Can the Yankees turn this thing around?

Baseball is filled with ups and downs, even for the great teams.  As good as the New York Yankees are, even they are not immune to this.  After a fantastic 35-22 start to the season, the Yanks have stumbled into July with a 14-19 record since the beginning of June.  With the trade deadline eerily approaching at the end of the month, it's clear this Yankees team needs to make some sort of change to spark a final playoff push.

As of July 8th the Yankees have just ended a 6 game losing streak and now look to start a 3 game home series against the Seattle Mariners, an opportunity to really gain some momentum and make up ground in the AL East.  This series is also a glaring showcase of one of the big problems with this team, the health of the rotation.

The Yankees begin the series with young Will Warren on the mound, sporting an above 5 ERA in his first full season in the bigs, followed by Cam Schlittler who is making his season debut, and ends with Marcus Stroman who has a plus 7 ERA in 5 starts. It's a much different rotation than the Cole Fried Rodon Schmidt Gil group we would see if they were all healthy.

Over the recent 6 game losing streak the Yankees failed to hold opponents to under 5 runs, and have not held an opponent to under 4 since a 3-0 win against the Athletics on June 27th.  It's clear pitching help is a must at the deadline.  Keep an eye out on names such as Sandy Alcantara, Freddy Peralta, Seth Lugo, and more.

Third base is also a clear priority, with Boone announcing recently Jazz Chisholm will be the team's every day second basemen moving forward.  Thus opening even more potential trades for the likes of Eugenio Suarez, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Nolan Arenado, and more.

Aside from obvious trade help, the Yankees need to cut down the little mistakes.  This team has too high of aspirations to be making mental mistakes on the base paths and in the field.  If they can get back to playing smart ball, the talent alone on this team will be able to take them far.