Reality Sets In

It's time to consider the possibility that this just isn't a very good team.

The hitting, as we've discussed, has been fairly anemic, although there were signs on the recent homestand (not so far in Arizona) that things were thawing out a bit. The defense has been, well, at least Chase Headley hasn't got 12 errors yet, and that's something. Carlos Beltran looks like he's carrying every last one of his 400 home runs on his back whenever he chases a ball in right field. Stalin Castro is still figuring out second base. Jacoby Ellsbury looks like he needs GPS to find a route to fly balls hit in centerfield.

But then two things happened that showed up the Yankees' weaknesses most glaringly: Older players got hurt, then younger players got hurt, and the starting pitching just got up and left if you're not named Tanaka.

Luis Severino, who was supposed to be the saving grace of the Yankees' starting staff, was pitching poorly with shaky command of all his pitches even BEFORE he left for the 15-day DL with what everybody is hoping really is just a forearm strain. CC Sabathia was pitching okay as long as one didn't play roulette with his pitch count and then HE ended up on the 15-day DL.

Mr. Rod? 15-day DL. And he had just started hitting. Probably take him another month and a half to get going this time, too.

Yeah, the back end of the bullpen is incredibly impressive. All the rest they're getting from not have a lead in the seventh inning can't hurt.

It might be time, come July, to blow this team up. Get what you can for two months of Teixeira. He's leaving anyway. Let Ivan Nova pitch for another team. See if anybody wants to bet that Brett Gardner won't fall apart like he's done the past two years after August 1. See what you can pick up for Michael Pineda. Nathan Eovaldi. Stop telling me about their potential. They ain't reaching it.

Shop Aroldis Chapman again; why not? No sense keeping three closers when you're not going to protecting many leads.

Sometimes it's just right to conceded that what you have isn't going to be good enough, and it will continue not to be good enough. Maybe that time has arrived. If things don't improve--a LOT, and very soon--we'll see if the front office has the guts to do what hasn't been done in the Bronx in recent memory: Blow it up and start again. Might take a couple of years to see what people like Greg Bird and Aaron Judge and Jorge Mateo and others can do.

Because watching this team this year has become painful. A painkiller might be what's called for here.