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New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez recorded the 3,000th hit of his career on a solo home run off of Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander in the first inning of Friday’s 7-2 win, joining Derek Jeter as the only players to reach the 3,000-hit mark in a Yankees uniform, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Surprisingly enough, Jeter’s milestone hit was a blast to deep left field, while Rodriguez reached 3,000 on an opposite-field homer over the short right field porch that Jeter so often took advantage of. It wasn’t a cheap home run by any means, but it also wasn’t an especially impressive one by Rodriguez’s lofty standards.

In addition to Jeter and Rodriguez, former Yankee Wade Boggs is the only other player to swat a home run for hit No. 3,000, although he did it in a Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniform, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Rodriguez is also just the second player to record his 3,000th hit off of a former Cy Young Award winner, joining another former Yankee, Dave Winfield, who accomplished the feat against Dennis Eckersley while playing for the Minnesota Twins in 1993, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info).

It should come as no surprise that Rodriguez took Verlander deep, as the 39-year-old has an impressive track record of success against the 2011 American League Cy Young Award winner.

Even after Verlander retired Rodriguez in each of his next three trips to the plate Friday night, Rodriguez has 11 hits in 32 career at-bats (.343 batting average) against the right-hander, with five home runs and 10 RBI.

Now sitting at 667 career home runs, Rodriguez has homered for 22 percent of his 3,000 hits, tops among the 29 members of the 3,000-hit club, per the New York Times.

Hank Aaron’s 755 homers lead the club in that department, and while Rodriguez is enjoying a surprisingly excellent bounce-back season, he still needs 88 more long balls to catch Hammerin’ Hank.

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Days after recording his 2,000th career RBI, Alex Rodriguez has joined another exclusive club. 

The New York Yankees designated hitter became just the 29th player in MLB history to record 3,000 hits when he smacked a solo home run in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers on Friday, according to Major League Baseball:

Rodriguez is now just the second Yankee ever to record 3,000 hits after Derek Jeter accomplished the feat four years ago. 

On June 20, Rodriguez thanked the fans and his teammates:

Known baseball collector Zack Hample was the man who recovered the ball, and he claims isn’t going to give it back:

Remarkably, Hample addressed what he would do in this scenario a day before acquiring the ball:

ESPN Stats and Info pointed out that Rodriguez is one of only three players to have homered for his 3,000th hit:

Matt Meyers of MLB.com noted he is the first No. 1 overall pick in MLB history to reach the milestone. 

“That’s a huge accomplishment,” Yankees catcher Brian McCann said Wednesday, according to the New York Post‘s Zach Braziller. “Three thousand hits is incredible, 2,000 RBIs. His career has been amazing. He’s one of the best players to ever put on a uniform.”

Bleacher Report congratulated Rodriguez on his milestone on Instagram:

According to Baseball-Reference.com, all but three players in the 3,000-hit club have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although that list is almost certain to shrink to two players when Jeter becomes eligible in 2020. The other two are all-time hit leader Pete Rose and former Texas Rangers slugger Rafael Palmeiro, each of whom purveys stigmatized resumes. 

“Players who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, including [Barry] Bonds, have not been voted into the Hall,” ESPN.com’s Andrew Marchand wrote. “Rafael Palmeiro, with 3,020 hits, 569 homers, a congressional finger wag and a PED suspension, fell off the ballot after four years.”

While questions regarding his potential enshrinement in Cooperstown will linger following admissions of performance-enhancing-drug use, Rodriguez is primed to climb higher up the all-time hit list during a season that’s been marked by a relative resurgence.

“I think we would all take a do-over in some parts of our lives,” Rodriguez said, per Marchand. “There are no do-overs. All I can do now is control what I can control. I’m having a lot of fun playing ball.”

With 61 hits already under his belt during the 2015 campaign, A-Rod should have no problem surpassing some batting legends as he wields a hot bat. Now tied with Roberto Clemente—who finished his career with an even 3,000—Rodriguez has his sights set on Al Kaline, Wade Boggs, Palmeiro and Lou Brock.  

Although the 39-year-old’s career has been mired in controversy over the past few years, there’s no denying he will go down as one of the greatest hitters in MLB history.

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The New York Yankees find themselves in an interesting position as we approach the trade deadline.

The team wasn’t exactly expected to compete this year, at least not for a division title. However, after 63 games, the Yankees are just one game back of the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays and firmly in the running for a wild-card spot.

