Yankees' approach to trade deadline could begin to be determined late this week

HOUSTON — Speaking to reporters on June 15, Brian Cashman pondered his club, which had left spring training with the highest of expectations.

And had not come close to meeting them.

"There's been some sleepless nights," Cashman, the club’s general manager since 1998, said of his team, which was 33-32 at the time. "We need to obviously get on that winning track and get our numbers where they belong in that win column and become relevant again, because right now, we have not been the relevant powerhouse in the American League. We've been everything but."

Just how relevant the Yankees ultimately will be in the American League in 2021 — and whether they decide to be buyers or sellers before the July 30 trade deadline — is all but certain to be determined in the days immediately after the All-Star break, which officially begins after Sunday’s games.

During the first four games of this road trip, the Yankees' offense certainly showed some signs of emerging from what had been mostly a season-long slump. Nonetheless, they entered Saturday night's game against the Astros at 45-42, nine games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox and 3 ½ games out of the AL’s second wild-card slot.

When they return to action after the break, however, they will have an opportunity to gain ground and gain it fast.

The Yankees will open the second half Thursday at the Stadium against the Red Sox, the start of a stretch of eight games in 11 days against their longtime rivals — against whom they’re 0-6 this season.

And after the Yankees finish a four-game series at Fenway Park on July 25, the team directly behind the Red Sox — the Rays — are on tap for a three-game set at Tropicana Field starting July 27.

"We all know what's at stake, we all know where we're at and where we're at in the season, and with the break coming up and the trade deadline, obviously, only a few weeks away," Brett Gardner said late Friday night after providing what turned out to be the winning hit in a 4-0 victory, a two-out, two-run double that broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning. "So [we] kind of have our backs up against the wall a little bit and just imperative to play good baseball."

Not only in terms of making a postseason push but, as Gardner referenced, determining the Yankees’ approach at the trade deadline.

In making his first public comments of the season July 1, managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said being sellers at the trade deadline — the last time that was the case was 2016 — is "not a direction I’m contemplating right now."

The same, for now, goes for Cashman, who in years past before a given trade deadline has discussed the Yankees in terms of having shown themselves to be "worthy" of being upgraded.

In 2016, they were not. A year later, during Aaron Judge’s AL Rookie of the Year campaign in which the Yankees made a surprising run to the American League Championship Series, they were. Before the 2017 deadline, Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Sonny Gray were among those brought in.

"Is there a chance that we could be sellers? Hey, if we fall like a stone, obviously, then you have to regroup and reassess," Cashman said recently. "Obviously, we're trying to fix what we've got, self-correct what we have and add to it if we can. But if it's unworthy at some point, then you have to have different conversations. . . . I don't think we're at that point yet, but I understand . . . the question: [It’s] because we played to that level right now."

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.