Major League Baseball

The Yankees need to do better — in just about every way

Updated Aug. 10, 2023 11:11 p.m. ET

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Ben Verlander

FOX Sports MLB Analyst

The New York Yankees organization is a complete embarrassment right now. Yes, they still have a shot at the playoffs. Yes, they're still a good baseball team. But this front office and staff are doing some just unacceptable things.

Let's start with Anthony Rizzo, who just went on the injured list with a concussion that dates back to a collision with Fernando Tatís Jr. at first base — that happened two months ago. 

Two months!

Before that incident with Tatis, Rizzo had 11 home runs on the year and was hitting .304 on the season. Since that day, he has one home run and a .172 patting average. It's complete and obvious negligence from the team's medical staff to let that go undiagnosed for two months. 

I don't care about the other circumstances. If a guy has a collision like that, or gets hit in the head, you have a duty and obligation to check that out as much as you possibly can. I don't care if Rizzo walks off and says, "I'm fine." Of course, he's going to say that. He's been a gamer his entire baseball career. If a guy gets hit in the head, you do your due diligence.

Even a week later, two weeks later, or a month later, you have to see that his numbers have fallen off a cliff and he just doesn't look right. It took them two months to diagnose a concussion, the sort of thing that is detrimental to his overall life health, let alone baseball ability.

Rizzo was saying it was hard for him to wake up in the mornings. He was feeling hungover when he woke up without having consumed any alcohol the night before. He described himself as feeling "foggy."

It's unacceptable on the part of the Yankees' medical staff. It can't happen.

What is happening with the New York Yankees?

Speaking of unacceptable, let's talk about what the Yankees did at the trade deadline. They handled it so poorly. They weren't buyers. They weren't sellers. They did absolutely nothing. 

I would have been a buyer in general manager Brian Cashman's shoes. I still think they are good enough to be a playoff team. If you can add a bat to that lineup that has really been struggling, it could change everything.

That said, even though a playoff spot is still in reach for them, I would have understood if the Yankees said, "We're last place in our division, we're going to sell and get pieces for the future. We're going to sell guys like the resurgent Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, Harrison Bader and Wandy Peralta who are free agents this coming winter." Just do something.

But they did nothing. How do you let that happen?

George Steinbrenner, the late, legendary owner of the team, would have never allowed this. His son Hal Steinbrenner is in charge now and has kept Cashman in place to run the show. You hear them talk about the team as if they didn't do enough on the field. You hear quotes like, "We weren't good enough, so we did nothing."

If the team wasn't good enough, look at what the New York Mets did across town! I respect the hell out of the fact that they made a decision. They had the guts to tear it down this year and rebuild for the future, and they're going to be better off for it in the long run than this Yankees team that is just hovering around last place in their division and hoping they sneak into a playoff spot. This team isn't a World Series team. What are you doing?

Astros' Justin Verlander & Jeimer Candelario highlight best post-trade deadline moves

Lastly, let's discuss the Giancarlo Stanton situation. I like Giancarlo a lot. When I was playing professionally and living out here in Los Angeles in the offseason, he was my hitting partner for a while. He's a great guy.

But in a recent game — a tied game — a ball was hit in the gap, Stanton was running home, and he was thrown out at home by half a baseline. It wasn't even close. If you go back and watch the replay, it's clear he was not running. 

I understand that 33-year-old Giancarlo Stanton, who's mainly a designated hitter at this point in his career, is not the fastest guy in the world. But you know when somebody that slow is giving maximum effort. That was not maximum effort; it was an unacceptable effort in a tie ballgame when you desperately need wins to claw your way back into the playoff picture. Yet that is the effort you give?

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said postgame that Stanton is healthy, which makes this even worse. If Stanton is healthy, that level of effort is not acceptable. He looked like he was running at 50 percent effort with a piano attached to his back.

After the game, Boone wouldn't say Stanton's effort was unacceptable. He should have gone up there and ripped Stanton's effort for what it was and said the Yankees would never stand for it and would handle it internally. 

None of that is happening. The Yankees are not handling anything the right way, except maybe the Domingo German situation by getting him the help he needs and removing him from the clubhouse for the rest of the year. 

But regarding Stanton, Boone should have the guts to stand up in front of the media and say. "This is not the New York Yankees way. If you are able to hustle, hustle. If you are not, then you will not be playing."

This isn't Aaron Judge, who is returning from a severe foot injury and probably still dealing with that injury, and is still one of the best hitters on planet earth. This is Giancarlo Stanton who is hitting around .200 in the year and still giving that sorry effort. It's so frustrating.

The Yankees, from the top down, are handling things in an unacceptable way, from the trade deadline to Rizzo's concussion to Stanton's lack of effort. This is the premier franchise in all of Major League Baseball. They're 11.5 games behind the Orioles. The Yankees need to be better than this.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @BenVerlander.

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