Yankees: The only explanation is that Aaron Judge won’t be coming back

The trade deadline has now passed. With the frenzy behind us, we can now focus on breaking down what happened over the past few hours.

Our colleague Charles-Alexis Brisebois will cover the Blue Jays; here, we'll focus instead on what the Yankees did.

The Bombardiers, who are having another strong season, had clear needs heading into the deadline. The catcher position needed an upgrade, more pitching depth was required, and overall offensive support was needed.

And in fact, that last need has been met. Luis Garcia Jr. (who's having a great season) will help against right-handed pitchers, while Heliot Ramos will contribute against left-handed pitchers.

The problem, however, is that the Yankees didn't add anyone else. Much to the delight of my colleague Sébastien Berrouard, by the way.

While the Red Sox landed Adley Rutschman (who had been heavily linked to the Yankees since last night) and the Rays acquired Liam Hicks, the Yankees haven't added a single catcher. So we'll have to make do with Austin Wells, who's having a miserable season.

And in the bullpen, the team traded away pitchers instead of adding any. No one in the Bronx is going to shed a tear over the departure of Camilo Doval or Jake Bird, and the team still has some good relievers… but bringing in one more would have given everyone a breather.

Instead, we'll continue to ask a lot from David Bednar, Brent Headrick, and Paul Blackburn, who already have a lot of innings under their belts.

Gerrit Cole is 35. Giancarlo Stanton (will he ever come back?) is 36. Paul Goldschmidt will turn 39 in September. Max Fried is 32. Carlos Rodon is 33. And Aaron Judge, the team captain, is 34.

The threat of a shortened or even canceled season looms over 2027: in what world could the Yankees—who are fortunate enough to play in a fairly wide-open American League and whose starting rotation alone gives them a shot at winning the World Series—afford not to be very aggressive today?

There is one, in fact: the one in which Aaron Judge's health is a cause for concern internally. The Yankees' lack of activity today suggests, at this moment, that it may be less certain than previously thought that we'll see #99 play again this season.

Perhaps the Yankees simply haven't found the right fit yet; maybe they believe Garcia Jr. and Ramos will help out while they wait for Judge and Cody Bellinger (and Stanton?) to return, and they eventually see guys like Ryan Weathers and Will Warren (and even Clarke Schmidt, once he's back from injury) stepping in to help behind the plate.

But even in that scenario, failing to seek help at the catcher position is unjustifiable. And that's why, until proven otherwise, Brian Cashman's comments raise a lot of questions about Judge's health—even though the GM remains optimistic (while noting that there are challenges and that his return this season isn't guaranteed).

And when you hear what Cashman has to say about his day, it becomes clear that the team didn't really dare to be aggressive. There were discussions regarding Rutschman and Tarik Skubal, but in both cases, the team wasn't willing to pay the price.

For example, the team was clearly not willing to offer George Lombard Jr. to the Tigers for Skubal. One wonders if the same was true for Rutschman, but in any case, the Yankees are repeating the mistakes they made with Anthony Volpe by once again putting insane pressure on their top prospect.

So we'll see if the Yankees, despite their rather modest trade deadline move (though it must be acknowledged that Garcia Jr. is a high-impact hitter), will be able to find success in the coming months.

Because, once again, the team's core isn't getting any younger… and the threat of a year without baseball in 2027 certainly won't help that core win a World Series.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.