Bud Selig and Major League Baseball drew it up three years ago.

With the second wild-card spot, the number of viable postseason competitors increases and more teams remain in the hunt for longer. As the summer concludes and October quickly approaches, the drama spikes.

Each team now has 30 games or fewer to do one of a few things: catch their respective division leader and avoid the play-in game, hang on to their wild-card hold or chase down that second and final spot.

In each American League division, less than 10 games separate the top three teams; in the Central and West, two games or less separate the second-place team from the first; in the race for the second wild-card spot alone, six teams are realistically within striking distance at eight games or less.

With the likes of the Angels and Athletics nearly certain to grab the AL West crown and first wild-card spot—barring a Toronto-like meltdown over the next few weeks—we’re left with a few burning questions: Is this just a two-horse race for the second spot between the Mariners and Tigers? Can the Indians and Blue Jays, both hanging around, make a run in September? And are we buying or selling the Yankees?

Based on recent performance, statistical trends and strength of the remaining schedules, we’ll break down the current wild-card competitors and get into handicapping this exciting—or stressful, depending who you are—final month of baseball. 

Secured of a Spot?

*Inflated odds for Athletics reflect likelihood of winning either AL West OR one of two wild-card spots.

Athletics: 1-14

The next three days may dictate the most where the Athletics’ odds shift for the final month, though they currently sit on the largest cushion of any team in the wild-card race. They’re not a lock to make the postseason, but the odds are in their favor with three conceivable routes in—steal the division, secure the first spot, hang on to the second, at worst.

(FanGraphs, for instance, while setting Detroit’s postseason odds at 73.8 percent, places Oakland’s at 99.4.)

On Thursday, Oakland dropped the first of a four-game set in Anaheim against the division-leading Angels, who are now two games up after walking off in the 10th. But as it stands entering Friday, the A’s still remain more than five games up on Detroit in the first wild-card spot.

Perhaps surprisingly for some, it won’t be Oakland’s pitching that gets it into October—or that even keeps it there. The story on the A’s typically highlights the rotation—especially after Billy Beane came away with Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester prior to the trade deadline. But outside of the third-lowest ERA in the AL this season, Oakland starters haven’t been remarkable.

In the AL, the A’s have just the sixth-best BB/9, seventh-best K/9 and FIP, 10th HR/9 and 13th WAR. Since the All-Star break, they’ve actually ranked worse in all the same categories, with only the Red Sox compiling a lower WAR.

The Oakland offense, on the other hand, trails only the Angels among AL teams in WAR, is second only to the Tigers in OBP, third in wRC+, fourth in wOBA and ISO and sixth in slugging. Only one AL team (Yankees) has a lower SwStr (swinging strike) percentage, and a few batted-ball metrics tell us another interesting facet of this Beane-constructed offense: The A’s keep the ball off the ground; they have the lowest ground-ball rate and ground-ball per fly-ball rate in the AL—and the margin is significant.

But do the A’s have enough firepower without Yoenis Cespedes? In the month of August (his last game for the A’s was July 30), the A’s are still top six in the AL in HR, ISO and WAR. But here’s the sign the A’s could slip: This month, in which they’ve gone just 12-14, their average is an AL-worst .231 (.251 in the first half; .249 on the year), and their ranks of 10th and 11th in wOBA and slugging are significantly off the full season, over which they rank fourth and sixth in those categories.

If there’s one auspicious takeaway for Oakland this final month, it’s that it plays the greatest number of games against sub-.500 teams of any wild-card competitors; on the season, the A’s have beaten up on such teams. Only the Angels’ 46-14 record against sub-.500 clubs is better than Oakland’s 38-20.

Race for the Second Wild Card

*Odds reflect winning a wild-card spot.

Tigers: 3-2

The AL Central-leading Royals lost in the 10th Thursday night, meaning that the second-place Tigers are now just 1.5 games back and more than capable of stealing the division and avoiding the wild card altogether. They don’t get to face the Mariners again—they’re behind in head-to-head games at 2-4 against them on the year—though they have six remaining against Kansas City. 

When they visited Yankee Stadium for four games back on August 4, they marched out their marquee men—Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello—yet came away with just one victory. They exhaled and redeemed themselves this week, taking two of three from New York at home, capped off by a walk-off win Thursday.

The doubts of late, if any, center on the pitching staff. Anibal Sanchez has been on the disabled list since August 9 and is worried he may miss the rest of the season, per MLive’s James Schmehl (h/t CBSSports.com’s Dayn Perry). Since the All-Star break, Verlander’s spun his wheels at 3-3 with a 4.58, only totaling 35.1 innings, and Price has faltered around his eight-inning, one-hit performance in Tampa, going 1-2 with a 4.41; he was also roughed up on Wednesday.

As for Detroit’s struggles in the win column—going 14-16 in its last 30—its pitching can’t be solely to blame. Over that span, Tigers pitching has posted the sixth-highest WAR in the AL, per FanGraphs. And on the year, Tigers starters lead the AL in wins, WAR and fewest home runs per nine. They’re also second in FIP and walks per nine and eighth in ERA in 2014.

The offense has held up—if not excelled—all year: Among AL teams, Detroit is still first in average, OBP, slugging and wOBA and second in wRC+ and RBI.

It’s definitely not time to worry despite playing .500 ball at the moment, and the best news for the Tigers’ final push comes in the final seven days—should it come down to that. They play solely against sub.-500 clubs, with three against the White Sox (60-73) and four against the last-place Twins (59-74).

Mariners: 2-1

The Mariners haven’t reached the postseason since 2001, but they’re putting together a memorable season in 2014. After finishing 71-91 last season, Seattle sits at a cool 72-60, tied with Detroit in the win-loss column and ahead on head-to-head games for the final wild-card spot entering play Friday.

Of any of these wild-card contenders, the Mariners have been the hottest of late, winners of 19 of their last 30 and 14 of their last 20. For a reference point of Seattle’s tear, the ballclub was just three games over .500 on August 1.

Similarly to Detroit, Seattle’s pitching has been there all year long, leading the league in ERA and HR/9, second in WAR and FIP and fifth in K/9, BB/9 and wins. Mariners closer Fernando Rodney’s 38 saves are second in the AL only to the Royals’ Greg Holland, and Seattle relievers lead the AL in ERA, FIP and WAR.

If there’s any noticeable trend that might hurt them in the race with Detroit down the stretch, it’s a weaker offense. Obscuring that picture is their red-hot month of August, in which they’ve been fourth among AL teams in WAR, third in wRC+ and fourth in wOBA.

But even with second baseman Robinson Cano the third-most valuable player in the AL, via WAR, Seattle’s offense ranks just 10th of 15 AL teams in WAR, 13th in wRC+ and dead last in wOBA on the year.

It helps that 10 of their final games come against the last-place Rangers (52-81) and lowly Astros (57-78). In short, if the M’s can stay hot, nothing is secured for Detroit.

Yankees: 5-1

The Yankees could not be hotter and colder in 2014. They’re the living, breathing, baseball image of one step forward, two steps back.

Last week, New York dropped its first two against Houston before Shawn Kelley wore a horse’s head and the team went on a five-game winning streak, outscoring opponents 27-11. Heading into the most recent series in Detroit, the Yanks were seven games over .500 and just 2.5 games out of the second wild card. Then they promptly dropped two of three and, save for an outlandish eight-run inning against Price, saw their typical absence of offense.

They enter their final 30 games just three games back of Detroit and Seattle, but they still seem to be doing a little more sputtering than chasing (they also play 12 of those games against two teams you’d imagine would love nothing more than to spoil Derek Jeter’s final postseason chase—the Red Sox and Rays). Winning seven of their last 10 is great, but in reality they’ve been playing right around .500 ball in their last 30 (16-14). 

New York’s offense—middling all year—ranks in the bottom half of the AL in the month of August in WAR, wRC+, batting average and slugging. 

The positives if New York is to make this a three-team battle: Pitching has saved and bailed the Yankees out all year long. Without Ivan Nova, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and, until recently, Michael Pineda, the Yanks have hung around on the rebirths of starters like Brandon McCarthy and Chris Capuano—and on the plain births of others, such as that of rookie Shane Greene. Since the break, New York starters rank fourth in the AL in WAR and FIP, fifth in K/9 and first in BB/9. The other tremendous sign comes in the form of Pineda, who is back and looking sharp: 1-0 with a 2.08 in his first three starts since returning August 13.

This month, Yankee pitching is second in BB/9, third in K/9 and WAR and fourth in FIP. The better news: New York’s relief corps has been outstanding all year and should continue to factor in a huge way if the Yanks can turn the ball over with a lead (see: Adam Warren, Dellin Betances and David Robertson).

One final piece to consider—especially in the case that Detroit and Seattle begin to extend the distance in the second wild-card spot: Though Baltimore’s hold on the AL East lead has seemed all but cemented this summer and has been extended to seven games entering Friday, the Yankees still face the O’s eight more times. Anything’s possible in New York. 

Indians: 9-1

The Indians really turned things around this past month. Though on July 29, they were two games below .500, they enter the final weekend of August four games over .500 and four games back of the second wild-card spot.

They’ve excelled in two of the most vital statistical categories on the year: creating runs and getting on base. On the year, their 104 wRC+ is fifth in the AL, and their .318 wOBA is sixth.

The total offense, interestingly, is just 11th in the AL in WAR, eighth in average and seventh in OBP and slugging. But there are a few interesting metrics to consider for illustrating how Cleveland has remained afloat: It’s compiled the fifth-best walk rate in the AL to go along with the sixth-most stolen bases. And despite a low power output (seventh in HR, eighth in ISO), the Indians have the AL’s best line-drive rate and the third-best GB rate (A’s and Tigers).

If they’re going to make a run at Detroit and/or Seattle, their pitching will need to continue its recent run of excellence. This month, Indians pitching posted the AL’s best ERA and FIP, and only Rays pitching compiled a higher WAR or better K/9. Compare that with just the seventh-best ERA, third-best FIP and sixth-highest WAR for the full season.   

Helping the Indians’ cause: The majority of their final 30 games come against sub-.500 opponents, against whom they’re 37-26 this season. They’re also just four games back of the Tigers and 5.5 back of the Royals, and they begin their final stretch with three in Kansas City (6-7 against) and four hosting Detroit (7-5).

In other words, in the next week alone, they have the potential to both put themselves right in the hunt and take themselves right out of it.

Blue Jays: 15-1

Toronto chose the worst time to trend in the wrong direction, dropping 17 of its last 30 and 13 of its last 20. On July 1, the Blue Jays were seven games over .500 and one game clear of Baltimore in the AL East. As of Friday morning, they’re one game over .500 and 9.5 games back of first. They can still sniff a wild-card spot at just 5.5 games back with 29 games remaining—but just barely.

