Yankees Mailbag: With eyes on October, what positions need an upgrade?

The Yankees are 26-16 and currently in second place in the AL East. Let’s open up the mailbag and answer some Yankees questions…

In your opinion, which positions with the Yankees need an upgrade? — @MrEd315

First of all, the real answer is “not many.”

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The Yankees look about as complete as any team I’ve seen outside Los Angeles in several years. I think they will need relief help. And I think they might need to consider another infield bat if Jazz Chisholm Jr. continues to struggle. While Ryan McMahon looks like the best offensive version of himself lately, his career numbers suggest that might not continue. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, the Yankees probably cannot absorb both their third and second baseman struggling offensively if they want to continue cruising through their regular season schedule.

But Chisholm will almost certainly hit sooner or later. He has been open about the impact warmer weather has on him, and his career numbers and underlying metrics suggest better times are coming soon.

As for McMahon, Yankees hitting coaches and teammates have worked so diligently with him that it is possible he is a better hitter now than he used to be. If he outpaces his career OPS (.735) by even 30 points, he will be among the top 10 third baseman in baseball in that category (though admittedly, currently struggling stars like Bo Bichette, Manny Machado, and Matt Chapman seem likely to rise). Still, with his defense, any offense from McMahon is a huge boost. And it is hard to think of another offensive position where the Yanks could even consider upgrading, given the talent they have throughout their roster.

Seems like the concerns of the fans in the offseason – namely not shoring up the pen – are already a problem? — @mtill50

The bullpen is definitely the weakest link on this roster, though that in itself is not much of an indictment. And while it hasn’t always felt like it, Yankees relievers have actually been very sturdy: Their 3.28 ERA is second only to the Rangers for the best bullpen mark in baseball. Yankees relievers have left 77.1 percent of inherited runners on base, better than all but three teams.

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But they are not dominant, and they will need some dominance to make it through October. Their collective Stuff+ rating is middle-of-the-pack. Their swinging strike rating is 10th in baseball. Their strikeouts-per-nine is 17th. Tim Hill and Jake Bird rate highly in Stuff+ individually, but Hill is not a traditional closing option and Bird has not yet proven he can be consistent. Fernando Cruz has been solid. David Bednar has been steady. But neither is blowing hitters away. Still, approximately 28 other teams would be overjoyed to have strong-not-dominant relief options as their biggest problem.

Even so, that unit has shown its cracks as the Yanks have lost four games in a row, three of them late. But cracks in the bullpen are easy to patch midseason, and Brian Cashman has plenty of history of being aggressive in doing so. Though he and his front office have eschewed giving major free agent contracts to elite relievers in recent years, they have traded for multiple relievers during the season in that span. I would assume they plan to do so again, even as arms like those belonging to Carlos Lagrange and others in the minors continue to look like promising options for later this season.

It’s been a real good start, but are there real reasons to believe this season will end any differently than each season since 2010? — @yankeemac1 on BlueSky

I think there might be more reasons than ever to believe that this season will end differently than every season since their 2009 title, if that’s what you mean (don’t worry, the last decade and a half is a blur for me, too). I think even Aaron Boone and his staff can sense it.

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If you’ll remember last October, Boone was adamant that the team that lost to the Blue Jays was one of the best teams he had managed. Now, with a whole offseason of work with McMahon and Jose Caballero and the emergence of Cam Schlittler and the ascension of Max Fried, I have a hard time thinking of a Yankees team that has been better.

In fact, and I will stick by this even if they lose their next 20 games or somehow collapse before our eyes, I think this Yankees team could be the most formidable October challenger the Dodgers have seen in the last two years – particularly after they acquire that inevitable bullpen help in the next few months.

The main reason is their starting pitching: they are deeper than any team but the Dodgers, and maybe even deeper than Los Angeles, depending on how veterans like Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell fare health-wise the rest of the way.

Schlittler is a bona fide ace who pitches like he has never had a doubt in his life. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon will have plenty of time to figure out their new elbows and less than a full season of innings on their arms by October. Fried looks like a legitimate Cy Young candidate and has proven his October mettle before. They can match up with Snell, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a long series, and they can match up with any American League team’s top two starters in a short one.

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But beyond that, I think they are also as well-rounded as any Yankees team Boone has had here. No longer is this team just an assembly of huge, station-to-station sluggers. Caballero and Chisholm can really run, and they aren’t afraid to do it. Outside of Giancarlo Stanton, the rest of the lineup is fully capable of stealing bases and has been aggressive in doing so. They can hit for power, but they take enough pitches that they can wear pitchers down and create rallies out of nothing. And with their speed, even a walk is a rally.

Now, for the corny part.

I think the “running it back” concerns that circulated around them this offseason were understandable. I think in some cases (maybe the Phillies, though time will tell), shakeups are needed. But I think with this particular Yankees group, running it back gave a largely veteran roster more time to coalesce. For example, the offseason and spring training built more trust between Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt and McMahon, who has heeded their tutelage offensively and improved because of it. They seem to understand each other’s strengths and take at-bats accordingly. They are comfortable, and they are experienced enough to know what has gone right and wrong for them in the postseason.

I think this is a really, really good team. Of course, we’ve seen really good teams fall in the postseason before. Heck, we’ve seen really good teams fall apart in the regular season before. But this particular really good team is deep, experienced, talented, well-rounded, and comfortable in its own skin. Few teams in recent years, let alone Yankees teams, have been able to say all of that. And even fewer, I gather, have been able to sense it. I think, based on the way veterans talk about their lineup and their clubhouse, that this team does.