New York Yankees Brian Cashman
(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

While the New York Yankees are off to an incredible start, the Boston Red Sox are doing even better. With that, it is clear the Yankees must do something sooner rather than later to get an edge on their biggest rival.

After a lackluster 9-9 start to the season, the New York Yankees have been one of the hottest teams in baseball since. Despite players like Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez and Sonny Gray struggling out of the gate, the Yankees have remained a force to be reckoned with.

Despite this, they aren’t in first place. Entering Thursday, the Yankees are still two games behind the Boston Red Sox, who have managed to keep pace with the Yankees every step of the way.

The Yankees are 35-17, which would put them in first place in American League Central and West. But the East is a different story. Boston has been led by phenomenal years offensively by Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez and by another solid season from ace Chris Sale.

So far, the Yankees have split the season series at three games apiece with their arch rival and still have 13 more meetings. In order to both capture the division and make a deep run in the playoffs, the Yankees are going to need to make a move and make one quick.

Yes, the Yankees did just win two of three against the defending champion Houston Astros, but the Red Sox just completed a sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays and won two of three against the red red-hot Atlanta Braves before that. It’s clear that the way to avoid the do-or-die one game wild card game is by loading up to beat Boston.

As much as the Yankees have been winning, the Red Sox continue to do the same. Because of this, general manager Brian Cashman needs to make a move before the July 31 trade deadline.

The Yankees shouldn’t want to try keeping pace until the middle of the summer and should want to make a move as soon as possible to get a piece that could propel them into first place.

A few weeks before last season’s deadline, the Yankees made the trade with the Chicago White Sox that brought over David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Todd Frazier. This year, they need to do something similar but not wait until mid-July. Ideally, they should be ready to make moves well before the MLB All-Star Game, which is July 17 (and ironically will be 364 days since the White Sox trade).

It’s clear the big need is a starting pitcher and there are both young and experienced arms that could be available. While teams may want to wait until later in the season, the Yankees have the surplus of prospects to make an early offer a struggling team simply can’t refuse.


Contributing Yankees Writer | Sports Reporter for Centenary University’s “The Quill” | Centenary University ‘19