In baseball’s first half, they ranked among AL teams sixth, fourth and third in average, OBP and slugging, respectively. They led the league in home runs and ISO and were fourth in runs and RBI. Their .330 wOBA was third, their 107 wRC+ was fourth and they had the fifth-best walk rate.

This past month: Dead last in homers, runs, RBI, OBP, wOBA and wRC+; second-to-last in slugging and ISO; 11th of 15 teams in walk rate; 12th in slugging; and the only AL team with a negative WAR.

Toronto’s other issue—which separates it from the rest of the wild-card pack—is the lack of a helping hand from the pitching staff. In August, its starters are a meager 12th in the AL in WAR, ERA, FIP and HR/9; they’ve pitched the fewest innings of any team’s starters and have mustered just three wins.

The Blue Jays also see 17 games against teams over .500 of their 29 remaining; on the year, they’re just 33-38 against such ballclubs. If there’s a bright spot, it’s that they’re 29-25 against AL East opponents, whom they’ll finish up the year battling in 22 games. 

Statistics current through game action on August 28, 2014 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

Peter F. Richman is a Bleacher Report featured columnist and copy editor. Follow on Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman 

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The New York Yankees have had a long, strange trip through the 2014 season.

Think back to the All-Star break: Whichever metaphor you prefer—underwater, sinking, stuck in the mud—they had become a representation of the overspending, injured, mediocre ballclub in the 21st century. Having lost 10 of their final 16 heading into the break, they were eyeing baseball’s second half at 47-47 with just one of their five Opening Day starters remaining healthy—their 39-year-old, too. Pitching had never been the problem, either.

The front office appeared caught between haplessly believing in this 2014 team and more rationally becoming sellers given a lost cause. The non-waiver trade deadline came and went last Thursday, and the Yanks didn’t come away with their typical marquee haul of playoff-pushers. 

Seemingly, they hadn’t come away with enough to even keep their playoff hopes alive.

Oakland got Jon Lester. Detroit ended up with David Price. From the scrapheap of pitchers left to the team with few marketable assets, however, New York took a chance on Brandon McCarthy, 3-10 with a 5.01 ERA for Arizona, and then decided to save Chris Capuano from obscurity; he’d gone 1-1, made no starts and compiled a 4.55 in 31.2 innings before Boston had released him. 

Last week, we took a look at the Yankees’ truest saving grace this season: the pitching staff. For all the big-name winter signings, it has been—and continues to be, as we’ve seen this week—the underdog pitchers who have not only kept New York from falling completely out of the race, but have kept them in the hunt.

Because, just as forcefully, the offense has been the truest kryptonite of all.

Cashman and Co. dove into the cellar and grabbed Chase Headley, who had been batting .229 with seven home runs for lowly San Diego. Then their final two moves prompted the New York Post‘s Ken Davidoff to try to capture the feeling in a rather blunt headline the night of July 31: “Stephen Drew? Martin Prado? How Desperate are the Yankees?”

Two questions justifiably floated around: What was general manager Brian Cashman thinking? And why weren’t the Yankees more aggressive on the offensive front? But then the Yankees remained afloat.

They took two of three in Fenway this weekend while scoring 17 runs; however, they still had a long flight home for their four-game set with World Series-caliber Detroit and the potential to open the homestand by signifying the beginning of the end: the middling ballclub on unstable footing in a wildly knotted wild-card race and—at that point—looking at a five-game deficit in the AL East.

After all, the first three games would see New York face the previous three AL Cy Young winners, and in the fourth they’d take their hacks against a 13-game winner. 

But they remained afloat again. Detroit’s bruiser brigade of Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello stormed the Bronx, but the Yankees scratched out two wins from the initial three-game gauntlet before stealing the finale Thursday, 1-0, despite stranding 11 baserunners. 

Now, with a little over seven weeks separating the Yankees from October, they find themselves at 60-54, six games above .500 for just the third time this season; seven games up would be the season’s high-water mark.

They’ve won 13 of their last 20 since the break. They’re only a half-game back—one in the loss column—of the second wild-card spot. With a thinned-out, drastically different rotation, a gutted roster and all, here they are—right in the thick of the playoff race.

And there’s more than pure luck and league-wide feebleness behind New York’s sudden surge after the recent patchwork fixes on offense. It’s not that they’re suddenly pouring on the runs; but they seem to have found a groove where they’re hitting just enough to get by.

This week, we’ll examine some larger trends behind their offense—and success—since emerging from mid-July to, perhaps, find their niche as the pinstriped underdogs. 

The Story of the Offense

A simplistic approach might claim externalities are the root: That the division, and really the majority of the AL, has been playing just poorly enough for the Yankees to hang around. That, this week, Detroit’s offense—held to one run Monday and Wednesday and shut out Thursday—just didn’t show up. That the Yankees, previously slumping at the plate, have gotten hot. 

While there’s some validity to each of those points, let’s examine the Yankees more specifically.

Comparing the Numbers Pre– and Post-All-Star Break

First, take a look at the Yankees’ numbers in some major offensive categories after baseball’s first half. If the statistics alone don’t jump out at you, notice where they ranked among all 30 MLB teams in mid-July.

Perhaps the low marks in RBI and slugging aren’t shocking since the Yankees blatantly failed to hit the long ball and score runs in the first 94 games. But contemplate the historical context of their early-2014 struggles, held up to every Yankees’ first-half output since 1914:

To defend their first three-and-a-half months as a bit of bad luck and underperformance sorely misses that New York posted its 10th-worst OBP and 19th-lowest team average in the last 101 years.

In the 20 games since the break, the Yankees have gone 13-7. Eighteen of those have been decided by two runs or fewer, including a franchise-record 16 straight—the longest streak in MLB since 1975.

So the Yankees certainly have scraped by, but they’ve also noticeably improved, owning places in the top half in MLB in each of the same categories since mid-July:

They jumped 18 spots in ISO for third in the bigs, 17 spots in RBI to place them seventh, 14 in slugging to reach sixth and 16 in homers to top all of baseball since the break.

We can also expand our vision using advanced stats and metrics. From the first-half splits, FanGraphs tells us the Yankees were fifth-to-last in Wins Above Replacement, 20th in weighted runs created-plus (weighted offensive production adjusted to park and league) and 19th in weighted on-base percentage (weighted overall offensive value).

More telling for the dearth in power, the Yankees demonstrated a below-average ability to hit fly balls (FB%) or go yard on the fly balls they were hitting (HR/FB%), sitting in the bottom 11 of MLB in both: 

But compare those numbers and rankings in the period since July 15:

Some quick math to highlight the picture: This means that, during their sample size since the break (20 games)—which is roughly 21 percent of the games played from April-July—the Yankees have accumulated over one-third of their first-half WAR.

They’ve gone from 19th or worse in each category before the Midsummer Classic to 13th or better over the time since then—including the top eight in wRC+, wOBA and HR/FB rate. 

Slumps Give Way, New Acquisitions Assisting

Due to injury and underperformance, as alluded to earlier, some of the offseason spending spree materialized into a largely failed experiment. We’ll key in on some primary role players in that storyline here.

Beginning with the 94 games before the break, here are six primary Yankees to discuss. The three principal Yankees omitted are: Derek Jeter (.272, 25 RBI, 6 SB in the first half), Brett Gardner (.279, 9 HR, 15 SB, 118 wRC+, 2.4 WAR)  and Jacoby Ellsbury (.282, 42 RBI, 24 SB, 2.0 WAR).

To keep the offensive picture simple, below are their 2014 first-half slash lines, wRC+ and wOBA next to their respective career averages in the first half:

Except for Mark Teixeira, who put up respectable numbers coming off a lost season in 2013, no one was safe from struggling.

Most striking: Carlos Beltran saw the biggest dip from his career first-half average to his 2014 number (.279 to .216), and Alfonso Soriano, released on July 14, put up the largest difference in wRC+ (111 to 62) and wOBA (.349 to .265); 

Cashman had given up on Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts, too, as a matter of fact, sending the former to Boston for Stephen Drew and cash and designating the latter for assignment while acquiring Martin Prado for minor leaguer Peter O’Brien.

Here’s how the new group of six has fared since the second half kicked off, with the three new Yankees’ numbers shown since joining New York:

It helps that a few struggling Yankees have caught fire or turned things around early on—most notably, Beltran and McCann, the second of whom has reached base safely in 24 of his last 27 games and homered in two straight games this week. But Cashman was also able to catch the proverbial lightning in a bottle with Headley, Drew and Prado, who have all made major impacts already.

Headley, who hit seven homers in 77 games for the Padres, has already hit two in 16 games for New York. In his first game in the Bronx, July 23, he had the walk-off single in the bottom of the 14th. He has a 110 OPS+ since switching leagues—not to mention the Gold Glove-caliber work he has done at third (see: gems in Boston this past weekend).

Drew has been an excellent defensive substitution as well and has already pitched in to the timely hitting of late: He had 11 RBI in 39 games for Boston but already has six in seven games for the Yanks; on Thursday, he had the game-winning RBI double in the fourth inning of an eventual 1-0 victory.

Prado has been a much-needed fill-in for Ichiro out in right field. The veteran with over 4,000 hits across two professional leagues, was batting .297 in the first half, but in the 18 games since, he is slumping at .171 with 10 strikeouts.

Is it Sustainable?

The main question is whether the Yankees can keep this up through the next two-and-a-half weeks and enter the month of September with a shot to contend.

Perhaps the better question asks: Are there any trends that would say this recent run of success has been the fluke—and not the sign of the season turning around?

We can look at a few final advanced stats and figures to glimpse the underlying picture of the offense, namely those related to plate discipline and patience and those that seek to find a middle ground between good and bad luck when bat meets ball.

By considering luck and other factors, BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is a great measure for qualifying more definitive claims of success or failure at the plate. Simply put, how many balls in play go for hits? As FanGraphs notes: “Three main factors influence BABIP and all three of those factors tell us something important about that player’s [or team’s] overall stat line. Those factors are defense, luck, and talent level.”

The first is comparable to the difference between ERA and FIP (fielding independent pitching), the second regards the randomness of bloop hits, broken bats, etc. and the third concerns the hitter, since some flat-out hit the ball harder or sharper than others. With BABIP evening out over time, league average should be right around .300.

You’ll notice the Yankees were not only sub-.300 in the first half, but they’ve been substantially below that since the break, ranking in the bottom 10 in MLB for each split.

The other stats in this table help to paint the “bad luck”—or “doing the best they can”—picture. Each one is a batting rate that helps illustrate how patient the team is at the dish, and how adept at making contact the hitters are when they swing.

O-Swing tells us the percentage of pitches swung at outside the zone (bad pitches, or ones where they’re fooled or overaggressive), O-Contact and Z-Contact give the percentage of contact on balls swung at outside or inside the zone, Contact is the overall percentage of contact on swings and SwStr is the percentage of pitches swung at and missed.

