Hour 1: Jeff Passan

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**Michael Kay** (0:41)
And a good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 It's me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. And it's the fastest two hours in Sports Talk Radio. And you know the deal. We have co-hosts on the show. They say, oh, it's a solo vehicle. You're really the co-hosts. And the membership number is 1-800-919-3776.
So much to do, so many guests. We've got Jeff Passan on at 1.30. Now, if you were sitting there going, I wonder what's going on with the trade deadline. It's Monday, next Monday at 6 p.m. I wonder what's going on with the trade deadline. Who would you want to hear from the most? Of every human being on the entire planet, who would you want to hear from the most? Many people would say Jeff Passan. Many, I'm not saying everyone. Some might have, they might want a Buster Only, who I love. They might want a Joel Sherman. They might want a Tom Verducci or Ken Rosenthal. All great, but you know, Jeff Passan is on that top line. Can't go wrong with him, we'll talk to him at 1.30. So much noise about the Lebron James signing with the Sixers. So I wanted to check in with Brian Windhorst. We'll do that at 2 p.m. And then at 2.30, it's going to be Don LaGreca on with me. Now, after the show, I went to Raet Field, where the Yankees beat the White Sox last night. And I heard from several sources that Don really tore into me because of my Juan Soto take. Well, now, I'll get a chance not to tear into him because I have too much respect for him. See, the respect I have for him is obviously something that he doesn't have for me. Now, in all due respect, he did ask if I would come on the show at 4 o'clock yesterday, but I was on the bus at that point to get to the ballpark and it just didn't work, didn't work, so I couldn't do it. So it's not like he backdoored me and ripped me without me knowing about it. He did want to rip me to my face, but we just couldn't make it work timing-wise, but we'll make it work today at 2.30, so that's going to be good stuff. Now, because there are so many guests today, we might need the co-host early. So if you got something on your mind, 1-800-919-3776, we might go to you early. How about baseball for New York teams last night? This is the way we dreamt it up during the off season last year. The Mets beat up on the Braves 14-3, and the Yankees beat the White Sox 9-5. The Yankees came back from being down 3-0 in the game. The Yankees have had more come from behind victories than any team in baseball. Now, the Yankees are certainly a flawed product right now because of the injuries. We found out right before the game yesterday that Cody Bellinger was going to be out for 4-6 weeks. You do the math. It's not good. That's the middle of September. First week of September at best. Now they say it might be earlier than that, but it's a grade 2 hamstring strain, and you always hear more optimistic outcomes at the beginning when they tell you how long it's going to be than what it actually is. So grade 2 hamstring strain usually takes 4-6 weeks. There you have it. 4-6 weeks for him. We still don't know when Judge is getting back. We still have no idea when Stanton is getting back, and still no word on how close Carlos Rodan is. So when you go to the trade deadline on August 3rd at 6 p.m., the big question you have to ask yourself is, how much can the Yankees do?
How much can they do? How much prospect capital do they have, and are they willing to expend in order to get this done? And when I say getting it done, what does that mean? I mean, they're going to make the playoffs in all likelihood, unless the bottom drops out. I don't think it will, because the pitching is so good.