NEW YORK — Shortly after the news that DJ LeMahieu was designated for assignment on Wednesday, Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman met the media to discuss a multitude of things. One being, the upcoming trade deadline.

It has been well documented that the Yankees need a few things at the deadline, mostly a third baseman and some bullpen help.

The Yankees could also use another starting pitcher, but that might not be as high up on the Yankees wish list. As it is now, there are only two starting pitchers that would currently be slotted in to start postseason games, that being Max Fried and Carlos Rodon. Will Warren and Luis Gil could certainly make the case to receive a postseason start, but Warren has been inconsistent so far this season and Gil is yet to throw a pitch in 2025.

“We’re going to go to town. ” Cashman said. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can to improve ourselves and try to match up.”

“I’d certainly love to import a starter, some relievers… and an infielder as well, if possible.” Cashman added, “But that’s a long list. I’m not sure if this will be a deep deadline or not, so I don’t know how active we can be. But we will try to be active, I can tell you that, and we will try to import improvements. That’s the gig.”

The part that Yankee fans will be up in arms about is the porton mentioning how deep the deadline will be. That could be for organizational reasons, such as finances and roster flexibility, but I take away that it is about finding a match. With the expanded postseason, an issue has been created in Major League Baseball at the deadline where more teams are in the hunt for a postseason spot, so they don’t sell at the deadline, instead they either buy or they do a little of both. The Yankees are obviously going to be buyers at the deadline, the issues is the lack of sellers, and the lack of talent on the teams that are selling.

“We pursue options…ownership provides so much for us to do, but that doesn’t mean that we can do everything at any time.” Cashman said. “It comes down to the array of choices available to you, whether it’s a trade or free agent acquisition. At some point, you may run out of how much money you’re spending. Some big log might be too much to add to the fire. “

“Would you love to have an established situation that you plug and play and you’re not worried about it? Of course. But that’s not where we’re at. Did we look in the winter? Of course we looked in the winter. Are we continuing to look? Yes, we’re continuing to look.”

The issue with this statement is that the infield issue was an issue coming into the season and could have been fixed and was not. Third Base has been a black hole for the Yankees since Cabrera went down (or second base where LeMahieu played). Not making an acquisition in the offseason — even a minor one — would have taken a lot of Cashman’s plate at this deadline, especially given the injuries the pitching staff as a whole has taken.

“The great thing about the Steinbrenner family is that they want to listen to everything” Cashman said, regarding the financial flexibility at the deadline “Hal has always told me, ‘Do not assume anything, make sure you take everything to me. [Steinbrenner].'”

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