You’ll notice that the Yanks have been in the top 10 in each stat for both half-season splits, and most significantly, they’ve swung and missed at the fewest pitches in baseball, made contact on the most and made the most or second-most contact on ones in the zone. 

To show how well New York is doing with discipline and contact, here are its rankings among each Yankees team since 2002, the first year for which FanGraphs has this data:

So if you’re looking for whether this recent run is sustainable, you may not find the answer you’re looking for. But if you’re searching for a glimmer of hope that it’s possible, you’re looking right at it.

Despite one of the league’s wort BABIPs, and their third-worst in the last 13 years, they seem to be doing everything they can to put the ball in play. 

You might be wondering, doesn’t that mean they could be putting too many balls in play? But glance again at their splits for O-Swing: Prior to the break they swung at the ninth-smallest percentage of pitches out of the zone, and since the break, they’ve swung at the fewest.

They’re not putting too many balls in play; they just seem to be finally reaping some of the benefits of doing so, as well as making better contact—as shown through their improved slugging percentage, ISO, fly-ball rate and HR/FB rate. Recall that in the second half, the Yankees have belted roughly a third of their first-half homer total in only 21 percent of the total games.

The negative outlook for keeping this streak up lies in a different area: strikeout rate, walk rate and walk-to-strikeout (BB/K) ratio, where the Yankees are below-average in each by FanGraphs‘ accounts in 2014.

For more context, check out how this season’s rates line up against all 101 seasons since 1914:

To summarize, in the last 101 years, the 2014 Yankees have struck out at the fourth-highest rate, walked at the ninth-lowest clip and posted the third-worst ratio.

What’s Next?

As we look ahead to the potential of the postseason, consider what the Detroit series may have proven: The Yankees simply have to get there.

By October, if they get there, they definitely won’t have CC Sabathia or Ivan Nova, and they may have Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka back. 

But they just showed they can go up against arguably the best, or second-best, starting rotation in baseball (Oakland would be the other) and pull off three wins in four games. The series that should have exposed their offensive deficiencies, and that could’ve jumpstarted the end of their season, proved their mettle instead.

McCarthy won his fourth start in five games as a Yankee, and he hardly had his best stuff, having thrown 69 pitches through three innings. Hiroki Kuroda started the only loss of the series, allowing three runs on six hits in seven innings. Capuano surrendered five hits and one walk and struck out eight in 6.2 innings, while Headley and McCann both touched up Verlander. Shane Greene tossed eight innings of shutout, five-hit ball in his third win. 

This season has also shown that the Yankees just need to reach the seventh inning and pass the baton, where they have one of—if not the—most dominant bullpens in MLB. David Robertson, Dellin Betances, Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley are all having career years; even new help Esmil Rogers has allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out five in his first four innings of relief for New York. 

And it’s not just about the renaissance of the staff and bats occurring—it’s where it has largely taken place. Prior to the midway point, the Yankees had gone just 18-23 at the Stadium, their typical safe haven. Since flipping the page for the second half, they’ve begun 10-4 at home.

We’ll have to see how the next few weeks play out to determine the overall confidence level. To close out the penultimate month of baseball, New York hosts the sub-.500 Indians before visiting the hot Orioles and division-rival Rays, returning home for six games against Houston (47-68) and the White Sox (55-61) and then hitting the road for seven in Kansas City (makeup game), Detroit and Toronto.

Coming out of the break, FanGraphs had given them just an 11.4 percent chance of making the postseason. That number heading into Friday’s series with Cleveland? A cool 25.4 percent.

And if the Yankees, despite $500 million spent this winter, have suddenly become the face of the grit-and-grind, underdog role, we can be content. That’s better than the initial characterization of this article—the overspending, injured, mediocre one.

And all the better if the Bombers can embrace the new image.

Said Brandon McCarthy after his victory Monday night, per the New York Post‘s Larry Brooks:

I knew going into the game that it was going to be a challenge for me, which I accepted, and we know that it’s a great challenge who we’re up against this series. To that extent, we’re taking it personally. When this series is over, we want to be the story.

So is it possible the Yankees’ eyes are set on October, with a pep in their step now that the series is over?

“This is pennant-race baseball,” McCarthy added, “you just have to keep grinding.”

Statistics current through game action on August 7, 2014 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs and ESPN.com unless otherwise noted.

Peter F. Richman is a Yankees featured columnist and expert, and a Bleacher Report copy editor. For more NYY opinions, discussion, debate and analysis, feel free to reach out via Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman 

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Imagine an alternate world for the New York Yankees.

It’s the All-Star break in 2014, Derek Jeter’s still retiring at season’s end and domestic beer still costs $9 at the Stadium.

But in this reality, they did not make the postseason in 17 of the last 19 years.

Imagine that from 1995-2013 they didn’t win five World Series titles, and picture an ’09 season where they hadn’t backed up their first of two failed campaigns with immediate success.

Perhaps it’s into this other reality that we could actually fit a scenario where—with the Yankees now at 47-47 after their second failed campaign, maybe heading toward a third—the front office might feel more comfortable blowing the whole damn thing up.

Because often the biggest hindrance to beginning a path of true soul-searching, self-improvement and accountability is one’s own obscuring mask of past success and current adequacy. Seventeen out of 19 postseasons, right? And only five games back. And .500, but not significantly worse.

And it’s the Yankees.

That’s the issue. It’s the perception of what the Yankees have always been and what they should be—rather than the acknowledgement of what they’ve become and what they now are—that may ultimately harm them in the second half of the season and in the future. 

FanGraphs tells us the Yankees have an 11.3 percent chance of making the postseason. A fan on the corner, having just learned Masahiro Tanaka is out a minimum of six weeks, tells us the Yankees probably have no shot. 

Now, a quick qualification, whether one views it as optimistic, fair or necessary to say this before continuing: Yes, both of those projections may prove horribly wrong if the Yankees’ offense catches fire and some dark-horse pitching heroes (David Phelps, Shane Greene, Brandon McCarthy?) buoy them through a second-half surge. 

This idea would be especially reinforced by the continued parity (feebleness?) of the AL East and some lucky breaks—like the returns and success of CC Sabathia and Tanaka coupled with more major injuries to contenders (think Toronto‘s sidelined Edwin Encarnacion).

But right now, consider the trends—or truth, or however you’d like to paint this picture: The Yankees are damn mediocre. In many respects, they’re quite paltry. On the surface, $500 million bought them .500 baseball. Beneath, it’s actually worse:

If you choose to take the escapist route and claim injuries, misfortune and timing are the sole blame, I would mention that New York headed into the season without a true insurance plan—let alone any plan (if the sole “plan” was to stay under their $189 million threshold, they fell short of it). 

On the back of a successful spring training, I wrote on March 27 in the season preview:

[E]ven with optimism continually rising, no team’s 2014 outlook is more bipolar than New York’s. Think about how stunningly dominant, effective and efficient this ballclub could be with all its pieces in harmony; yet think of how many unstable, moving parts could send the same club into a tailspin.

And in the face of potential embarrassment from (a) that tailspin materializing as they miss the postseason in back-to-back years, (b) declining attendance at new Yankee Stadium, (c) diminishing viewership for the YES Network and (d) being haunted by George “The Boss” Steinbrenner‘s angry ghost—no longer rolling in his grave, but banging on the lid of the casket—Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner only know how to be buyers.

This all raises the following two questions—it’s the Yankees, remember: Would the front office realistically consider the classic fire sale of its older, expiring, movable parts in exchange for young talent? And isn’t the cherry on top the fact that New York doesn’t possess blue-chip young talent in their own farm?

OK, make that three questions: If they don’t (really, since they won’t) consider becoming sellers instead of buyers, should they?

Yes. At least partially. Because only continuing to buy is like wrapping gauze and smearing Neosporin on the chest of a patient with a leaky valve and collapsed lung.

Based on the notion that the Yanks’ management and operations have yet to, and don’t seem willing to, adjust with their own organization’s markedly different foundation—and different power structure in MLB—yes, they should sell.

This argument should be looked upon, at the least, as a blueprint for the Yankees to begin their journey of self-refinement and enrichment. They should engage in some selling before the July 31 deadline; not using their refined brand of elitist history and their riches to buy their way out of what could be a debacle the next three months.

There is no magic cream, no quick-fix solution; neither by only buying the antidote off the top of the market nor by solely developing it within. Balance is the wise choice here.

After their winter spending spree, I noted in a February 10 Yankees spring training preview:

With or without true Yankee ‘success’ through overvaluing and overspending, they will still be one year delayed in setting into motion what could be a smarter long-term model. One that, in part, finds undervalued pieces from outside, and trusts the younger, unproven ones from within.

Halfway through the season, it’s time to set that renewed model in motion. And better now than the first week of November. 

The Overreliance on Buying: No More Core; the Shifted MLB Power Dynamic

There’s no more validity in the “lost art” of buying as there is in a one-time “failed experiment” of buying. It’s just that the identity of the Yankees and the rest of the league has transformed in a way that makes a strategy largely based on spending headed for failure.

Back in February, I led off that season preview by asking fans a simple though profound question: “The pinstripes and interlocking ‘NY’ look the same, but what about the new identity of the team as 2014 ushers in a new era? What does that change mean, and how would you begin to identify with the present state of the franchise?”

The idea was to consider what I called “[A] fault line forming in the Bronx since last season.” It runs between the transformed, attractive team we’ll see on the field and the shifted foundational pieces beneath the organization’s surface, the most integral of which have been removed since Game 162.

It was to point out the possibility that their method of winter spending, as they’d always done, may end up biting them in their collective behinds if losing the foundational pieces—Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Robinson Cano, etc.—were not taken into account and sufficiently offset.

I argued, as I still do now in July, that while it should have been supremely important to fill the holes left by the most significant Yankees of the past 20 years, valuing positional depth and reliability would be as, if not more, vital than buying the top-tier free agents off the market and locking them down in the Bronx.

A few more premonitions from that preseason piece:

It’s not that 2014 is suddenly the year of the rupture and the collapse at the epicenter, but it feels like there are tremors on the eve of camp because a number of anxious, cosmetic fixes were made to correct what went wrong in 2013.

Yet for all the signings this winter, and despite paying for what they see as the cost required to win, the Yankees could be entering spring training teetering on a fancy idea of success and a reality of coming up short. …

That free will to spend is a pragmatic modus operandi when there’s a working foundational structure already in place—take the 2008 spending antidote and the 2009 outcome. But this isn’t 2009, and putting a flashy lineup on the field should translate to revenue but it may not translate to contention. …

And still the Yankees could win 95 games in 2014.

They could capture the division crown and make a run in the postseason—and Yanks brass may look cunning by season’s end. …

This isn’t meant to castigate or doom the organization; it’s a reminder that things are simply different in the Bronx, and that there’s a heck of a lot to consider about the larger trends.