The team needs to keep pace with the rest of the division, and the best way to do so is through the trade market. A number of interesting options are thought to be available come the July 31 trade deadline, including a number of starting pitchers, as well as Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

If the Yankees are serious about competing this year, then they’ll have to show a slight change in the direction of their franchise and exhibit a willingness to deal off some of their more highly touted prospects. While the idea of doing that may scare a number of fans who grew fond of their newfound willingness to hold on to, and develop young players, it’s important to keep in mind that this team, as presently constituted, has a very limited window to compete within.

So, assuming the Yankees take to the trade market in the coming weeks, here are a few areas the front office should look to improve upon before that July 31 deadline.

Shortstop/Second Base… Or Both

Let’s be frank, the Yankees’ middle-infield situation is arguably the least enviable in Major League Baseball.

Consider where each of Didi Gregorius and Stephen Drew rank in several key offensive metrics among qualified players at their respective positions—keep in mind, there are only 21 qualified shortstops and 22 qualified second basemen in Major League Baseball.

Sure, Drew is the second-leading home run hitter among second basemen, but outside of that, there’s nothing to write home about with this duo. In fact, both Gregorius and Drew rank at or near the bottom of each category referenced above.

Meanwhile, look around the division, and it seems as though everyone else is much better off—aside from maybe the Tampa Bay Rays.

Even on the Yankees’ own roster, this stands out as arguably the biggest weakness.

Only three of the team’s starting position players have a batting average below the .250 mark, those being Gregorius, Drew and Carlos Beltran. Similarly, the same three players sport on-base percentage marks below .300. 

Beltran could probably be replaced slightly easier given the lack of middle-infield depth around the league. That said, Gregorius and Drew have been some of the least productive players in baseball.

In fact, out of 167 qualified big leaguers, Gregorius and Drew rank 154th and 160th, respectively, in wRC+, per Fangraphs.com. In short, the Yankees need something to change with their middle-infield situation.

One More Starter

This idea went from more of a luxury to a bit of a necessity given the recent string of events surrounding the team’s starting rotation.

So far this year, the team’s rotation has been pretty much what everyone expected it to be, a mix of bad and good. Take a look at the chart below to see how the team’s current rotation options have fared through the first 63 games of the season.

It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. 

Masahiro Tanaka, when healthy, has been downright dominant. Meanwhile, Adam Warren has been outstanding over his last seven starts, lowering his ERA from 4.78 to 3.78 in that time.

However, outside of that, a number of question marks exist.

CC Sabathia has been beyond hittable, allowing 11.2 hits per-nine, along with an unsightly 1.6 HR/9 ratio. Behind him, Nathan Eovaldi hasn’t been what the team hoped he would be, and Michael Pineda has been streaky.

Pineda, in particular, is a troubling case, as his last five starts have been nothing short of awful. Pineda came into his May 15 start with a sparkling 2.72 ERA, but he has since seen that mark balloon out to 3.74 after allowing a whopping 17 earned runs over five starts—28.1 innings pitched.

Maybe the team waits it out with the hope that their five starters can hold down the fort long enough before they have a surplus of options—Ivan Nova is set to return sometime in the very near future. Or, maybe they make a move to put them over the top and set themselves up for immediate success.

According to Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi, both the Yankees and Tigers had a scout at Wrigley to check in on Cincinnati Reds ace Johnny Cueto.

George A. King III of the New York Post expanded on those sentiments in his June 14 article. King noted that team scout Jeff Datz was sent to Wrigley Field on Friday (June 12) and Saturday (June 13) to observe right-handers Cueto and Mike Leake.

Both players are slated to hit the open market at the end of the 2015 season, with Leake being easily the more affordable long-term option of the two. That said, Cueto is easily the better option for a team hoping to make, and compete in, the 2015 playoffs.

Getting Cueto, well, that’s not going to be cheap. So far, according to King, players like “Ramon Flores, Mason Williams and Bryan Mitchell might be attractive as part of a package.”

The Reds are certainly searching for quality over quantity, as a trade of Cueto would signal a full-blown rebuild on their end. Don’t take King’s words out of context, though, as hoping for the Yankees to deal Flores, Williams and Mitchell, who rank as the team’s No. 25, No. 26 and No. 14 prospects, respectively—per MLB.com—for Cueto is nothing short of a pipe dream.

