Yankees first half evaluation: riddled by Injuries and no Judge

The 2023 Yankees finished the first half with a 49-42 record and 4th in the AL East. Considering what Brian Cashman did in the off-season with re-signing Judge and Signing Carlos Rodon to a 6-year deal has been a disappointment so far in the season. The story has been that all the Injuries to the Yankee's pitching staff and Aaron Judge have not helped and what the Yankee's offense looks like without him in the lineup shows how Cashman's off-season decisions and the structure of the team have been.

The Offense needs Judge in the lineup to succeed and is structured around him which shows how the depth in this offense is a failure. Without Judge, the Yankee's offense after he got injured on June 3rd for the rest of the month would be batting a low .652 OPS and .273 on-base percentage which was low and would be last in MLB in June and by the end of the half would have the 4th lowest on-base percentage in the league.

One of the biggest reasons for the offense struggling without Judge were the veterans of the team not hitting, and you would want them to step up without the best hitter in the lineup. Donaldson, Stanton, Lemahieu, and Rizzo are all struggling with all OPS under .800 and batting averages of .260 shows how they are there to help Judge with insurance and went he is not in the lineup, they had to contribute badly and needed to help the offense and it just was to be built around Judge and that is why Cashman needs to make changes.

The biggest question coming into the season was LF and with Cashman saying after Rodon's intro press conference say they were going to look into the trade market and they did not do anything besides signing Jake Bauers and Billy McKinney into the season and they have been more pickups that seem temporary to see what they can get at the trade deadline.

Pitching has been more of a success but has also been dealt with injuries to most of the Rotation, as Rodon, Severino, Cortes, and Montas have all been on the Injured list. All the Injuries did not stop Gerrit Cole from having his best season as a Yankee so far with 2.85 ERA and 123 strikeouts with 0.8 hr per 9 innings which would be his career high as a Yankee and an improvement from the 2022 season which he allowed 33 Home Run's. The other starters who helped with the injuries did not exceed expectations as German, Schmidt, and Cortes all have an era over .400. Other starters have not helped Cole and this is one of the reasons why the Yankees have been a disappointment this season.

The biggest bright spot in the Yankees season has been the Bullpen who is 2nd in all of baseball with a 3.11 and first in HR per 9 in 0.71 and middle of the pack in strikeout per 9. This tells me the bullpen is all about inducing contact and they don't let up a lot of home runs.

The first half has been more not what the Yankees expected coming in, but the good thing is that players are gonna come back from the injuries, and you gonna get back Judge, Cortes, and Bauers. With Rodon already making 1 start vs the Cubs in the last series before the All-star break. The one question is will the offense stay the same when Judge comes back or will it help and what will Cashman do to upgrade the left field position? All these are what-ifs, but now the Yankees need both starters who are not named Gerrit Cole to produce and offense to start scoring more than 3 runs a game.