What’s the larger trend? While big spending is a large chunk of the Yankee identity, we shouldn’t discount the core of Yankees around whom that spending occurred from the late-’90s through late-’00s.

Instead of trying to replicate it this winter, perhaps management could have accepted that Jeter is the only one left from that (yes, magic) run and begun to search for or build a new youthful core in conjunction with bringing in players in their primes, not past them.

On Thursday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post poignantly titled his column, “Core Four’s Greatness is a Recipe Yankees Can’t Keep Chasing.” This isn’t to say Sherman is five months late to the party. It’s more to substantiate at baseball’s midway point, through a few excellent points, how many of us may have been feeling about those larger, anxious trends months ago.

Here’s what he wrote Thursday:

[W]hile a thick wallet is credited for much of the Yankees’ success the past two decades, I believe it misses the key factor, which also will not be replicated anytime soon, if ever again: The Yankees developed en masse five of their greatest players, and that group proved durable and capable of handling New York and October.

Really, with all that has been written and said about Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams, I do not think what they meant is properly assessed.

We are talking about 20 percent of a roster. And not just any 20 percent, but stars at catcher, shortstop, center field, lefty starter and closer. I don’t want to downplay how difficult it is to form a winning roster, but it is a lot easier to fill in the other 80 percent when you begin with that 20 percent at such key positions year after year. 

But one of his keener undercurrents comes shortly after:

It is hard to keep even a talented group healthy, hungry and humming from one year to the next. So imagine the fortune of what the Yankees had. … But because those guys showed up at the doorstep and stayed and prospered, it made everything else easier to construct around. Even the 2009 champion that was burnished by the purchases of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett still was fortified by high-level results from the Core Four.

And, still, there’s more to the “struggle” story in which the Yankees find themselves mired in 2014.

Simply: The system of power and wealth of MLB has changed, and the way teams scout, draft, develop, trade and spend has metamorphosed, too. Well, for most teams besides the Yankees.

I mentioned in the preseason preview:

We’re in a new era in which the power structures of success have changed not only in MLB, but also within the longtime leviathan of the league, the Yankees. …

Continuing the trend to throw cash at free agents, they’ve repeatedly failed to properly value the MLB draft, player development or real trust in the farm. And that’s just one issue; one of the few unchanged aspects. 

Sherman agrees that “The game has changed too much for any club to assemble that kind of consistent success for two decades. Having a financial advantage is less relevant today than ever for many reasons.”

He credits the well-known proliferation of and advancements in statistical analysis with leveling the financial playing field.

More to the point, he sharply notes the influx of wealth into the game, illuminating how it has translated to the new landscape where “every franchise can sign its elite performers before free agency, so players on smaller-market squads who you could once envision just biding their time until they joined the Yankees…do not hit the open market, at least not in their primes.”

Though it’s a fair, almost defeatist point about the Yankees’ inability to sign anyone they want, it misses two facts First, outside of Cano, the Bombers signed just about everyone whom they coveted most this winter. Second, through three months of underperformance they seem to have missed the mark on their mass half-billion-dollar, half-baked plan to contend.

As the game and horizon has changed, it’s no longer smart to bring in the majority of your talent through free agency. More than that, it’s just irrational to think that you can replicate the Core Four by signing four free agents in one single winter, with one of them past his prime and the second one passing through.

More to the Story than Injuries: The Failed Free-Agency Frenzy; the Farce of the Farm

From the jump, I mentioned the obvious discomfort of the Yanks’ brass to “blow the whole team up” at a key juncture—several major injuries to several of the most important players; poor performance; aging veterans and expiring contracts—where that M.O. would be Plan A for many teams.

(A team like the 2014 Rays, on the other hand, has suffered from a team-wide slump for the first half; without major injuries and aging veterans, it’s more rational to wait out the storm. They’re 9.5 games out of the AL East lead, and David Price hasn’t left…yet.)

The Yankees rotation has already taken care of blowing itself up, after all.

Sabathia? Knee. Degenerative. Remains out. Could be a bigger chance his career is over than the 11.3 percent of New York marching into October baseball. Sherman goes so far as to argue the Yankees would benefit most from the team deeming CC “physically incapable of playing” to get some insurance money for one of their priciest assets.

Ivan Nova? Elbow. Tommy John. Gone this season. May start throwing again by September.

Michael Pineda? 19.2 innings pitched since ’11. Shoulder issues. Still out. Possibly returning in August. 

Tanaka? Elbow. Partially torn UCL. Gone for now. Last-ditch effort of platelet-rich-plasma therapy to save his season.

And Hiroki Kuroda is far from an ace (97 ERA+, 3.91 FIP). He’s also 39 and will be a free agent who may be contemplating retirement at season’s end. 

The position players are largely a disaster so far. And bless Chris Stewart: Brian McCann, the prized catcher, is hitting .239 with 39 RBI (83 wRC+, 1.1 fWAR, minus-7.7 oWAR) for all his stellar clubhouse leadership.

Carlos Beltran, who wanted to be in pinstripes years ago, is batting .219 with nine homers and 28 RBI this year (78 wRC+, minus-0.8 fWAR, minus-8.5 dWAR), and he’s had knee and concussion issues.

Jacoby Ellsbury, plugged in the Bronx for another six seasons after this one, has six home runs and is on pace for his highest strikeout total of his career (105 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR), and via defensive metrics, he’s been a liability so far (minus-5 DRS, minus-5.6 UZR/150).

No one was going to follow Robinson Cano beyond simple adequacy, and Brian Roberts’ .241 and 89 OPS+ actually looks somewhat good (then again: 87 wRC+, 0.3 fWAR). That idea of platooning Eduardo Nunez (no longer a Yankee) with super-utility man Kelly Johnson (unfortunately still a Yankee) sounded nice this winter.

Until now, because Johnson might be one of the most uneventful players to ever take the infield in the Bronx—he’s hitting .214 with six homers and 50 punch-outs (87 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR, 23.7 K%)—and, for the platoon romanticists out there, he’s hitting lefties (.194, 113 wRC+) better than he’s hitting righties (.218, 83 wRC+).

Moving down to the farm situation, the shortcomings of the Yankees system are well-documented and understood at this point.

We know that none of Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com, FanGraphs or Bleacher Report see much value from Tampa and Staten Island all the way up to Scranton. We know Gary Sanchez has been the No. 1 prospect for a few years but has a great shot (.270/.339/.420, 60 K, 18.3 K%) to become the next Jesus Montero. 

And to give plaudits to Yankees scouting and development for the sacrificial and somewhat life-saving performances by David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, Chase Whitley and Shane Greene would be overly simplistic.

No, that’s largely lucking out on the only in-house options available. If they had better talent at the most significant position for any team—pitching…starting pitching—they likely would have come up with something better than Jeff Francis and Brandon McCarthy through trades this month. 

They also wouldn’t have felt the need to saturate the farm with pitchers in this year’s draft, selecting five with their first five picks, 15 out of their first 21 picks and 13 of those 15 from the NCAA.

In other words, they not only were desperate for pitching, but for the most advanced, developed, MLB-ready pitching. Their top pick, Mississippi State’s closer Jacob Lindgren, was praised for the talent capable of appearing and contributing this postseason for the Yanks.

But looking at the big picture, it points to the holes in the farm.

Sherman lends more perspective of his own, as well as some context:

[T]he only trick this pony knows is to spend. By winning all of these years, the Yankees have not had access to the top of the draft, and generally they have done a poor job of drafting and developing what was available. The sense around the sport is the Yankees’ past two drafts have been better and the system is improving.

And even if Lindgren becomes a key piece of the bullpen down the road, if Shane Greene sticks and if another dark horse (like Robert Refsnyder) breaks out in pinstripes, the Yanks still lack the depth or development team for sustainability.

“Still, there are not many ready-made solutions internally and the idea of losing enough to get a top-10 pick a few times is as palatable to the Steinbrenners as playing patty-cake with an alligator,” writes Sherman. 

Knowledge Trumps Power

None of this is to say the Yankees should move each and every one of their aging, expiring vets.

But to incessantly hear this type of definitive wording about remaining buyers until death from Cashman and Co. no longer seems most pragmatic—especially when stated upon learning Tanaka would take the injured starting total to four of five, per NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty: “We’ll continue to look at any options to upgrade ourselves, and I’ll certainly present that to ownership. And until I’m told otherwise I’ll continue the course of action.”

Kuty highlights the biggest irony, describing how it appears “the team will remain trade market buyers despite — or maybe in spite of — Masahiro Tanaka‘s elbow injury.” 

Because what if, rather than buying in spite of losing him, they view his (and CC, Nova and Pineda‘s) absence as the reason to do some selling before the end of the month?

What if they reframed and reduced their reliance upon their financial power (which has seen some diminishing baseball clout) to work in unison with better knowledge—that is, better scouting, drafting, development and understanding of how to enter a season with real insurance and depth?

Maybe Cashman will keep searching for more bandages and ointments until the deadline, since they’ve come this far (to give credit where credit’s due, they’re still in the postseasons hunt).

And our patient with the leaky valve and collapsed lung can obviously still benefit from a few layers of gauze and Neosporin. 

But only post-surgery.

Only in synchronicity—and balance—with other structural, foundational fixes.

“No one is suggesting the Yankees lower their payroll, but instead just re-imagine it,” Sherman adds.  “The Yankees keep trying to recapture the past, and that is not doing much for their present and it is potentially destroying their future.”

Common statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and advanced stats/metrics via FanGraphs, unless noted otherwise. 

Peter F. Richman is a New York Yankees Featured Columnist and Expert, as well as a B/R Copy Editor. For more NYY opinions, discussion, debate and analysis, feel free to reach out via Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If the price is right, one of the game’s most dominant left-handed power arms could be on the move well before Major League Baseball’s July 31 trade deadline. But what’s the right price for a division rival to scoop him up? And what if that rival is the Evil Empire, the New York Yankees?

Signs of late, per the Tampa Bay Times‘ Marc Topkin, point toward the Rays‘ preference to ship their ace to the National League.

“As for the possibility of the Rays dealing with an AL East team, the best guess is that it’s not an absolute impossibility,” writes Topkin, “but it likely would require an additional premium for the Rays to even consider a deal.”

David Price is the 2012 Cy Young winner with a lightning 97 mph fastball and an MLB-leading 144 strikeouts to a ridiculously low 14 walks in 2014. In his last start, he became the first pitcher in 10 years to strike out at least 10 in five consecutive starts. 

During ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball broadcast of Game 1 of this Yankees-Rays series, Tim Kurkjian perfectly proclaimed the sort of poetic justice for any team wishing to land Price. He said Tampa expects “the world” in return for their ace, who appears to be pitching better than he has in his baseball life. 

“This is the best pitcher I’ve ever been,” Price said Saturday, per The New York Times‘ Tyler Kepner. “I feel in complete control on the mound at all times.”