In any event, the fact that the Yankees are checking in on Cueto and Leake shows that they aren’t content with their current rotation options. So, it’s fair to expect a move on this front.

All stats current through play on Jun 15, 2015 and are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The immediate thought was “bust” after the 2014 season.

Maybe because it was the New York Yankees paying out the contract and were already in the process of paying out a few others that could be labeled in a similar way—Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran. It could have been that the player was starting a huge long-term contract shortly after his 30th birthday.

But most of all, it was Brian McCann’s numbers. All of them, from the five years and $85 million on his deal to his .232/.286/.406 slash line and .692 OPS. All were below 2014 American League averages except for his .406 slugging percentage, and they all shouted McCann’s could be another fat contract the Yankees would regret agreeing to.

There was even the belief that McCann, a heavy-hitting catcher from Athens, Georgia, could not handle playing under the hot spotlights in New York.

“New York is not Brian. That’s my opinion,” Terry Pendleton, McCann’s former hitting coach with the Atlanta Braves, told the New York Post‘s Dan Martin about a year ago as McCann struggled in his first season with the Yankees. “I knew if he chose New York, there would be more than he expected or knew about. He’ll never be comfortable with that.

“If I had to choose where he went, nothing against the Yankees, they’re one of the best organizations around,” Pendleton added, “but I think he’d be more comfortable in Texas.”

That was a strong opinion and made national news last July. But a calendar year later, the outlook on McCann has drastically changed.

@BBTN Brian McCann.

— Adam Caragine (@AJCaragine13) June 15, 2015

McCann is fourth among catchers in American League All-Star balloting, but he is more than six million votes behind Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez, so he has no chance to start. But that McCann had nine home runs, 39 RBI and a .264/.324/.473 line through Sunday means he could be a reserve. His .796 OPS, .342 weighted on-base average (wOBA), 118 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) and 1.6 WAR in the same time frame were all better than Perez, according to Fangraphs.

That WAR also is second on the Yankees among position players.

McCann making an All-Star team would be a nice accolade. More important than his candidacy, though, is that his offensive numbers are playing a critical role in the Yankees being at or around the top of the AL East standings all season.

McCann was mostly healthy last year—he missed six games because of a concussion and two with a sore foot—so his poor production was baffling, especially when you consider he averaged an .827 OPS, 119 OPS+ and 21 home runs for the Braves in the previous eight seasons, according to Baseball-Reference. He also made seven All-Star teams in that time.

Last season was bad overall, but it was particularly bad in the second half. Despite 12 home runs in August and September giving him a respectable season total of 23, McCann hit .219 in August and .222 in September. His OBPs were .282 and .281, respectively. His power and ability to handle the pitching staff were the only things that justified keeping him in the lineup, because he was mostly bad in every other offensive aspect.

This season there is no such concern about McCann’s offensive abilities. The home runs are still there as he’s taken advantage of his left-handed swing and Yankee Stadium’s short right-field fence, with seven of his nine homers coming at home, and all of them having been pull shots, via ESPN Home Run Tracker.

He’s been the team’s best hitter at home. His .464 wOBA and 201 wRC+ lead the team at Yankee Stadium, as do his .414 OBP and .696 OPS through Sunday.

“It’s one of the big reasons we went and got him, because we thought his swing was built for this ballpark,” manager Joe Girardi told the New York Post‘s Howie Kussoy. “It’s shown up.”

McCann himself understands the importance of taking advantage of his surroundings.

“It sets up good for my swing. It’s nice hitting here,” McCann told Kussoy. “When you’re hitting top of the rotation starters, that’s what good teams do.”

McCann has been a bit luckier this season, his BABIP rising by 48 points proving as much. Aside from that, making slightly less soft contact and taking more strikes, which has led to a nearly 4 percent strikeout increase, there is not a lot to tell us why McCann has been a better hitter.

As long as it continues to happen, McCann will no longer be viewed as another of the Yankees’ busted acquisitions, and the better their chances to return to the postseason for the first time since 2012.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The lightening rod has struck again. And with that, his critics will surely strike back.

Alex Rodriguez woke up Saturday with 1,999 RBIs to his professional name. How he was aided in getting them—his immense offensive talent, his teammates being on base and, of course, the drugs—is irrelevant to the record books.

