The Yankees Injuries Are Finally Catching Up to Them

By EJ Fagan

June 30, 2026

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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.

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When Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, Giancarlo Stanton and Max Fried went down, it didn’t feel like the end of the world. The Yankees finally had some depth. They had Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario on the MLB roster. They had Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones in the minors. They finally had the depth to take a few hits.

It worked out for a few weeks. Paul Goldschmidt got hot. Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger played great. And most importantly, they got well above average production out of Spencer Jones, Jasson Dominguez, Jose Caballero and Anthony Volpe. They even got some hits out of the catcher position when Austin Wells went on the IL. They won more games in the three weeks after Judge went on the IL than the three previous weeks.

But we now know that it was all a mirage. Jones and Dominguez have been abysmal hitters. Anthony Volpe is coming back down to earth. Everyone’s defensive flaws are on full display. Jasson Dominguez just knocked out Jazz Chisholm.

The reality is that a lineup with Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones batting in the middle of the order is not going to score a lot of runs. Frankly it’s insane that they have been hitting so high in the lineup.

Just look at Jones’ Statcast page:

The Yankees pitching hasn’t been awful, but it hasn’t been good enough to prop up this empty husk of a lineup. It’s increasingly clear that Ryan Weathers is a #5 starter at best. Max Fried’s return will help, but they need to play better defense and score some runs.

I think Brian Cashman needs to act to shore up the outfielder sooner rather than later. Judge is going to be out for a bit. Dominguez and Jones are not MLB players right now. The team needs someone who isn’t a total loss on both sides of the ball. While I’d love another middle of the order bat, right now they badly need a warm body.

That said, a quick scan of Roster Resource isn’t exactly encouraging. There aren’t a lot of one year rental types on bad teams at the moment. Maybe Max Kepler?

If the Yankees were willing to take on someone with a few years of expensive control left, they might be able to get creative.

How about Jung Hoo Lee:

He’s under contract for a while, but can fake it in center field. The Yankees are going to be real desperate for an outfielder if Trent Grisham leaves via free agency.

Or maybe Brandon Nimmo:

Or Bryan Reynolds:

All seem pretty unlikely to me, but also the Yankees might no longer have much minor league depth at outfield (or anywhere). Someone is going to have to play out there next year. I’m pretty sure that its not going to be Jasson Dominguez or Spencer Jones.