The 16-year-old organization that calls St. Pete its home maintains just a $76.8 million Opening Day payroll, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, and can’t afford their No. 1 starter long term. Trading Price for young talent in the short term simply makes too much sense for the team with the worst record in baseball entering the week.

Think about it this way: If the Rays stay in the hunt, they’ll be much less likely to deal their best pitcher on whom success could ultimately hinge. If they fall out in the next few weeks, there isn’t much doubt they’ll look to offload him.

The real pickle for Tampa?

“[E]very five days they wait to trade him reduces his value because that means one fewer start he makes for his new team,” Topkin opines.

ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden (subscription required) adds: “The Rays know the best time to trade Price is now; the return won’t be as high this offseason or next July as it will be over the next six weeks. So it’s only matter of time before he’s dealt to the highest bidder.”

If that bidder happens to be the Yankees, further rationality tells us that general manager Andrew Friedman would be more than hesitant to deal him to one of their bitter enemies. So is there an offer out there from the Yankees and GM Brian Cashman that the Rays couldn’t afford to refuse? 

Put simply: Yes, the Yankees could conceivable coax the Rays into a blockbuster package deal.

But for the Yankees to deliver “the world” to Tampa means they would likely have to part with not one, but several of their top prospects. That you can hear Yankee fans already cringing at the sound of “Sanchez” or “Betances” sums this situation up best for the Bombers, who entered the fray with Sabathia, Kuroda, Nova, Tanaka and Pineda and now find themselves in the hot New York summer with Kuroda, Tanaka, Phelps, Whitley and Nuno. 

Below we’ll consider the context for a potential trade, as well as the options, before the flame-thrower takes the hill Tuesday night in—where else—the Boogie Down. 

Trade Suitors: Who Is ‘Desperate’ for Starting Pitching?

Other starters like the Cubs‘ Jeff Samardzija and the Phillies‘ Cliff Lee might be moved this July, but Price is far and away the hottest name in discussion on the trade market.

The idea of trading for Price this summer is pretty sexy, after all. This season, the 6’6″, 210-pounder leads all of MLB in strikeouts, as mentioned, and strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.29), while ranking third in the AL in strikeouts per nine innings (10.45) and WHIP (1.09), per FanGraphs. 

Since his first full season in 2009, Price has compiled 21.3 WAR, placing him sixth among all AL starters over that time. Among AL starters who have totaled 1,000 innings since ’09, only Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester have posted a better K/9 than Price. 

And that electric fastball of his? Among all MLB pitchers since ’09, only Clayton Kershaw and Cliff Lee have saved more runs via the fastball, per wFB, FanGraphs‘ Pitch Type Linear Weights (Pitch Value) statistic. For a more accurate representation of the total runs saved by pitch, we can extrapolate that same stat over 100 fastballs thrown with FanGraphs‘ wFB/C, which again bears out Price as the third-most successful fastball-thrower in the bigs over that time.

But only a handful of ballclubs possess the requisite talent pool of prospects capable of luring away the former Vanderbilt star who turns 29 later this August. 

“There no doubt…will be a firm market for Price,” adds Topkin. “The question is whether the Rays can find what they would consider the right deal, or at least a good-enough one. Or they, too, can always wait until the offseason, though that could make for a long summer.”

Topkin lists teams such as the Athletics and Indians as likely suitors and viable partners. Though ESPN.com’s Bowden, via Topkin’s report, raises the plausibility for five additional teams: the Angels, White Sox, Braves, Blue Jays—and the Yankees.

The most obvious first question is, of these teams, who appears to desperately need starting pitching? The follow-up is, which of those teams can make a truly enticing offer based on movable—and projectable—minor leaguers around whom the Rays could look to build?

The final question: Which team, or teams, would be desperate enough—or confident enough—to deal the potential future pieces of their franchise for Price?

Where Do the Yankees Fit in?

Let’s return to the Bombers. They entered the season with a cast of characters fit for a deep run into October: CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova, Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda.

Then Nova’s year concluded after a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament signaled the need for Tommy John surgery; Sabathia hit the disabled list with a degenerative knee after just eights starts and a 5.28 ERA; and Pineda has been out since late April with a back injury.

That the Yankees entered play Monday just two games back in the AL East is a testament both to the fledgling division and to the passable jobs by fill-ins David Phelps (3-4, 4.45 as starter), Chase Whitley (3-2, 4.70) and Vidal Nuno (2-4, 4.85).

But if we’re talking about a team “desperate” for starting pitching, we must remember we’re looking through the lens of an organization built upon the foundation of the Boss, George Steinbrenner. And “success,” just like “desperation,” are concepts held entirely different by his family and the organization than, say, anybody else or any other team. 

Recent history—in the form of a half-billion dollars this past winter by his offspring—tells us we’d be remiss to believe New York would continue to rely on Phelps, Whitley and Nuno. 

Even with returns for Sabathia and Pineda scheduled for late July and August, respectively, per The Star-Ledger‘s Jorge Castillo, we can go ahead and label the Yankees’ need as “desperate,” and can figure Cashman‘s hand is glued to the phone. 

“I’m looking to make some additions if I can. I’d like to try to do a few things before those guys get back, if possible,” said Cashman, referring to Sabathia and Pineda, per The New York Times‘ Zach Schonbrun (h/t MLB Trade Rumors’ Mark Polishuk). “But I’ve already been trying. …it’s not because of a lack of phone calls. We’ll see.”

How do the Yankees Stand a Chance? 

The answer is twofold: First, of the short list of teams possessing projectable prospects who are also willing to move them, there just aren’t many longing for top-end starting pitching.

“The most interesting aspect of a potential deal is that there aren’t as many contending teams looking for a top-of-the-rotation starter as in the past,” notes ESPN.com’s Bowden. “For example, in the National League, teams such as the Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, Giants, Dodgers and Nationals all have enough pitching at the top that they have no reason to empty their farm system to acquire Price.”

Second, and perhaps more importantly in this case, no trade takes place unless it’s mutually beneficial—and necessary—for all parties. And the Rays have their own desperation to trade Price.

Speaking on factors like the Rays’ payroll, stadium and recent draft trends, the Times‘ Kepner speaks on the virtual need to move their star in a push to acquire talent in one of their only truly pragmatic—and to this point in their short history—successful ways: 

All of which makes it all but essential that the Rays trade Price, who could garner the potentially high-impact talent that the team struggles to access in other ways. Some of the Rays’ better players — Myers, outfielder Matt Joyce, and starters Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi — have come in trades for established starting pitchers.

Though they may well be seeking the world in return for their star, there’s a necessity to move him. The more weeks they allow themselves to climb toward the division-leading Jays, the further that desperation goes down.

And trading expensive, valuable stars for younger talent is what has largely kept the Rays afloat on the Sunshine State’s western coast. “I think, in a lot of ways, it’s our only chance for success,” Friedman told Kepner.

“The trades that we’ve made, looking back, the only reason we got good players in return is because we traded really good players. And so it’s important for us to know what our weaknesses are and what our limitations are and operate within them.” Kepner adds:

Some of the Rays’ limitations never change. They are locked into an outdated stadium on the wrong side of Tampa Bay, a position that severely restricts their spending.

Their on-field weaknesses have been exposed without warning in a discouraging first half. Their American League-worst record, 33-49 entering Saturday, recalls their hopeless beginnings as the Devil Rays.

The expansion team reached the Fall Classic in their 11th year of existence after going 61-101 the previous year and reached the postseason promised land three of the five years since.

The last thing the Rays would want to do is hold up a mirror that reminds them of when their colors—dark green, purple and black—were more reminiscent of bruising than of brighter days ahead.

How do the Yankees Best Coax the Rays?

To get one of the game’s best from Tampa, New York would not only have to give up one of their best; they’d have to give up someone universally projected to be one of the best.

The right offer would most likely cause Yankee fans to bury their heads in their hands—at least in the interim. 

That means convincing Tampa to take a chance on catcher Gary Sanchez (hitting just .261/.344/.419 in two Double-A seasons; lingering questions of defense/footwork) might not be enough.

“Quantity, such as a five-for-one deal, is a possibility if the Rays deal ace LHP David Price,” writes Topkin, “but they seem more likely to go for quality, seeking a couple of premium prospects to restock their farm system or cost-controlled young big-leaguers.”

Foreseeably, the only realistic way the Rays might pull the trigger is if the Yankees were to offer several names—some “premium prospects” and one or more “young big-leaguers.” And one of those names would should have already convinced the Rays he will be one of the best at the major league level.

Someone like Dellin Betances. But more on him in a moment. 

Just two years ago, New York did indeed experience some head-in-hand syndrome. In a move to get one of the game’s hottest, most projectable starters, the Yankees traded whom many believed to be the future big-bopping catcher of the Bronx, Jesus Montero, their top organizational prospect and Baseball America‘s No. 6 prospect in the game. Michael Pineda was consequently traded to New York—where, “fondly” for Yankee fans, he’d promptly miss the next two seasons—in return for the big catcher and starting pitcher Hector Noesi.

Pineda, 22 at the time, had completed his stellar rookie year, going 9-10 in the AL West with a 3.74 ERA and an All-Star appearance. At the time, Montero had played 18 games in Triple-A Scranton, where he hit four homers and drove in 18, though there were lingering doubts on his ability to reach the majors.

Last week, in order to make room for a .265 hitter returning from the DL, the Mariners optioned Montero (4-for-14 MLB, .267/.346/.449 Triple-A) to the minors. Hector Noesi is just 2-4 in 11 starts with a 4.18 ERA—for the Chicago White Sox.

Moreover, it’s common knowledge that the Bombers are lacking in the “premium prospects” department. Prior to this season, Baseball Prospectus ranked New York as the 23rd farm system in baseball and noted Gary Sanchez, the big catcher, as the top prospect—though just No. 85 overall. FanGraphs‘ Tony Blengino, meanwhile, ranked the Yankees’ system 20th and called Sanchez the only “impact” prospect in the system.

ESPN.com’s Bowden offered three realistic trade-bait names for a potential deal: Sanchez, right-hander Luis Severino (4-3, 2.76, 9.7 K/9, 1.072 WHIP in 2014) and breakout catcher/DH Peter O’Brien (25 HR, 16 2B, 56 RBI). But three high-upside prospects may not be enough to coax Tampa to give up someone already as dominant and proven as Price.

So how about Topkin‘s other option, then: those “young big-leaguers”? And what if someone of that ilk has a proven—heck, a dominant and compelling—track record in three months of major league service?

Perhaps I was reaching back in February, saying Betances could “surge through the spring to steal” one of the bullpen roles. Maybe I was still being too optimistic by March, stating: “[N]ot only does 26-year-old Betances deserve a role, but he has the potential to blossom into the most heralded bullpen arm in 2014.”