By the time he laid his manicured head on a Baltimore hotel pillow, A-Rod had taken down another milestone. His 666^th career home run produced RBI Nos. 2,000 and 2,001 on Saturday, making him just the second official major league player to, somewhat literally, have a ton of RBIs.

Alex Rodriguez becomes the 2nd player to reach 2,000 RBI since the stat became official in 1920. pic.twitter.com/6UJ4oRTvKY

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 14, 2015

He trails only Henry Aaron’s 2,297 in the Major League Baseball hall of records since the game did not tally RBIs before 1920. Aaron holds the all-time unofficial record, with Babe Ruth (2,214), Cap Anson (2,075) and now the game’s all-time most controversial player as the only others in the club.

Career RBI leaders (since baseball actually was played before 1920): Hank Aaron 2297, Babe Ruth 2214, Cap Anson 2075, Alex Rodriguez 2001.

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) June 14, 2015

People will undoubtedly scoff at Rodriguez’s numbers. He brought that criticism on himself when he decided to tangle with performance-enhancing drugs only to be outed twice, the second squealing costing him all of the 2014 season.

His team, the New York Yankees, barely acknowledge his feats anymore because of all of it. One home run no more special the previous or the next, 2,000 RBIs no different than No. 1,999 except for the fact that they are helping keep the Yankees afloat in the thick American League East as Rodriguez vies for the league’s Comeback Player of the Year honor.

But just because the Yankees brass has decided not to honor, or pay, Rodriguez when he reaches certain milestones, it does not mean it is not special. Baseball loves its record book, and like it or not, A-Rod is all over it and in rarefied company.

Not Barry Bonds, not Lou Gehrig, not Stan Musial, not Ty Cobb or anybody else who has ever played the game aside from the others mentioned before have collected 2,000 RBIs. When a player is better than those men at anything that has to do with playing baseball, he should to be appreciated.

Rodriguez’s PED scandals have not just tarnished his reputation. In the eyes of many baseball players, executives, media members and fans, they have scribbled all over the hallowed record book with a brightly colored permanent marker, transforming a masterpiece into a joke.

Rodriguez is obviously not the only player to do so, but he is the best and most heavily scarred. He is the face of an era, in the most despised way possible.

Because of that, it is easy to ignore his greatness or simply brush it off as a product of synthetic [insert substance here]. It should not be that way.

While an RBI is not a great way to determine a player’s production or value, it still means something. And reaching a number that only three other magnificent offensive players before him have should not diminish the entirety of Rodriguez’s accomplishment.

The same can be said about his 600^th home run, or when he recently passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. It will hold true again next week when Rodriguez becomes the 29^th member of the 3,000-hit club.

People might not like how or what he used to get there, but the sheer impressiveness of the feats should not be lost on them, or anyone.

And that Rodriguez is this productive as he approaches his 40^th birthday is impressive as well. Considering the last time we saw him in the batter’s box before this season he was a mess, his 11 home runs and .883 OPS as the team’s No. 3 hitter are almost shocking.

7 of A-Rod’s 12 HR this year have either tied the game or given the Yankees the lead.

— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) June 14, 2015

Then we remember that we are talking about maybe the most prolific hitter the game has ever employed, with or without the artificial flavoring.

In a society that loves to forgive its stars after it chastises them, there is none of it for A-Rod. He’s for too long attempted to fool baseball fans and lie about it. And in a game that is rooted in and sometimes defined by its history, that is something a player just can’t do, no matter how great he is or was.

As long as he remains healthy, Rodriguez will keep on knocking over milestones and climbing higher in the record book. Baseball and its fans will continue to despise him for it. It’s just how things works these days when it comes to Rodriguez.

Even if that is the case, though, his accomplishments should still be appreciated and celebrated.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Alex Rodriguez has crossed various statistical plateaus during the 2015 MLB season and added another achievement to the list Saturday night against the Baltimore Orioles.

The New York Yankees third baseman hit a two-run home run in the top of the sixth inning, which put him at 2,001 runs batted in over his illustrious career. Since the RBI became an officially recognized and recorded stat, only one other player in baseball history has eclipsed 2,000, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Rodriguez has been one of the Yankees’ best hitters this year, which is impressive considering he missed the entire 2014 season. His 11 home runs and .505 slugging percentage are second on the team, while he’s also third in batting average (.275) and RBI (30).

