The New York Yankees must abandon one goal for another.
The New York Yankees no longer have a truly realistic chance of winning the AL East. Are they mathematically eliminated? No, but Sunday's loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks dropped them six games back of the Tampa Bay Rays with seven games to play.
Figure it out.
Now, the Yankees must turn their attention to a new goal. They aren't winning the division. Even if they sweep the Rays four straight this week, it probably isn't happening.
New York's new focus must be on preparing its playoff roster, which could mean limiting their pitchers down the stretch.
For example, Cam Schlittler has one more start. Do the Yankees let him go a full start? Or will they keep him on a pitch count or limit him to a couple of innings?
The bullpen is also another key element here. Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn have been grossly overused this season, and they are two of New York's only reliable relievers. They should be curtailed quite a bit over this last week, right?
The Yankees will also need to figure out what their lineup will look like, and how their bench will be constituted. Jazz Chisholm should return soon. What does that mean for Anthony Volpe and Amed Rosario? And if Trent Grisham gets back in time, will Spencer Jones remain the starting center fielder?
These are all decisions that Aaron Boone will have to make over the next week, and the good news is that with New York essentially having the top Wild Card spot locked up, it will have plenty of time to experiment.
Losing two out of three to the Diamondbacks put the kibosh on any AL East hopes, and if we're being honest, those hopes were very dim to begin with. Tampa Bay has been on a roll, and the injury-riddled Yankees have been very up and down.
And to be quite frank, I'm not sure New York has much of a chance of embarking on a deep playoff run without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, anyway, but Boone does need to start configuring ways to do so.
For Yankees fans, settling for a Wild Card berth sounds wild. Especially when the Rays are the team in first place. But that is the position in which New York finds itself with only a handful of regular-season games remaining.
Had the Yanks been healthy all year, this would almost certainly be a different conversation, and we would instead be discussing how they could potentially challenge the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how realistic that is at this juncture.