But what if someone told you that as of July 1, Betances has pitched 48 innings in largely high-leverage situations for the Yankees, and that, of all MLB pitchers with at least 40 innings, he has the best K/9 (14.25), ERA (1.50) and FIP (1.26) in baseball?

It appears more rational that Tampa could agree to trade its best pitcher to New York if it were getting its future closer—and maybe MLB’s best future ninth-inning man—in return.

Would the Yankees Risk it?

Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe recently spoke with Brewers GM Doug Melvin. As MLB Trade Rumors’ Charlie Wilmoth reminded, Melvin traded away Zack Greinke in 2012 and acquired C.C. Sabathia in July 2008.

Melvin says he considered trading Greinke within the division, but with a caveat, of course: “I had teams within the division asking for him, and my approach to that is this: I had no problem doing it, but I had to get a little extra if I was going to do it.”

And what was needed to bring one of the game’s aces to Milwaukee in ’08? Per Cafardo:

Melvin said the Indians insisted on former first-round pick Matt LaPorta in the deal [for Sabathia]. Check. There were a couple of other pitching prospects in the deal who didn’t pan out, but the biggest piece was the player to be named. Melvin said that if the Brewers made the playoffs, the Indians could pick the player, and if they didn’t, the Brewers would pick.

The player turned out to be Michael Brantley, who has turned out to be one of the best players in baseball.

“We figured if we struck early we’d have him for an extra month and get more out of it, so we were willing to work with the Indians on something to make that happen,” said Melvin, who knew there were other teams competing for Sabathia, suspecting the Dodgers were hot on his trail.

The difference, as Cafardo points out, is that Sabathia was eyeing free agency at the time, while Price remains under team control for another year, and thus might not immediately sign a long-term deal with his (potentially) new home.

The best price for Price would likely have to include Gary Sanchez and Dellin Betances—the player who could turn out to be one of the best in the bigs. But there’s only one question: Would the Yankees feel comfortable pulling the trigger, and could they bite a Sanchez-Betances bullet on the chance Price may not sign on in the Bronx?

Perhaps they wouldn’t—and shouldn’t. But ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required; h/t MLB Trade Rumors’ Mark Polishuk) spoke with one scout who might have the best advice for the Yankees: Grin and bear it.

“You worry about the cost of signing him later,” says the scout, “and if he walks away, that’s the way it goes. But you’re adding a No. 1 starter who can be a difference-maker for two seasons.”

Statistics and advanced metrics accurate as of July 1, 2014 and are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, and salary/contract figures via Cot’s Baseball Contracts unless otherwise noted. 

Peter F. Richman is a B/R Copy Editor and New York Yankees Featured Columnist. For more NYY opinions, discussion, debate and analysis, feel free to reach out via Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman

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The New York Yankees finished third in the AL East last season and missed the postseason for the first time since 2008, prompting the front office to make several big-money moves. Some contracts this winter were reminiscent of the “megadeals” that, prior to 2008, secured Alex Rodriguez for 10 years, and, prior to 2009, locked down CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira for eight years apiece.

As of late June 2014, however, A-Rod remains out of baseball, Sabathia is injured and Teixeira has played 55 of a possible 75 games and struck out 45 times. Of the most recent crop of winter signings, neither Carlos Beltran (three years) nor Brian McCann (five) is batting above .225, mega-signing Jacoby Ellsbury (seven) is at an unremarkable .277 and only Masahiro Tanaka (seven) has achieved immediate success (11-2, 2.11 ERA).

Heading into Tuesday, and nearing baseball’s halfway point of this season, the Yankees are just three games above .500 in the middle of the AL East. If they miss the postseason again, their continued reliance on free-agent signings over in-house development could be called further into question, leaving many fans to wonder whether they’ll ever learn from these megadeal mistakes.

Perennially choosing gigantic contracts over drafting and developing younger options only becomes a greater issue when the star players burn out. And the Yankees are no strangers to witnessing several of their megadeal signings repeatedly become busts a few years into their deals via declining health and production.

To fundamentally improve long-term, the Yankees would first have to learn from their mistakes. Then, what may ultimately benefit them most is a re-imagined vision that places heavier focus on first selecting, and then developing, advanced talent.

Based on the last three years of Yankees draft patterns and scouting, as a matter of fact, there’s a likelihood they’ve already learned and begun to take steps away from their propensity to correctively spend hundreds of millions each offseason. 

By beginning to make a habit of selecting from the pool of more advanced, polished NCAA prospects, the Yankees appear to already be in the seminal stages of retooling their long-term backup plans—by emphasizing the development of in-house products, the smartest security for the big league team when spending and relying on the free-agent and trade markets is often not the most pragmatic way to fill a roster.

Ill Effects of Previous Yankee Megadeals: A-Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira

In addition to missing the entirety of 2014 to suspension, maligned third baseman A-Rod’s production has diminished since 2010, the year after their 27th title.

In 2007, in the largest in their most recent string of megadeals, the Yankees handed out 10 years and $275 million—including multimillion-dollar offensive milestone incentives—to Alex Rodriguez in order to secure him through the age of 42, per Spotrac.com. But five years removed from their championship, A-Rod’s contract is at the least questionable, with the third baseman missing all of 2014 and playing just 402 of 648 possible games from 2011-13.

A-Rod’s current successor/backup, Yangervis Solarte, has come back down to earth since his spring training and early-season explosion; he sits at .266/.347/.406 (110 wRC+) through 67 big league games, per FanGraphs, and continues to slump in June (.164, 4 RBI, 9 K).

Following 2008, after missing the playoffs for the first time since ’93, the front office dove head-first into a ripe free-agent class, delivering to the Bronx several of the team’s top targets. The services of two marquee players came via megadeals—Mark Teixeira (eight years) and CC Sabathia (seven years)—that effectively wiped out the stingier competition, installed a new core for the next decade and then delivered immediately.

The immediate success of the retooled team’s first year together in ’09—a staff headlined by Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and the re-signed and Andy Pettitte (one year each), and a lineup with Rodriguez, Teixeira and Nick Swisher—seemingly gave credence to the Bombers’ propensity to spend at will and land players via megadeals. 

But now, since the start of 2013, No. 1 starter Sabathia has amassed a 17-17 record, 4.87 ERA (4.21 FIP) and struck out only 7.81 batters per nine innings. His velocity has steadily declined, while his ERA has inflated and his current absence—dating to May 10 because of a knee injury—has had a large effect on a fledgling starting staff.  

Teixeira has only played 69 of a possible 236 games since 2013 and has raised red flags related to his health—with a surgically repaired wrist this past offseason—as well as to his production—from .292 and 122 RBI in 2009 to .242 and 131 RBI from 2012-14.

His struggles have had a tremendous domino effect in the infield, where we saw utility man Kelly Johnson fill in at first base for some time; the former Tampa Bay Ray is hitting only .222/.294/.389 with four homers and 16 RBI (87 wRC+) in 56 games. 

Tanaka: A Diamond in the Rough of Recent Megadeals

At the three-month mark, an argument could be made that early Cy Young favorite Masahiro Tanaka is the sole smart move of the offseason at $155 million.

New York is currently 39-36 and in third place in the AL East. The team’s larger deficiencies (no backup for Teixeira; missing three starters to injury), have often been quieted by timely play but at other times have been obviously exposed. 

The patchwork rotation, streaky offense and shaky, post-Cano and post-Rodriguez infield have reared their heads time and again. 

Jacoby Ellsbury has been an offensive bright spot at times, swiping 21 of 23 bases, but his batting line tells a more underwhelming story at .280/.350/.396, and his defensive metrics, per FanGraphs, tell a darker side for the $153 million man, with a negative-12.1 UZR per 150 innings.

In the face of early and significant injury (Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova) and team-wide underperformance for baseball’s first half, the Yankees’ new Japanese ace has compiled an MLB-best 11-2 record and 2.11 ERA, good for fourth in the majors among starters. 

Since the start of the 2014 season, Brian McCann, their new catcher signed for five years and $85 million, is batting just .222 with eight home runs and 77 wRC+. Carlos Beltran, another marquee signing for three years and $45 million, is hitting only .220 with seven homers and 85 wRC+. Veteran second baseman Brian Roberts is batting a below-average .244/.326/.344 (88 wRC+) in 64 games.

More NCAA Draft Picks: The Yankees May Already Be Learning from Their Mistakes

Based on recent trends, particularly of the last three years, the Yankees have shown a new willingness to draft more advanced talent in their first 10 picks. One of the key indicators of the Yankees’ pursuing the free-agent market in the past has been the repetitive busts of their young, prized draft picks (like Brien Taylor in 1991, or Tyler Austin in 2010).

But having drafted more pragmatically since 2012, New York has begun to reap the benefits of more mature NCAA talent, who, for the most part, see a lesser development gap to the bigs than high school players. 

If you’re looking for more evidence that the Yankees have learned from their past mistakes, remember that their first pick in 2014, Jacob Lindgren out of Mississippi State, has enough polish to be discussed for a September call-up this year, as Baseball America‘s editor-in-chief John Manuel told the YES Network following draft night.

Three years ago at the 2012 draft, the Yankees took seven of their first 10 picks from college. Although three of their first five off the board were out of high school, the third overall selection was Peter O’Brien, an NCAA catcher from the University of Miami, who sparkled in High-A Tampa this season (.321/.353/.688, 10 HR, 19 RBI) before receiving a promotion to Trenton.

In the 2013 draft, the Yanks flipped the script on their first five picks, taking three players from college. And of the first 10, the Bombers deftly selected a total of seven NCAA prospects.

Last year, for the first time since 2007, their first selection was a college player—and in this case, both of their first two picks were from the NCAA: first-round pick Eric Jagielo from Notre Dame, who has 10 homers, eight doubles and 31 RBI in 42 games for Tampa in 2014, and second-rounder Aaron Judge out of Cal State Fresno, who was raking in Charleston this season (.333/.428/.530, 9 HR, 45 RBI) before a promotion.

And it’s likely no coincidence that the Yankees just drafted four college pitchers with their first 10 picks in 2014—the same summer the front office is eyeing the trade deadline with significant holes in pitching.

In the most recent draft, the Yankees yet again leaned on the NCAA talent pool early on, taking four of the first five picks—and nine of their first 10—out of college.

Sample Size: 1-Year Takeaways vs. Long-Term Conclusions 

It’s ironic, and a little confusing, that we typically judge megadeals based on the initial year of the contracts (Albert Pujols’ and Josh Hamilton’s first season in Los Angeles; the fixation with Robinson Cano’s production/HR total in Seattle in 2014).

Taking a longer view of these near-decade-long, multimillion-dollar deals will give a clearer picture of their success. In the Yankees’ case, a wider, contextualized perspective actually makes the “disaster” scenario worse for this decade’s previous megadeals.