Looking to the future, Rodriguez could potentially pass Hank Aaron for first on the all-time RBI list, but the chances seem a little slim. Assuming he finishes with 80 or 90 RBI this year, the 39-year-old would still need a couple hundred more to move ahead of “Hammerin’ Hank.”

That’s a lot to ask of a player who turns 40 in July.

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The New York Yankees called up Mason Williams less than 24 hours ago, and the young kid wasted no time making an impact. 

During the fourth inning against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, Williams hit a monster two-run home run to cut the Orioles’ lead to two. It was the outfielder’s first career hit.

The best part about all of this? The family you see going insane is Williams’ family. Listen to what his mom has to say about this awesome moment. 

[MLB, ESPN]

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In the middle of the New York Yankees‘ lineup, you can find two aging hitters who seemed to be past their primes but are now hitting as if they’ve found the fountain of youth.

The one who’s gotten the most press is Alex Rodriguez, and deservedly so. But we’re going to give some overdue credit to the other guy: Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira came into Friday’s contest against the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium with two home runs in his last three games. And he made it three out of four with a two-run shot off Jered Weaver in the third inning. That doubled the Yankees’ lead to 4-0, and it proved to be pretty important when the Angels mounted a six-run ninth-inning rally that fell just short as the Yankees won by an 8-7 final.

At any rate, Teixeira now has 17 homers. That ranks second in the majors behind only Nelson Cruz, Bryce Harper and Giancarlo Stanton. Also, Teixeira’s 17 dingers put him on pace to shatter the mark of 22 homers he hit in his age-34 season in 2014.

To boot, it’s not all about the home runs.

The 35-year-old switch-hitting first baseman is also getting on base at a .353 clip. Add that to a .581 slugging percentage, and you get a .934 OPS. For all the attention A-Rod has gotten, his own .904 OPS falls 30 points shy of matching Teixeira’s.

To be sure, A-Rod deserves props for the role he’s played in getting the Yankees to their AL East-leading 30-25 record. So do Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Michael Pineda, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. But of all the reasons the Yankees are where they are, Teixeira’s resurgence belongs near the top of the list.

By all rights, this shouldn’t be the case. Teixeira is old by baseball standards, and he certainly looked it in playing through three injury-marred, modestly productive seasons from 2012 to 2014. Why should he be back now?

Short version? He’s worked hard for this.

If older hitters could push a button and make themselves younger, all of them would do so. It’s a real shame they can’t. Really, the best they can do is get healthy and live healthy.

To these ends, Teixeira might as well be the new poster boy for getting and living healthy.

Among the changes Teixeira made over the offseason was a new diet that, as he outlined to Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal, was meant to curb inflammation in his body. He also hired a new trainer and was able to pursue a full workout regimen rather than rehab the wrist injury that sidelined him for much of 2013 and lingered into the winter.

“We really attacked all of the issues I’ve been having,” he told Erik Boland of Newsday. “I got myself really strong. I was weaker than I’ve probably ever been in my entire career last year because of the [wrist] injury the year before, not being able to work out like I usually do…I feel like a kid again.”

Granted, because all of this came out during spring training, it sounded like standard “Best Shape of His Life” stuff. But two months into the season, it sure looks like Teixeira’s efforts have paid off. 

But there’s also more to Teixeira’s revival than his benefiting from changes he’s made outside the lines. He’s also benefiting from some changes he’s made inside the lines.

One is actually a carryover from 2014. Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues broke down how Teixeira had changed things up in the batter’s box by closing his stance and lowering the position of his hands. This allowed his swing to be more compact, and it’s working even better for him this year than it did last season.

One way you can tell is by looking at how Teixeira has been able to catch up to fastballs. Per Brooks Baseball, Teixeira has gone from hitting .218 against the heat to .278 against it.

Aside from that, another apparent benefit of Teixeira’s more compact swing is a lower whiff rate. He’s swinging and missing at only 7.7 percent of the pitches he sees, a full tick below the 8.7 whiff rate he had last year.

Of course, it also helps that Teixeira is being more selective about the pitches he swings at. He’s gone from chasing pitches outside the zone at a 28.1 percent rate in 2014 to just a 22.0 percent rate this year. While his discipline has always been good, this year it’s worthy of Joey Votto.

