Major League Baseball

The New York Yankees can still be playoff contenders, says John Smoltz

Updated Aug. 5, 2023 4:30 p.m. ET

They neither bought nor sold at the MLB trade deadline — aside from making minor moves for relievers Keynan Middleton and Spencer Howard, neither of which project to be needle-movers for a team desperately trying to claw back into playoff contention.

Meanwhile, Anthony Rizzo was just put on the injured list due to complications from a concussion he apparently suffered back in May, Josh Donaldson remains sidelined with a calf strain and Aaron Judge is finally back after two months on the IL but still does not look fully healthy.

The Yankees entered the first Saturday after the trade deadline with virtually the exact same flawed roster that they started the season with, and sitting 3.5 games behind the last wild-card spot in the American League. The Yankees are also last in the AL East, which, yes, is the best division in baseball — but last place is still last place.

FOX Sports lead MLB analyst John Smoltz has been bullish on the Yankees all season. He believed that a hypothetical Shohei Ohtani acquisition would vault them into World Series favorites status (of course, that move stayed hypothetical when the Los Angeles Angels pulled Ohtani from the trade market and became buyers themselves).

And even now, Smoltz believes that the Yankees' pitching, led by Cy Young contender Gerrit Cole, could still make them a dangerous playoff contender if they can just find some more consistency on offense.

"I don't think they could afford to be sellers in this market," Smoltz said on the most recent edition of ‘Saturdays with Smoltz’ on "Flippin' Bats with Ben Verlander." "Not this close to the playoffs."

"Their pitching is way good enough," Smoltz continued. "They've got arms that probably could have gotten a pretty good [trade] return if they didn't think they were [good enough]. If they were eight games out, this would have been a different story."

Smoltz also does not believe that Judge is completely healed from the toe injury he suffered at Dodger Stadium in early June. But he believes even a limited version of Judge, coupled with some more consistency from a few other Yankees veterans, can still provide enough to back up New York's pitching in a potential playoff run.

"If you get a [Giancarlo] Stanton three-run homer every once in a while, you get [D.J.] LeMaheiu hitting again … [and] if their [offense] is just average, they've got a great chance to be a thorn in everyone's side in the postseason," Smoltz said. "But we haven't seen that consistency. It's why they have not really reeled off any kind of lengthy streak. … They've got some huge games coming up that are going to be important for them in determining their success."

Still, Smoltz admitted that it will not be easy for the team to live up to postseason expectations thanks to the Yankees' struggles when Judge was sidelined.

"The Yankees are in a really, really difficult spot," Smoltz said. "Their roster, position player-wise, is less than athletic than [the standard of] the game as it's played today. They're gonna have to address some things. They've had some mental health issues.

"But they just now have got to rally around some of these young guys and get some better performances. I think on average, they're going to."

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