The last two items are a good summary of why this team is in a tailspin right now:
Let's take a look at today's lineup:
LeMahieu - having an off year, for him.
Stanton - a waste; usually either injured or rusty from being injured.
Judge - doing decently but cannot carry the team by himself.
Urshela - having an off year, for him.
Torres - having an off year, for him.
Odor - any team that has him in the starting lineup is bound to fail.
Andujar - a proven bust who is hanging around.
Higashioka/Sanchez - take your pick; neither can hit except for a rare long ball.
Gardner - over the hill.
This is why the Yankees are losing.
I recently praised Cashman for his job with pitching. I am tempted to criticize him for the position players but let's look closely.
LeMahieu is supposed to be batting .300; he is now being paid to do so. Judge is Judge; he's playing well but he's only one man. Who would know about Urshela and Torres falling down as they have? Voit looked great last year now he can't get untracked. Frazier looks like he's lost.
The only things that could be laid at Cashman's feet are Stanton (didn't that seem like a good deal at the time?) and relying on players like Gardner, Hicks, and Tauchman for any regular position in the outfield.
THAT AND NOT HAVING GOTTEN RID OF SANCHEZ BY NOW. Higashioka is not a starting catcher. Cashman should have gotten one or be developing one to replace Sanchez.
Well, the chickens have come home to roost, or something. Cashman is no dummy; he's probably working on some of these things now. In any case, it's not his total fault, or any fault of Boone in my opinion. But several of these players have been exposed now as defective goods and should be excised and replaced.
In my opinion, you give LeMahieu, Torres, and Urshela the benefit of the doubt. They will come around eventually, I think.
You get RID of Andujar, Hicks, Frazier, Gardner, Sanchez, and Stanton (if possible) by trade or outright release.
You get new players to ensure that the likes of Ford, Higashioka, Odor, and Wade are not regularly in the starting lineup.
Tall order, I know. People online were comparing this year's team to the Yankees of the early to mid-1970s. I lived through that and believe me, you don't want to go through several years to a decade of that kind of perpetual futility if you are a Yankees fan.