NEW YORK — The problem is not power. The Yankees have plenty of that when healthy. The problem is that nobody is putting the ball in play.
Strikeouts have piled up. Rallies have died on the vine. New York ranks 25th in the majors in team batting average at .235, a number that would embarrass a rebuilding club, let alone one chasing a title.
The slump has a scoreboard cost. The Yankees have lost nine of 10 and are 4-13 over their last 17 games. A division lead of 3.5 games as recently as June 17 has turned into a four-game deficit behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are both hurt. Their absence has drained the middle of the order. Max Fried and Carlos Rodon have spent time on the shelf as well. The pileup has exposed a lineup that was built around thump and little else.
The deeper flaw is the swing-and-miss. New York is tied for fifth in the majors in strikeout rate at 23.6 percent. When the home runs stop, there is no fallback. The offense has slipped to 10th in the league in runs, a steep fall for a club that spent April bludgeoning opponents.
The front office cannot wait on the training room to solve this. It has to find a way to score now. Fortunately for the Yankees, the trade market is about to open, and the calendar works in their favor. Several also-rans are ready to sell, and one of them holds exactly the kind of hitter this roster is missing.
The name generating the most buzz is a three-time batting champion who is almost certainly available. He plays for a team going nowhere. He is a pending free agent on a cheap, expiring deal. And one prominent voice has spent the week insisting he is the exact medicine the Yankees need. The only catch is that fitting him onto the roster is harder than the highlight reel suggests.
The name at the center of the noise
The target is Luis Arraez, the San Francisco second baseman and one of the purest hitters in the sport. He is batting .326 with an .823 OPS and 46 runs scored, even while stuck in a lineup that ranks near the bottom of the majors in offense.
Arraez does not hit for power. He has just four home runs this season. What he offers is the one thing the Yankees lack. He almost never strikes out. He sprays line drives to all fields. He gets on base and keeps innings alive.
The price would be reasonable. Arraez is signed only through this season at $12 million, which makes him a rental. The Giants sit at 37-52, own one of the worst records in the National League, and are expected to sell before the Aug. 3 deadline. A short-term veteran on an expiring deal rarely costs a fortune.
He is also a fresh All-Star. Arraez was selected to the National League squad, and one report labeled him the All-Star most likely to be traded before the deadline.
Why an insider calls him a perfect fit
The loudest push comes from ESPN’s Buster Olney, a former Yankees beat writer. He argued on radio this week that the club cannot simply wait for its stars to heal, and that a steady bat would change the shape of the entire lineup.
“Their offense needs a jolt,” Olney said.
Olney’s vision goes beyond the current injuries. He sees Arraez as a hitter who makes the players around him more dangerous. A contact bat behind Judge, he explained, forces pitchers to throw to the captain rather than around him.
“To me, he’s the perfect guy to add right in this moment,” Olney said.
Olney also pointed to the ballpark. New York’s lineup leans heavily right-handed, and Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch rewards left-handed swings. Arraez bats from the left side.
“A left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium,” Olney said. “You can’t go wrong.”
Where the roster math gets complicated
The idea is clean. The execution is not. Arraez plays second base, and the Yankees already have Jazz Chisholm Jr. there. Adding Arraez would likely push Chisholm back to third.
That creates a problem. Third base belongs to Ryan McMahon, who is signed beyond this season and earns too much to sit on the bench. Making room for Arraez would probably mean trading McMahon and eating part of his contract, a messier and costlier sequence than a single deadline swap.
There is defense to weigh too. Arraez has quietly improved with the glove, posting 10 outs above average at second base, a mark in the 99th percentile. That would be an upgrade for a team that ranks 28th in the majors in unearned runs with 51.
Blue Jays’ interest complicates Yankees’ trade chase
The Yankees’ trade for the contact bat may have a division problem attached to it.
The Blue Jays are also interesyed in Luis Arraez, setting up the possibility of a direct bidding fight between New York and Toronto.
That matters because the Yankees’ need is clear. Their lineup has leaned too often on power swings and has lacked the kind of steady contact hitter who can extend innings, move runners and force pitchers to work. Arraez would offer a different shape to the offense. He is not the classic Yankees slugger type, but that may be exactly why he stands out.
The Blue Jays’ presence would make the chase harder.
Toronto’s interest could push the Yankees into a more uncomfortable deadline choice. If both clubs see Arraez as a fit, the price could rise. The Yankees would then have to decide whether a high-contact bat is worth the prospect cost and the roster shuffle that would follow.
There is also a rivalry layer. Letting Toronto land Arraez would not just mean missing on a target. It could mean watching a division opponent add the same offensive trait the Yankees badly need.
For New York, Arraez represents both a fix and a complication. His bat would help address one of the team’s most visible flaws. But Toronto’s involvement could turn a useful trade idea into a messy AL East race.
The Yankees may like the fit. The Blue Jays may like it too. That is where the problem begins.
The bigger question hanging over the Bronx
The deeper issue is whether one hitter can fix a team this cold. The Yankees are 13-17 without Judge, the two-time reigning AL MVP, who has not played since May 31. Even Olney warned that the current slide is not a passing storm.
Boone’s Yankees have been streaky before. They have survived long droughts and still reached October. That history gives some fans reason to stay calm. It also explains why the front office may hesitate to overpay for a rental when the stars are due back.
For now, Arraez remains a Giant, and the Yankees remain in a rut. The deadline is weeks away. Whether Brian Cashman decides a metronome bat is worth the roster shuffle is the question that will hang over the Bronx until early August.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
Arraez should have been a Yankee in Tampa this spring. Get him now. Let Chaz Jizzm sit the bench; he’s poison, as Marlins discovered and are not suffering in the slightest from his departure to the sucker Yankees, who don’t recognize talent and instead deal in mirages like Volpe, Wells, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Kei Igawa. I doubt Cashman, the coffee boy at the time, would have elevated Jeter back in 95.