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Now it’s never a good time for a Major League Baseball team to go on a losing streak, but at this time of the season a losing streak could cost that team a division title or wild card spot.

Unfortunately for the New York Yankees that looks just like the spot they might be in at this point. The Yankees have lost seven games in a row, have dropped to under .500 at 60-63 and find themselves in last place in a very tough American League East.

Looking a little deeper the Yankees are actually 3-11 over their last 14 games and they haven’t won back-to-back games since beating the Tampa Bay Rays on August 2nd and then the Houston Astros on August 3rd.

With the A.L. East being as good as it has been this season there was very little chance that the Yankees would win the division, but they have been in contention for a wild card spot. After this stretch the Yankees now find themselves 8 games out of a wild card spot. With 39 games and five teams left to pass for a wild card spot it’s looking more and more like the Yankees won’t be a playoff team this season.

It seems as though this season might end up costing Yankees manager Aaron Boone his job, but you have to wonder if it’s time for the Yankees to make a change in the front office instead.

When you go back to the Yankees off season, they did the right thing and re-signed Aaron Judge, but their only other big move was to sign oft injured starting pitcher Carlos Rodon to a 6-year $162 million dollar contract.

Rodon was looked at as the best starting pitcher on the free agent market, but we’re talking about a pitcher who only made 30 starts one time in his career and it just happened to be the year he was headed into free agency. This is Rodon’s 9th year as a major league starting pitcher and he’s made 153 career starts. Rodon averages just a little over 18 starts per season coming into 2023 and it’s not looking like he’s even going to get to that number for the Yankees this season. Due to injury Rodon has only made 6 starts for the Yankees this season.

There were other questionable moves by Cashman that for some reason he doesn’t seem to being held accountable for.

Cashman bought into Aaron Hicks as a starting outfielder. Hicks was released this season after hitting .188 in 28 games for the Yankees this season. The Yankees never settled on a #1 catcher as Kyle Higashioka, Jose Trevino and Ben Rortvedt have all spent time behind the plate. The Yankees also never decided on a closer. Eight different pitchers have recorded a save for the Yankees this season. Clay Holmes is the team leader in saves at 16, but it’s unclear if he’s the go to guy at the end of the bullpen.

There are always going to be people who will defend the Yankees are try to blame this season on injuries, but as we know every team has to deal with injuries. Of course, the Judge injury was a big blow as he’s clearly the best player on this team, but besides that the other injuries are unfortunately part of baseball.

Of course, the quick fix for the Yankees and the move that it seems like everyone is expecting them to make is to sign Shohei Ohtani this off season.

I’m honestly beginning to wonder if people realize that Ohtani can only play for one team because he seems to be linked to every single team.

While whichever team ends up signing Ohtani it’s going to be a great signing. Of course, you have to remember that we’re talking about a player who’s never made the playoffs. Also, if people think pairing him with Judge helps Ohtani don’t forget that Mike Trout is one of Ohtani’s teammates right now. You also have to realize that Ohtani has been shut down as a pitcher after 22 starts this season and it’s looking more and more like he won’t pitch again this season.

It’s also unclear to me how signing Ohtani would clear up all of the Yankees problems. Yes, he’d give them another big bat and a quality starting pitcher when he’s healthy. That doesn’t seem to solve the catching or outfield issues since Ohtani no longer plays in the outfield and is strictly a DH. While we’re on that if the Yankees did sign Ohtani where would Giancarlo Stanton play. Stanton has had quite a few injury issues in his career and has been a in 43 of the 73 games here’s appeared in for the Yankees this season. There’s a 0% chance that Stanton could move back into the outfield full-time at this point in his career.

At this point with the Yankees I’m not interested in the what if’s as we’re going to deal with that all off season with every team especially when it comes to who’s going to sign Ohtani. What I want to see is what the Yankees plan to do with Boone and if he’ll be the one who’s blamed for this season or if they’ll finally look at the front office and point the finger at them. I guess we might only be a month or so away from finding that out.

While I’m thinking about this, I wanted to see how many of you are watching the preseason national Football League games.

I’ll watch the game if the starters are actually playing, but once they’re out of the game or in some cases they don’t play at all I just can’t watch. Honestly, I’m not sure why. I guess watching guys who will either make the teams as special team players or just get cut doesn’t interest me. To me it’s similar to watching an XFL or USFL game which I never watched from start to finish.

Let me know your NFL preseason television habitats as I’m very curious if there are people out there who watch the entire game.

Don’t forget to look for me on X (Twitter), I’m @Burketime.