Written by Jacob Shafer at BleacherReports.com
The New York Yankees waved the white flag at the trade deadline. They shifted into sell mode, abandoned all hope of making the playoffs this season and trained their gaze squarely on the future.
Yeah…about that.
The future is indeed bright in the Bronx. After all their wheeling and dealing, the Yankees boast the No. 1 farm system in baseball, per Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter. And with a Brink’s truck of expiring contracts coming off the books, they should have ample cash to burn in the potentially loaded 2018-19 free-agent class.
But reports of the Yankees’ 2016 demise were, if not greatly, at leastsomewhat exaggerated. As wild as it sounds, they could still crash the postseason dance.
If they do, it’ll be largely on the strength of the youth movement, which began in earnest Saturday.
One day after controversial slugger Alex Rodriguez took his curtain call, the Yankees called up youngsters Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin and inserted them into the lineup.
New York went on to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday 8-4, and now it sits at 60-56, 3.5 games off the pace for the second wild-card spot.
We’ll talk more about that in a moment, but let’s pause to appreciate what Austin and Judge accomplished. There’s the historic component of their homers, sure, and that unmistakable new-era smell, as Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball noted
But there’s also the fact that Austin took over at first base, a position previously held by veteran Mark Teixeira, who announced he’ll retire at season’s end. Judge, meanwhile, manned right field in place of Carlos Beltran, who was dealt to the Texas Rangers at the deadline.
Out with the old, in with the new.
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