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With the New York Yankees being placed under a microscope because of a 9-19 stretch, starting pitcher Nestor Cortes struck a defiant tone with a tweet after the All-Star Game.
“Everyone talks down about the yanks but they wanna be us. It’s a privilege to wear pinstripes. Every year we are in contention. I’m blessed to be able to compete for a playoff spot and always be contenders at the end,” Cortes wrote on X on July 16.
Despite their poor monthlong stretch, the Yankees (58-40) are indeed in contention, and Cortes, playing in his second stint with New York, has made the playoffs in the three of the four seasons he’s played there. The club reached the American League Championship Series in 2019 and 2022. They lost their wild-card game against the Boston Red Sox in 2021. Cortes played for the Seattle Mariners in 2020.
The Yankees’ Offense Has Struggled
The big picture is that, despite their recent rough stretch, they are only one game behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East heading into the All-Star break. And they still have the third-best record in the American League, behind just the Cleveland Guardians and the Orioles.
How, the Yankees offense ranked No. 19 in runs in July after ranking inside the top 10 in April, May and June.
Meanwhile, their pitching has also struggled compared to the early parts of the season. In April they had a 3.22 team ERA. In May they held a league-best 2.37 ERA. However, in June they had a 5.27 ERA. Halfway through July, their ERA is 3.63.
The Yankees have been blown out 10 times all season. Six of those instances have come after June 12.
MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch suggested that the 2024 Yankees might have already peaked.
“Unfortunately for the Yankees, this summer swoon is no isolated incident,” Hoch wrote on July 9. “In 2022, they started 61-23 before limping toward the playoffs with a 38-40 record, carried by Judge’s pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark. They started 36-25 in 2023, then finished 46-55, missing the postseason altogether.”
General manager Brian “Cashman said that he believed manager Aaron Boone had navigated the Yankees’ slide ‘as well as he possibly can,'” Hoch wrote.
Brian Cashman’s Thoughts on the Trade Deadline & Struggles
Cashman confirmed to reporters on July 9 that the team will “be open-minded to a lot of different things” ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.
“We definitely have areas to improve upon and we’ll do our best to do so,” Cashman said.
In 2022, the Yankees started 61-23 before playing sub-.500 the rest of the way. Ultimately, they were swept by the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros. This season could shape up to be the same if the Yankees don’t turn things around.
“Thankfully, we got out of the gates really strong, so hopefully that cushion will allow us to work through this, hopefully sooner than later, because it’s gone on long enough,” Cashman said.
In 2022, the Yankees tried to right the ship with the acquisitions of Andrew Benintendi, Frankie Montas and Harrison Bader. Those additions did not yield the results the Yankees had hoped for, but 2024 could be a different story.
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