Yankees GM Brian Cashman: 'I don't want to misrepresent there's not urgency, because there is.'

ST. LOUIS —  Just after the 6 p.m. trade deadline on July 31, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke of the organization’s flurry of moves that brought seven new players into the fold.

“I know we have improved ourselves,” Cashman said during a Zoom news conference. “I know we’re better today than we were yesterday, so mission accomplished there.”

To this point, that has not translated to wins on the field.

The Yankees, who had played uneven baseball for 1 ½ months leading up to the deadline, have continued to be the same inconsistent unit. Entering Friday night’s game against the Cardinals, they had gone 4-8 since the deadline and 22-32 since reaching their high-water mark of 42-25 on June 12.

“I don’t have an answer to that question,” Cashman said on the field before Friday night’s game. “I know roster-wise we are better, but not as good now as we were because we lost a couple of the pieces we added at the deadline to injuries.”

Those players would be reserve utility players Amed Rosario, on the injured list since Aug. 10 with a joint sprain in his left shoulder, and Austin Slater, on the IL since Aug. 5 with a left hamstring strain. Cashman said he anticipates Rosario being activated during next week’s two-game series in Tampa and Slater “probably” returning in September.

“Those guys were important pieces so Boonie [manager Aaron Boone] could match up against some lefthanders, so we’ll miss those guys while they’re down, but on paper we have a lot more talented choices than we had prior,'' Cashman said. "But again, we just have to play better as a unit.”

Which has not happened with any degree of consistency for more than two months.

The Yankees (64-57) entered Friday 6 ½ games behind the AL East-leading Blue Jays and a half-game ahead of the Guardians for the league’s third and final wild-card spot (they trailed the Mariners by 2 ½ games and the Red Sox by 1 ½ games  in the wild-card race).

“We’re the defending American League champs trying to redefend that, and, obviously, right now we’re not in control of the division, so our first goal is to try and win the American League East and automatically punch the ticket [to the postseason] that way,” Cashman said. “If not, we’ll be fighting to punch the ticket a different way. There’s a lot of time on the clock, but not enough time to . . . I don’t want to misrepresent there’s not urgency, because there is.”

Cashman, who takes few in-season trips on the road to watch his team, said he was not in St. Louis for any particular reason.

“Everything that needs to be said has been said,” he said of addressing the club. “They know what they’ve got to do and what they’re capable of, and no one’s trying harder than they are . . . It’s a whole bunch of individual moments collectively that come together on a day-in-and-day-out basis, and you’re hoping you string together a lot of good, clean play and you come out on top. That has not happened, obviously, enough here in the last two months. We’ve played poorly. But again, no one knows that more than our people and us, but everything that’s needed to be said has already been said.”

Boone, whose biggest supporters in the organization continue to be Cashman and managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, has been saying much of that for a while.

“Obviously, we are feeling it,” Boone said Monday before the Yankees took two of three from the Twins. “We know we have to be better.”

Cashman said “surprised” would not be a word he would use to describe his club’s current position.

“No, because this is a very hard spot, and nothing is taken for granted,” he said. “I know when this winter started, I looked at our division and I knew it would be a dogfight. Obviously, the first third or maybe even the first half of the season, it didn’t play out that way. But you don’t win anything in the first third or the first half. So as the season’s played out, it’s played out as predicted, that this would be a dogfight. And it is.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.