Best of the Yankees on WFAN: Is Aaron Judge coming back??

**Evan Roberts** (0:00)
If you went to the Met Game last night and you stayed for a full nine innings, which means you stayed through three and a half hours of bad baseball, and you stayed through misting, it's like water torture, because it's not raining, but it's like misting on your face, I want to give someone something for that. And I don't want to give you free Met tickets because that would be like more torture. So what I would say is, if you went and stayed till all nine innings of last night's Met disaster, and you call up and talk about it, I will give you a good job, bro. That's what you'll get, like a pat on the back. But let's start with the Yankees. The Yankees lost last night to the Tampa Bay Rays. And let me get one thing off my chest. Yes, the Yankees struck out a lot. Yes, the Yankees struck out a lot the day before. That is not the reason the New York Yankees lost. That's like the add it on, let's throw it out there. I can't believe they struck out 17 times. I can't believe they set an American League record. And it is kind of amazing to think that they've struck out 34 times in the last two games. It is impressively bad. But let's be real about last night. They lost last night because a starting pitcher by the name of Will Warren couldn't get out bottom of the order hitters in a very mediocre Tampa Bay lineup. That's reason number one. Like if you asked me, if you said, hey, Ev, you watched the Yankee game last night, give me the biggest reason why they lost. Hunter Fiducia hitting a home run off Will Warren is one of the biggest reasons they lost. Another reason they lost is that Cody Bellinger is playing with his head so far up his ass. I don't know what's going on.
Not only has Cody Bellinger not hit a lick since Aaron Judge went down, coincidental or not. But as an elite level baserunner, which Cody Bellinger has been, he can't make the mistake he made last night to run the Yankees out of an inning. Instead of first and third one out, Cody Bellinger's thinking about going to second on that throw to third, he essentially gets picked off. Cannot happen. So when you combine the fact that Cody Bellinger has not hit, has not hit for a while, and then you throw in the fact that his baserunning is now suspect, and even his defense has been suspect, it makes you wonder what the hell's going on with Cody Bellinger. But I'm going to tell you my biggest takeaway, as the Yankees lost to Tampa Bay last night and they continue to play this very mediocre baseball all the way around, like it's not one thing, it's not just them striking out, it's not just Will Warren, it's not just the bad baserunning, it's just not the lack of clutch hitting, like it's a combination of a lot of different things that's led to where the Yankees are.
And to me, I was thinking about this last night, I really believe this, and this is not me trying to prove I'm right about something, because I don't care, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, if I'm right, I'm right. But a few weeks ago on this radio station, the debate began, not just with us, not just with me, Sean, and Tiki, but I think everyone touched on it, which is should the New York Yankees trade for Tarik Skubal? And one of the arguments against it was, well, they don't really need him. You know, they need a catcher, they need a third baseman, they need bullpen help, why would you take assets and trade for Tarik Skubal? That was the argument against people like me, who said you never have enough starting pitching, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball, if you have a chance to go get him, you go get him. Watching the Yankees last night, and watching the Yankees over the last few weeks as they have continued to play mediocre baseball, and the cavalry isn't coming, because there's no report that Aaron Judge is walking through that door anytime soon, there's no report Giancarlo Stanton is walking through that door anytime soon, so the only cavalry that's really coming is Max Freed potentially, which is nice.
To me, it reinforces that they must trade for Tarik Skubal. Now hear me out on that, because the counter would be, how does that help third base? How does that help catcher? How does that help that they desperately miss the bat of Aaron Judge? Here's what it does. It gives the Yankees something that they're far better than everyone else at, and that is a murderous starting rotation. Will Warren is not starting a playoff game in the postseason. At this rate, I don't know if Carlos Rodan is, he's not even healthy.