Players such as A-Rod, Sabathia and Teixeira did not suddenly slump over the course of 2010; instead, and more gravely, they have all gradually been in declines since ’10 into what is now Year 5 since championship No. 27. These are not three premier, everyday starters who, due to the effects of Father Time and wear and tear, have been relegated to supporting roles just five or six years after signing megadeals.

They are players who were signed to be playing everyday positions by 2014 and beyond, and not one of them has accomplished that goal so far (Teixeira is actually the closest).

Take A-Rod, for example: He hasn’t played 130 games since 2010, his home run per fly ball rate has been on the decline since 2007, and his strikeout rate has taken a scary nosedive as well: from 16.5 percent in ’10, to 18.7 percent in ’11, 21.9 percent in ’12 and 23.8 percent in ’13. On the other side of the ball, A-Rod has been a liability, via his defensive metrics, per FanGraphs: In seven of his last nine seasons, Rodriguez has posted a negative UZR/150.

What’s more, he has three years remaining on his megadeal and, after dropping his lawsuit against the team doctor on Thursday night, appears more willing than ever to make a return in 2015—as the Yankees starting third baseman…at age 39. Sabathia turns 34 in July as he eyes the final two guaranteed years on his monster deal, and Teixeira will be 35 shortly after Opening Day next season, with two more seasons on his own contract.

In the first-year player draft each June, teams—somewhat comically sometimes—draft into the 40th round, hoping to come up with a diamond in the rough.

But is there a marked difference with throwing your hat—and half a billion dollars—into the free-agent fiasco at season’s end?

In five more years, if Ellsbury pans out as a .280-.285 hitter while the other recipients of megadeals have flamed out, will anyone find fault with the front office for landing Tanaka in the eye of the winter storm?

As the New York Post‘s Joel Sherman argues, the Yankees should, and will most likely, take aim at correcting their their short-term, everyday lineup holes, with a series of keen moves prior to this summer’s trade deadline. Behind the outstanding performance of Tanaka and reliable work from the bullpen late in games, the Yanks are far from out of the postseason discussion.

Perhaps just one starting pitcher and one reliable reliever away from seriously threatening for the division for the first time since their winter spending spree, the Yankees were both smart and fortunate for signing Tanaka. 

Their recent trend in drafting more advanced prospects in the early rounds can only bode well for New York if it truly is part of a renewed vision to rely less on their wallets and more on their farm system in the future. 

Common statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and advanced stats/metrics via FanGraphs, unless noted otherwise; current through game action on Monday, June 23, 2014. 

Peter F. Richman is a B/R Copy Editor and Featured Columnist for the New York Yankees. For previous work, check out the Yankees’ 2014 draft tracker with analysis and scouting reports. For more NYY opinions, discussion, debate and analysis, feel free to reach out via Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman 

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Despite the half-billion dollars the New York Yankees slammed down this summer, they still seem to have a half-baked idea of an infield.

For having only four infield spots, they appear to face a far greater number of realistic questions. They also carry more catchers on the 40-man roster (five) than they do MLB-caliber infielders whom they can trust for 162 games.

With the five-year signing of Brian McCann, the Yankees took the best free-agent catcher off the market. And with Gary Sanchez slated to be the starter at Double-A Trenton in 2014, they also have a premier prospect already waiting in the wings. 

The three others—Francisco Cervelli, Austin Romine and J.R. Murphy—are all more or less MLB-ready, but the Yankees don’t need all of them to bridge the longer-term McCann-Sanchez gap.

They definitely don’t need as many as three to compete for McCann’s 2014 backup job, and they’d be wiser to move one of them in order to bolster the infield in any way they can.

The Arizona Diamondbacks happen to have a surplus of infielders they’d conceivably want to reduce, and they appear willing to move one of their shortstops in return for an extra catcher.

“Our biggest needs in our system are catching,” general manager Kevin Towers explained to AZCentral.com’s Nick Piecoro when asked Thursday about the idea of trading a shortstop. “If it’s the right, top-notch catching prospect. Someone we could have right behind Miggy [Miguel Montero]. … We have a lot of bullpen depth, infielders.”

Arizona has two talented, young shortstops in 24-year-old Didi Gregorius and 22-year-old Chris Owings, who are competing this spring for the same Opening Day role that would send the loser to Triple-A Reno.

As of Friday, there’s no official word on discussions between the Yankees and D-Backs, but the match is a viable one for both parties and could be the smartest move for both before breaking camp.

In terms of the long-term investment, neither team would necessarily want to give up an asset from its talent pool. But if they both have pressing needs for 2014, those same assets ultimately become roster dead weight and positional excess if they aren’t starters, and thus represent ideal trade bait.

It was originally the New York team that plays in Queens, with concerns at shortstop, who were linked to the Diamondbacks’ two bright prospects.

Newsday‘s beat writer Marc Carig noted that Arizona and the Mets had been in discussions early on but that the talks had died down.

Source says Mets/Diamondbacks haven’t had any dialogue re: shortstops recently. Sides had checked in at winter meetings.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) February 27, 2014

He later noted the implausibility of the two as trade partners because Mets backup catcher Kevin Plawecki was not a strong enough pull for a Gregorius or Owings.

He said that a move would necessitate someone more of Travis d’Arnaud’s caliber—the projected 2014 starting catcher, making it a much tougher sell for the Mets. 

Source says Plawecki wouldn’t be enough for the Diamondbacks. They’re looking more for a d’Arnaud type.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) February 27, 2014

Diamondbacks want a young catcher in return for one of their young shortstops. But Mets don’t appear to be a fit.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) February 27, 2014

Back in early December, the New York Post‘s Joel Sherman noted that the Yankees had in fact had interest in Gregorius, and he brought up an interesting scenario to consider, which becomes all the more interesting given Jeter’s retirement announcement:

#Yankees like #diamondbacks Didi Gregorius. Wonder if could play at 2b this yr and have as Jeter insurance in ’14, replacement in ’15

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 11, 2013

Neither Gregorius nor Owings takes the current 2014 Yankees on paper and turns them into AL East favorites. But they could trade for short-term insurance by shifting either Gregorius or Owings to second (or third).

Perhaps what makes this low-risk idea especially attractive is the potential for long-term upside in the Bronx at shortstop—the natural position for both. And ahead of the infield free-agent market in 2015, they’d already have someone in place to fall back on.

Here’s what Gregorius and Owings put up in the bigs in 2013:

For one outlook on their 2014 seasons, I’ve averaged the three sets of projections from Steamer, Oliver and ZiPS data found on FanGraphs:

It’s not flashy, but it’s premium insurance that could be had at a virtual minimum. 

And, again, Arizona is willing to move someone: Besides these top two talents for Arizona, the D-Backs also have six-year veteran backup Cliff Pennington and 23-year-old Nick Ahmed, who made it to Double-A in 2013. As Piecoro points out, “The Diamondbacks are loaded with shortstops.” 

For the Yankees, Cervelli is the favorite to win McCann’s backup job, so Arizona could be looking at Romine or Murphy. Neither has proven capable of handling major league pitching yet, but neither has come close to a full season and they’re 25 and 22, respectively.

They’ve both had solid minor league numbers that could plug them into Arizona’s 2014 backup duty—Romine is a career .280 hitter (.748 OPS) in seven minor league seasons, and Murphy is a .266 hitter (.738 OPS) in five years.

Murphy probably has greater upside, and you’d take a chance on him in the longer run given Romine’s .207/.255/.296 line in 60 games (148 plate appearances) in 2013.

Though based on Romine’s MLB experience, albeit limited, Arizona could also favor him for the immediate backup role and take a chance on developing his swing in a virtually pressure-free environment of Chase Field—we did begin to see flashes of improved ability to hit to all fields as he saw more pitches.

Yanks brass just spent $198 million on two new outfielders, $155 million on a new starting pitcher, $85 million on a new catcher, $9.5 million on two new relievers—but spent the least, just $5 million, on the new second and third basemen combined.

The issue with the offseason spending isn’t the large sum of all the contracts. It’s the imbalanced distribution of its parts, and how the cheapest fraction reveals the exact area where attention was lacking and where surefire answers are still not yet in place.

Johnson has played 14 games at third in his career, and new second baseman Brian Roberts has almost matched that number in injuries, totaling 192 games of a possible 648 across the past four seasons. And Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter played a combined 32 games in 2013.

There’s the inherent doubt of whether Johnson, a 32-year-old career utility man, can adapt to an everyday role at a position he virtually hasn’t played. There’s the added fear that he’d be called upon to back up first base where he’s played even fewer games (three). 

There’s the realistic question of whether Brian Roberts, a 36-year-old second baseman, can get through the majority of a full season for the first time since 2009. There’s the added anxiety of immediately turning to Eduardo Nunez should either Johnson, Roberts or Teixeira need more than just a few days off. And they have to wonder whether Brendan Ryan could be trusted if he were to see significant time at short. 

The Yankees certainly appeared to have spent enough for a championship, and winning or losing those championships, of course, is much more dependent upon the backbone of starting pitching, consistent offense and an effective, reliable pen.

They aren’t won or lost on a the basis of a premier infield, and if they ultimately fall short, chances are we won’t be lamenting the fact that the Yankees only spent $5 million on the second and third basemen for 2014.

But if and when any of the infield pieces—new or old—begin to fall, having an insurance plan in place can go a long way in six-plus months of everyday baseball.

The Yankees can make an extremely pragmatic move by trading for part of that plan this spring. 

All Statistics, metrics and 2014 projection figures courtesy of data from FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

Peter F. Richman is a Featured Columnist for the New York Yankees. You can join him on Twitter: Follow @Peter_F_Richman 

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Clayton Kershaw might be the second-coming of Los Angeles Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax, but a lovable holy trinity in Chavez Ravine these days centers on one of Major League Baseball’s more unsung heroes: Juan Uribe.

The trio of Uribe, Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig has been a signature, heartwarming segment of the Dodgers clubhouse, season and success and it was on full display Monday night.

Uribe, who has been a member of the Dodgers since signing a three-year deal in 2011, found success in Los Angeles this season because of failure last season—Luis Cruz took over Uribe’s starting job at third base, but failed to secure the role.

After batting just .204 in his first season and .191 in 2012, Uribe discovered success on Monday night because of failure yet again—this time, his own. He could not get down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the eighth inning.

With the Dodgers down 3-2—and with the Atlanta Braves six outs from taking the NLDS back home for Game 5—Yasiel Puig led off the inning with a double. But two miserable bunt attempts later, there was not a good word on Uribe to come by. It looked as though he spoiled a chance to advance the tying run and would become the menace of Game 4.

Then came a greater failure, as Braves reliever David Carpenter was unable to bury a slider into the lower half of the strike zone.

Instead of sacrificing himself in the at-bat, Uribe uncorked an uppercut hammer on the pitch that hung around the letters. He dropped his bat as a towering go-ahead, and series-clinching, home run shot through the Los Angeles night and fell into the left-field bullpen.

