NEW YORK — For 72 games, the Yankees owned the best offense in the American League. They were on pace for 245 home runs and 101 wins, and the lineup looked like the club’s least pressing concern.
Then the bottom fell out. Over the next stretch the Yankees went 5-15 while posting the lowest-scoring offense in baseball, hitting .186 as a team. The captain’s absence turned a strength into a hole.
Aaron Judge has not played since early June. The Yankees placed him on the injured list June 5 with a stress fracture in his right first rib, and reimaging during the All-Star break will determine whether he can increase activity. An August return is considered possible, not certain.
The reinforcements have not arrived from inside. Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt both cooled off after strong starts. With the Aug. 3 deadline approaching, one name from the American League West has surfaced as a target who could steady the lineup.
The name on the board
The player is a 26-year-old infielder and outfielder for the Athletics. Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller included him in a set of realistic deadline trades for contenders, pairing the Yankees with the Athletics in a swap built around pitching.
The proposal sends right-handers Carlos Lagrange and Eric Reyzelman to the Athletics for Zack Gelof. Lagrange is the Yankees’ No. 4 prospect and ranks No. 83 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100, which makes the asking price steep for a player who is not a household name.
Miller framed the fit around the state of the Yankees lineup rather than any single position. The team’s needs had grown broad enough that the specific slot mattered less than the production.
“Catcher is their most glaring need, but anyone who can reach base would be a welcome addition at this point,” Miller wrote.
The Athletics side of the equation is what makes the idea plausible. Miller described a club in free fall and pointed to Gelof as the piece most likely to move.
“The A’s have fallen apart at the seams, though, dropping 13 of their last 16 games, now closer to last place than first place in the AL West,” Miller wrote. “They have a handful of bats that definitely won’t be going anywhere, but Gelof could be an intriguing name on the block with three years of arbitration eligibility still to come, an .823 OPS and a glove that plays just about anywhere on the field.”
What the numbers say
Gelof has hit .273 with an .802 OPS and a 116 OPS+ across 67 games. The figure Miller cited was measured at a different point in the season. Gelof has 11 doubles, 11 home runs, 29 RBIs, 41 runs and eight stolen bases, and he has produced 2.1 bWAR.
Those figures land meaningfully inside the Yankees’ own lineup. His .802 OPS would tie Goldschmidt for fourth best on the team. His 2.1 bWAR would tie Judge for third, and it exceeds what the Yankees have gotten from third base all season.
The versatility is the selling point. Gelof has logged time at second base, third base and all three outfield spots this season, and he carries three years of arbitration control through 2029. He is not a superstar, and nobody involved is pitching him as one.
The context behind the turnaround matters. Gelof struck out an AL-worst 188 times in 2025 and hit .211, then batted .174 in an injury-shortened stint. His 120 wRC+ this season marks a real recovery from a profile that looked broken.
A fit that outlasts this deadline
The argument for Gelof is not really about 2026. It is about the three arbitration years that follow, and two infield questions the Yankees have not answered.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the first. The second baseman is playing out a one-year, $10.2 million deal in his final arbitration season, and he reaches free agency this winter. He has said he wants an eight-to-ten-year contract at $35 million per season, a demand that would land near $300 million.
The Yankees have not met him there. Chisholm is open to an extension, but Cashman said at the Winter Meetings that the club’s habit is to let these situations play out, for better or worse. Nothing since suggests a deal is close.
Gelof would give the Yankees a hedge. He has started 15 games at second base this season, the position Chisholm may vacate, and he would cost a fraction of what Chisholm is seeking while remaining under control through 2029.
Third base is the second question, and it is more urgent. Ryan McMahon, acquired at last year’s deadline to solve the position, has slashed .210/.269/.360 with eight home runs. His defensive metrics have slipped from the level that justified the bat, and he is signed through 2027.
Gelof has logged 41 games at third this season, more than anywhere else on the diamond. His 2.1 bWAR already exceeds what the Yankees have gotten from the position all year, which is the plainest version of the argument.
The flexibility ties it together. Gelof has also appeared at all three outfield spots, so he could slide wherever the roster breaks rather than forcing the Yankees to commit before they know whether Chisholm returns.
Both sides are currently hurt
Gelof is on the injured list. The Athletics placed him there after he sliced his knee sliding into the left field wall to catch a fly ball against the Tigers, days after he completed a minimum stint for a hand injury. He is expected to miss the final series before the break and the week that follows.
Lagrange is out as well. The Yankees announced he has a capsular sprain in his right shoulder and will not throw for roughly six weeks, with a possible September return. Brian Cashman said it will be a close call whether the 23-year-old helps the big-league club at all this year.
Neither absence reads as season-ending. Gelof’s is a laceration rather than a structural problem, and Lagrange’s timeline still allows for a September bullpen role. Both players remain what they were when the idea was floated.
Reyzelman, the other arm in the proposal, has struggled at Triple-A this season. He is the secondary piece in a deal whose weight sits almost entirely on Lagrange.
Where the pursuit stands
No reporting connects the Yankees to Gelof beyond the proposal itself. This is an analyst’s construction rather than a rumor sourced to either front office, and it competes with names the Yankees are more firmly linked to.
ESPN’s Buster Olney has pushed a different target, urging the Yankees toward Giants infielder Luis Arraez, a three-time batting champion hitting .327 with an .826 OPS. Olney framed the move as a way to survive until reinforcements return.
“They have to find a way to build a bridge to that time when Judge and Stanton and [Max] Fried and [Carlos] Rodon come back, which is why I think today that Brian Cashman, the Yankees general manager, should get on the phone with the San Francisco Giants and basically not let [Buster] Posey off the phone until he makes a deal for Luis Arraez,” Olney said on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight.
The Yankees returned from the break at 54-42, chasing the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East with a Dodgers series at Yankee Stadium. Cashman has until Aug. 3 to decide whether a versatile bat with three years of control is worth a top-100 arm, and whether the Judge void requires an answer at all.
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