Last but not least, we have Teixeira’s batted-ball profile. With a 40.5 fly-ball percentage, he’s hitting the ball in the air at a higher rate than he’s done in a full season since 2013. He’s also pulling the ball a career-high 57.4 percent of the time.

This would be the stats-geek way of saying that Teixeira is doing everything he can to maximize his power potential, as strong guys who hit the ball in the air to their pull sides are indeed putting themselves in a position to hit dingers. That’s what Teixeira has been doing, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s been so successful hitting the ball over the fence.

Is it all too good to be true? More than likely, yes. Teixeira is on pace to hit 50 home runs and finish with his best OPS since his first season with the Yankees back in 2009. FanGraphs‘ projections see regressions across the board, and those are bound to come true eventually.

No amount of regression, however, is likely to keep the 2015 season from being Teixeira’s best in years. 

It’s a stretch to say that Teixeira has completely remade himself. In many aspects, he’s the same hitter he’s always been. Strength, discipline and lots of fly balls to his pull side have been Teixeira’s defining characteristics since he first set foot in the big leagues back in 2003.

But though he may not be doing anything new, Teixeira is simply doing his usual thing better than he was able to in the last three seasons. He’s had to make some changes to pull it off, but it’s all been worth it.

For him, it’s meant a return to status as one of the game’s elite hitters that he enjoyed for many years. And for the Yankees, well, it’s never bad to have a player like that in the middle of your lineup.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Garrett Jones pitched.

Got that? Garrett Jones, backup first baseman and backup designated hitter, pitched Saturday. 

For the New York Yankees.

In a real game.

And he was their most effective arm.

Garrett Jones lived out his dream…and it was awesome. He was our best pitcher of the day…and that’s sad.

— Delia Enriquez (@dfiregirl4) May 23, 2015

You can look at Garrett Jones’ 1 HR on Memorial Day weekend as bad or glass half full the most by any #Yankees pitcher

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 23, 2015

Garrett Jones named as Thursday starter.

— Jeff Bradley (@JerseyJBradley) May 23, 2015

That is where this season has sunk to for the Yankees, a team with one win in its last 10 games. It had a four-game lead in the American League East just last week but now trails by 1.5 and was shellacked 15-4 by the Texas Rangers on Saturday. Lopsided losses like that tend to happen when you give up 10 runs in an inning a day after allowing 10 total.

“We got embarrassed,” outfielder Brett Gardner told reporters. “It seems about as bad as it can get.”

That is an agreeable statement, to say the least. However, there are reasons to think things could get worse and we are just witnessing the start of the end of the Yankees’ early-season success story.

Their run to the top of the standings peaked with an 11-5 win at Tampa Bay on May 11. To that point, the offense was performing well with a .759 OPS, 43 home runs and a 4.8 run-per-game average.

In its 10 games since that win, New York has cratered. Going into Saturday, the Yankees were hitting .223/.277/.333 with a .610 OPS and 3.1 runs per game. The lineup managed to make itself appear somewhat respectable Saturday with seven hits and a couple of homers. But considering all four runs were scored after the outcome was decided, that’s not worth celebrating.

Jacoby Ellsbury, one of the team’s better offensive contributors this season, has not played since Tuesday after landing on the disabled list with a knee issue. There is no timetable for his return, and manager Joe Girardi thinks it will take more than the minimum 15 days for him to recover.

More worrisome is the starting pitching, a group that has been shaky all season but seems to be getting worse by the game at this point. The rotation’s May ERA is now 5.08, the worst in the league.

It took over that top/bottom spot Saturday after what was CC Sabathia’s ugliest outing since his fall from baseball grace started in 2013—and his shortest since 2009. The former ace lasted 2.1 innings and allowed six earned runs on seven hits, all of them singles. The start pushed Sabathia’s ERA to 5.47, the sixth-highest posting among qualified AL starters.

Based on what we’ve seen from Sabathia so far, there is no indication that things will get better in the near future.

Lower than CC Sabathia’s ERA https://t.co/ONKxP2UhX1

— Chris Detje (@cdetje) May 24, 2015

Michael Pineda, the man tasked with helping Masahiro Tanaka lead the rotation this season and then with leading it himself after Tanaka’s forearm injury in late April, has been disappointing through nine starts, including Friday’s in which he allowed eight hits and seven runs (four earned) in six innings. He lost that decision despite the offense scoring nine runs.

