The expectation with the Yankees, who are now five back in the Wild Card (and six back in the division), is that they'll still trade Aroldis Chapman and perhaps a few others by the deadline. But those might not be the most drastic moves made in New York over the coming weeks.
According to Jon Heyman, if the Yankees do sell at the deadline, that could set off a domino effect that ends with multiple well-paid veterans getting the boot:
Some New York Yankees people have discussed whether, if they decide to sell, they might consider releasing great veterans Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to get on with the rebuild.
Both Teixeira and Rodriguez are in the midst of horrendous seasons. Teixeira entered Thursday hitting .189/.271/.320 (a 59 OPS+), while Rodriguez's .213/.264/.376 (70 OPS+) effort isn't much better. Neither has youth on their side (Teixeira is in his age-36 season; Rodriguez his age-40 campaign), meaning the only impediment is money. Consider that no impediment at all on Teixeira's side, since he'll be a free agent at season's end. Rodriguez, conversely, is due more than $20 million for next season, which might make an outright release tougher to swallow.
Of course, the Yankees don't have a great Plan B at either first base or DH, so the odds are this is more executive prattle than anything. Still, it's interesting executive prattle, which is more than you can usually say during the silly season.
Speaking of the silly season, we're tracking it all here.