While the sea of Dodger Nation jumped up and down and rattled the ballpark, Uribe electrically embraced his mentee, Puig, at home plate. Then, the duo retreated to the top of the dugout steps, where Uribe exchanged a four-limb, bumping handshake with their third brother, Hanley Ramirez.

Baseball clubhouses are undoubtedly regarded as the most fraternal of locker rooms in professional sports. The fact that players must coexist for at least 162 games, from spring training until October, breeds a certain unique dynamic for each ballclub. It seeps its way into a team’s ability to cope with defeat, to pick each other up, to come from behind, to celebrate and, above all, to define itself. 

In 2013, the Dodgers have come to regard Uribe as the supreme representative of their clubhouse. General manager Ned Colletti has said of the 34-year-old Dominican, “I don’t think there’s a more beloved player or person in this room than Juan Uribe.” Matt Kemp declared, “He’s the best teammate I’ve ever played with.”

Don Mattingly told ESPN in early September of Uribe’s reputation and his ability to weather the storm after losing his starting job in 2012:

The one thing about Juan: He always, always, always played quality third base…The thing that opened our eyes was how good a teammate he was last year. Luis [Cruz] was here tearing it up and the darling of L.A. last year for a period of time, and Juan was a really good teammate. He gained a lot of respect in that clubhouse.

Although respect is often transmitted through reverence for an esteemed teammate, it is just as likely to be translated through comfortable humor with a beloved player; one who feels more like family.

This comical display has been exhibited by 22-year-old sensation Puig and 29-year-old Ramirez since the summer when the brotherly relationship began to take off. Ramirez began referring to the barrel-chested, power-hitting Uribe as “King Kong,” and he and Puig began customarily feeding the older third baseman bananas after home runs.

Throughout the season, Ramirez, who plays next door at shortstop, could even be caught clowning Uribe for his lack of range literally in the middle of an inning. 

There is a youthful exuberance in the trio’s dugout celebrations—the younger brothers-of-sorts jumping on the shoulders of the veteran Uribe as he cracks a smile. It is hard to ignore and it is part of the heart of the Dodger demeanor.

As Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles explains of the relationship and the clowning: Puig and Ramirez view Uribe as “[A] man they embrace practically as an older brother. What little brother doesn’t live for that opportunity?” But Saxon clarifies, “If it seems as if Uribe is the team clown, though, he’s quite a bit more than that. In some ways, he’s the conscience of the clubhouse…”

After Monday’s victory, Ramirez properly told Sports Illustrated that Uribe’s heroics were no surprise. “It’s the postseason,” he remarked. “That’s what we expect.” 

So for a moment, forget Magic Johnson, Vin Scully and Don Mattingly. Forget the unimaginable 48-of-50 games the Dodgers blazed through and the often-untouchable pitching staff headlined by Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

Forget them for just one moment because, for much longer, many had nearly forgotten about Uribe. He even admitted how the anxiety had begun to set in with his prolonged lack of performance.

“I felt bad when I didn’t play good,” Uribe told ESPN on Monday, reflecting on his unsuccessful first two seasons in Los Angeles. “Sometimes when you don’t play good, people don’t remember you. People forget. That’s just the way the game is.”

He has unquestionably improved this year with the help of hitting coach Mark McGwire and, on Monday, he definitely transformed Mattingly’s game plan when he fouled off two consecutive sacrifice bunt attempts. But, Uribe has never changed himself or his character.

About a month ago, following a three-homer performance against Arizona, Uribe said, “I always wanted to be a person who has respect and shows that I care and have a good heart.” He went on, “Good or bad, you still have to be the same person.”

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The New York Yankees washed the fledgling Chicago White Sox out of a rain-soaked Bronx on Labor Day, 9-1. After a one-hour, 53-minute delay at Yankee Stadium on Monday, the Bombers’ flood gates opened in an eight-run, seven-hit fourth inning.

The rout came behind the pitching strength of David Huff, who relieved Phil Hughes in the second inning with one out once the delay had ended. He went 5.2 innings—the longest relief outing of the lefty’s career—and surrendered just one earned run on five hits en route to picking up the victory. It was also just the third time this season that Huff had gone at least 3.0 innings.

The offensive barrage began with the Yankees leading 1-0 entering the bottom of the fourth. They batted around, sending 13 hitters to the plate. No Yankee left the ballpark, however, and a few of the hits during the rally didn’t even leave the infield.

They were beneficiaries of some odds and ends in the inning, including two deflected balls off the pitcher that bounced their way and, of course, defensive ineptitude.

Alex Rodriquez led the inning off with a double to right, sliding head-first into second. Next, Vernon Wells grounded one off of pitcher Dylan Alexrod’s glove and reached first. After Curtis Granderson walked to load the bases, Mark Reynolds lined one to third, but the ball trickled away from a diving Conor Gillaspie and Rodriguez came home to score the Yankees’ second run.

On the very next pitch, Austin Romine drilled a hanging slider to center, extending the lead to 4-0. Brett Gardner followed with a double of his own to score Reynolds from third, and Derek Jeter singled on the second ball to hit off of Alexrod, allowing Romine to come home on.

After a brief exhalation on a Robinson Cano pop-out, the red-hot Alfonso Soriano laced another double past Gillaspie at third and Gardner scored. Rodriguez was the 10th batter of the inning, and on a foul pop up through the silo behind home, catcher Josh Phegley added insult to injury when he failed to squeeze the potential second out of the inning.

Rodriguez ultimately walked after being granted a second life in the at-bat, loading the bases again. Alexrod was relieved, but the Sox were not. Adam Dunn fielded a Wells grounder at first, went for the force at second and promptly chucked the ball into left field, allowing two more runs to scamper home for a 9-0 lead.

The Yankees never allowed Chicago back within striking distance, convincingly taking the first of a three-game set—a series that takes place in the middle of their current 10-game homestand as they look to climb back into the AL East and postseason discussion.

In the eighth inning, manager Joe Girardi gave catcher J.R. Murphy his Major League Baseball debut, allowing him to pinch-hit for Cano. To the wild excitement of his friends and family who were in attendance, the 22-year-old reached on an infield single. According to ESPN, Murphy represented the 52nd player utilized by the Yankees this season, which breaks a franchise record from both 2005 and 2008.  

With the Tampa Bay Rays set to play the Angels tonight in the only game yet to commence, a few games relevant to the Yankees’ postseason aspirations are in the books.

The Red Sox were shut out by the Tigers, the Orioles defeated the Indians and the Athletics beat the Rangers.

At this point, New York is a half game behind Baltimore and just three back of Tampa Bay for the second wild-card spot.

They play two more against the White Sox before back-to-back four-game series with Boston and Baltimore beginning this Thursday.

Although Boston still maintains a comfortable position atop the East, New York could cut the lead in half with a great weekend and a sustained outburst from the offense.

Dating back to a 14-7 victory August 13 in Anaheim, the Yankees—traditionally one of the league’s premier slugging teams (just not this season)—have shown sporadic glimpses of scoring ability. They have put up run totals of 11, 10, nine (twice), eight (twice) and seven, respectively.

This is undoubtedly the make-or-break juncture of baseball’s final month for the New York Yankees. 

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The long summer months of Major League Baseball have perennially been referred to as “the dog days of summer.” In 2013, fans are now actually able to bring their dogs to the baseball games, as this handy schedule of “dog day” events illustrates—Sept. 9 “Puppypalooza” in Cleveland, anybody?

Thursday night, I was watching the 11 p.m. SportsCenter—cliche, I’ll admit—when a brief segment concerning Major League Baseball’s obscure and nuanced past caught my eye: “This Day in History.”

It mentioned, as ESPN.com can attest, that on August 22, 1886, a Louisville Colonels player named Chicken Wolf hit a walk-off inside-the-park home run.

But that was not the unusual part.

William Van Winkle Wolf—it seems “Chicken” couldn’t have been much worse—hit a long fly ball that didn’t clear the fence. The outfielder was unable to return the ball to home plate on time. Actually, due to a dog nipping at the outfielder’s heels—no, literally biting his leg—the fielder never even reached the ball.

Apparently, the dog had been sleeping by the outfield fence.

We have heard of Angels in the Outfield, a fictional movie released July 15, 1994, and despite our doubts as kids of such an occurrence, many of us believed a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

But Chicken Wolf is real, and he really accrued statistics and accolades over his 11-year career with the Colonels—who were known from 1882-84 as the Eclipse—and the St. Louis Browns; they are not flashy, however.

As per Baseball-Reference, he not only won the 1890 American Association (AA) batting crown (.363 in 134 games), but he made $216 as a 20-year-old Eclipse player in 1882.

Rather than continue a discussion of our new friend, Chicken, I’ve hand-picked three interesting Major League Baseball obscurities from this day in history.

The information is derived from Nationalpastime.com, a fantastic database whose slogan is “Touching Base with History.”

That said, let’s get into a few quick stories from August 23 and touch base with some obscure history.

1906: A 19th Consecutive Victory, Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators 4-1 at American League Park in Washington, D.C. for their 19th consecutive win.

The American League record would stand for almost 100 years, until the Oakland Athletics won 20 straight ballgames in 2002.

Sound familiar?

The 21st century win streak is glamorized, romanticized and probably remembered from 2011’s Moneyball, in which Brad Pitt plays general manager Billy Beane.

1961: A 12-Run, 10-hit, Five-Home Run Ninth Inning, San Francisco Giants

At the time, this home run parade tied the 1939 New York Giants’ record for a single inning. The dozen runs within the final frame were part of a 14-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field.

The home-team Reds committed three errors during the inning—because no rally of those proportions is without the simultaneous implosion of the losing team.

The five sluggers for the Giants included Orlando Cepeda, John Orsino, Felipe Alou, Willie Mays and Jim Davenport—his was an inside-the-park round-tripper. 

1989: The First Team Mascot to Be Ejected, Montreal Expos

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Expos 1-0 in a whopping 22 innings at Olympic Stadium. The more interesting loss was of the Expos’ bright and hairy mascot, “Youppi!”

Manager Tommy Lasorda—who has encountered his fair share of embarrassment, when he was knocked to the ground at the 2001 All-Star Game by a Vladimir Guerrero broken bat—complained to the umpires in the 11th inning and Youppi! was subsequently ejected, the first in history for a mascot.

From Nationalpastime.com:

Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda complains to the umpires about the hairy orange giant’s behavior at Olympic Stadium. The L.A. skipper takes exception to the loud noise caused by the hairy creature’s running leap onto the visitors’ dugout before sneaking back into a front row seat.

Stay tuned for more nuances, obscurities and stories from the final few dog days of summer, though I can’t guarantee I’ll see you at “Bark at the Park” at Citi Field on Sept. 14.

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