Pineda has shown flashes of dominance—eight shutout innings in Toronto on May 5—but too often he has flopped—five earned runs over 5.1 innings on May 15—leading to his 110 adjusted ERA, which is only reasonably better than league average.

Tanaka’s second rehab start will happen Wednesday, and it’s possible he could rejoin the rotation after that. He could provide significant help, but his health will be a constant question mark after this DL stint and last season’s partial ulnar collateral ligament tear that landed him on the 60-day DL.

This is not rock bottom for the Yankees, because they could retake first place by this time next week. Also because that would assume things could not get any worse.

They could, as soon as Sunday.

After allowing 25 runs in two games to a team that was five games under .500 before this series and 11th out of 15 AL teams in slugging percentage, OPS and weighted runs created plus, according to Fangraphs, the Yankees will send out Chris Capuano. The veteran left-hander has made one start this season—last Sunday—and allowed four runs in three innings.

Counting on him to be a stopper is a sure sign of desperation, especially before hosting the first-place Kansas City Royals, the best offensive team in the league.

“They happen during the season,” Girardi told reporters about losing trends. “It’s no fun when you go through it. You don’t expect to go through it for this long a period. We need to change it.”

The Yankees certainly do. It just not might happen anytime soon, especially if Garrett Jones continues to be their most effective pitcher.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Officially, the New York Yankees will be in the capital over the next two days for a two-game series against the Washington Nationals.

But they can also do some window shopping while they’re there, with one particular item at the top of their wish list: Bryce Harper. It’ll likely be a while before the Yankees actually have a shot at him, but this is their chance to at least imagine how great he would look in pinstripes.

The first and only time the Yankees got an up-close look at Washington’s young right fielder before this week was back in June of 2012. He was just a 19-year-old pup at the time and was basically still a prospect with only 40-odd major league games under his belt.

Harper’s going to look a little different this time around. He’s now older and wiser at 22, and these days he’s the game’s most dominant player.

In the last two weeks, Harper has turned into the Human Torch. He’s batting an absurd .564 with a 2.038 OPS in his last 11 games, with nine home runs, 18 runs scored and 22 RBI to boot.

Overall, Harper’s numbers for the 2015 season now border on absurd. He’s hitting .338 and leading the National League with 14 home runs. He also entered Monday leading the majors in on-base percentage (.476), slugging percentage (.729), OPS (1.206) and, whether you ask FanGraphs or Baseball-Reference.com, wins above replacement.

And it all doesn’t feel too good to be true.

There was no question coming into 2015 that Harper had the talent to be an elite player. He had entered the league as one of the most hyped prospects in baseball history, and he authored a perfectly respectable .272/.351/.465 batting line with 55 home runs in his first three seasons.

Seemingly all Harper had to do to realize his full potential in 2015 was stay healthy, and he’s done that and more. His dominance stems from an overhauled approach and, as Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs highlighted, a simplified swing that allows for better pitch recognition and more effortless power.

It’s a stretch to say Harper’s career has been resurrected, but that’s the way it feels after injuries cost him so much playing time and production in 2013 and 2014. Thanks to his epic turnaround, everyone is once again free to be super-duper excited about his future.

And that’s where the Yankees come in. For as Harper’s future figures to be bright no matter what, you don’t need to be a Yankee executive to see just how bright it could be in New York.

You’re probably already thinking what I’m thinking, so let’s just be out with it: Put Harper in Yankee Stadium, and he’d become a monster even Guillermo Del Toro wouldn’t want to mess with.

Harper is a left-handed slugger, after all. And with its cartoonishly short right-field porch, no stadium is more infamous for catering to those than Yankee Stadium. That reputation is well earned, as FanGraphs’ park factors highlight it as the best place for lefty home-run hitters outside of Coors Field.

What’s more, Harper is just the kind of hitter who could regularly exploit such an advantage. He was already a good pull hitter before. Now he’s an elite pull hitter.

As these figures from FanGraphs show, Harper is pulling the ball (Pull%) more often, and doing so with more fly balls (FB%) and more hard contact (Hard%) than ever before, resulting in a career-best batting average and power production (ISO):

That Harper is doing this at all is impressive enough on its own. That he’s translating it into results at a home stadium that doesn’t cater to left-handed power hitters makes it even more impressive.

For perspective on that, Baseball-Reference.com says Harper would be hitting .353 with a 1.256 OPS and 15 home runs in a neutral environment. Knowing that, you can only imagine what he could be doing at a much-kinder-than-neutral environment like Yankee Stadium.

If what happens between the lines is all you care about, you should already be sold on what Harper could do as a Yankee. But since we’re talking about the Yankees and a superstar player, it’s hard to ignore that there might be no player in the majors more perfectly cut out to be a Yankee.

It’s not just that he apparently wants to be a great Yankee, though that is part of it. Harper idolizes Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. He’s openly rooted for the Yankees on Twitter. And according to a guy who wrote the actual book on Harper, it’s “been a goal” of his to end up in pinstripes.

Even more important than the apparent desire, however, is how Harper has just the right kind of attitude to thrive in pinstripes.

Harper has the kind of confidence that borders on arrogance, and that’s rubbed plenty of people the wrong way. But it really suits him now that he’s establishing himself as the lethal force he was always projected to be. If he were to take this act to New York, he could be the Yankees’ answer to New York Mets ace Matt Harvey and their most Reggie Jackson-like player since, well, Reggie Jackson.

In light of the drop-offs in their attendance and local TV ratings since 2010, the Yankees could use a player like that right now. Surely, they’re going to need one even more in the near future once stars like Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia begin to slip away.

And while the Yankees do have two really good-looking prospects in Luis Severino and Aaron Judge, they’re obviously not the sure things Harper has become. At the least, trying to cultivate them into superstars shouldn’t preclude the Yankees from trying to go really big with Harper as soon as they can.

To that end, the Yankees can set their sights on the winter of 2018-2019.

Harper’s free agency isn’t imminent. It won’t come until after his age-25 season in 2018, putting it three-and-a-half years away.

And yes, there is the possibility Harper won’t make it to free agency.

There hasn’t been much buzz about the Nationals signing him to a long-term contract extension, but Harper’s ongoing rise to superstardom could light a fire under the Nationals front office. And if the club’s dispute with the Baltimore Orioles over television earnings is indeed resolved in the near future, it could soon find itself with some extra funds for the task.

Even then, however, locking up Harper could be tough.

The reality that Harper and the Nationals haven’t always been on the best of terms could come back to bite Washington at the negotiating table. There’s also the reality that Scott Boras doesn’t seem interested in letting Harper make like Mike Trout and settle for a team-friendly deal.

“I have the pleasure and privilege of watching Mike Trout play every night,” said the super-agent last March, via the Washington Post‘s Adam Kilgore. “I think he’s a very special cup of tea, for which he is deserving of a completely different brew. While few, I definitely consider Bryce Harper as part of the next generation of elite brand of teas. Certainly as a studied connoisseur, I may hold a differing opinion as to the availability, demand and value of tea futures.”

It sounds like Boras would prefer a deal more like what he had in mind for Harper back in 2013. That was a 12-year contract, which was unheard of at the time.

But not anymore, as the Miami Marlins created a precedent for one of those when they inked Giancarlo Stanton to a 13-year, $325 million contract in November. If Boras were to use that as a model for Harper, the rate at which his star is rising could make Stanton’s figures a mere starting point.

If that were to be too much for the Nationals, they’d have two options: Find a taker for Harper in a trade, or hold on to him until free agency. Since they’re presumably still going to be a major power in the NL East over the next three seasons, however, holding on to Harper would be their only real option.

If free agency after 2018 is what it comes to for Harper, the Yankees will have every reason to be first in line.

There are obviously all the reasons Harper would look good in Yankees pinstripes, and then there’s the financial side of the equation. Even if the bidding for Harper’s services were to be pushed into double-digit years and upward of $30 million per year, the Yankees could make it work.

They’re never short on funds, and by then they should have more than enough room for Harper on their payroll. After 2018, they’ll be free of A-Rod, Teixeira, Sabathia, Carlos Beltran, Chase Headley, Andrew Miller and perhaps Brian McCann. Hence why their commitments for 2019 stand at only $45 million, per Baseball Prospectus.

So, never mind why the Yankees should have Harper at the top of their wish list. The real question is why not? He’s a perfect player for them, and he could become available at the perfect time.

For now, the Yankees must bide their time. Rather than pry him away on the spot or steal him away on the night, all the Yankees can do in Harper’s presence over the next two days is imagine and, indeed, yearn for the possibilities.

That, and enjoy the show.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

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