The New York Yankees are in big trouble

Expectations are always high in the Bronx with World Series hopes raised for the New York Yankees entering the 2021 season. Those hopes have all but evaporated after a rough start to the year featuring sluggish offense, inconsistent pitching and a general lack of urgency for the team as a whole. The Yankees are just 31-29 after 60 games, a figure that includes their current 3-10 stretch over the past two weeks that has dropped the Bronx Bombers into fourth place in the American League East.

The easy scapegoat has been their offense, which has been anemic despite being pretty healthy for most of the season. D.J. LeMahieu has regressed significantly, hitting just .253 with three home runs and 14 RBI's after signing a six-year deal in the offseason, while Gleyber Torres has also suffered a mysterious power outage, hitting just three homers and driving in 23 runs over the first month of the season.

Other Yankees who haven't lived up to the hype include Gary Sanchez (.210/6/15), Clint Frazier (.185/5/11), and Brett Gardner (.190/1/4), who has been pressed into everyday playing time with Aaron Hicks done for the year. Luke Voit's absence has also hurt the Yankees but there is still more than enough talent here for the Yankees' offense to be productive. Instead, they have scored the sixth-fewest runs in Major League Baseball, ranking ahead of only the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets.

The outlier in that group is the Mets, who have played only 52 games due to a litany of rainouts and have gone nearly a month with half of their regular lineup on the injured list but still have found a way to remain in first place in the National League East. The other four teams in that group are all below .500, a bad omen for a Yankees' team that is competing in a brutal American League East.

The Yankees are 14-21 against their division so far but the only team they have a winning against is Baltimore, which is absolutely terrible. Take out the Yankees' 6-4 showing against the Orioles and they have gone 8-17 against the rest of the division, which won't play in a year where only five teams make the postseason.

The offense is one problem for the Yankees but this team has plenty of flaws. The group is poor defensively thanks to organizational decisions that have led to guys like Miguel Andujar and Torres playing out of position, leading to sloppy mistakes in the field. The Yankees also are one of the least athletic teams in baseball thanks to their decision to pursue power at all costs, something that doesn't help the fact that there are way too many fundamental mistakes with things like running the bases.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the Yankees' slow start is the fact that they don't seem to be that motivated to fix the problem. General Manager Brian Cashman built a flawed roster but doesn't ever admit to making a mistake while owner Hal Steinbrenner appears more motivated by the bottom line than winning, a mentality that is the complete opposite of his father George. Manager Aaron Boone also runs out tired cliches at press conferences, talking about how the Yankees are putting together good at-bats and competing hard, making it feel like it is only a matter of time before things turn around.

That mentality is all well and good on April 15 but it is now June 6 and the Yankees are 6.5 games out of first place in their division. If you include last season's 60-game sprint, the Yankees have gone 64-56 over their last 120 games, a pace that isn't good enough for a so-called World Series contender. Given the team's insistence on staying under the luxury tax, it also looks unlikely that a major contributor will be coming to help the offense, so Yankees' fans who are dreaming of landing Trevor Story can forget that pipe dream.

Perhaps the most damning indictment of the Yankees' lack of urgency came in last night's game against the Red Sox, when Rougned Odor was called out on a pitch six inches off the plate to end the ninth inning. Boone somehow remained calm and in the game while two of his bench coaches, Phil Nevin and Carlos Mendoza, got themselves ejected.

This team has taken on the persona of its manager, which is far too laid back and passive about their collective funk. The argument that changing the manager won't make a difference is refuted when you look at Boston, which was a disaster last year with Ron Roenicke before bringing back Alex Cora, who has taken pretty much the same group of players and has the Red Sox competing for a Wild Card spot.

There is simply too much arrogance and hubris in the Yankees' organization to believe they have a problem. The tone coming out of the Bronx is that they know better than anyone else what's going on and that their offensive woes are simply a product of what The Athletic's Jayson Stark describes as "baseball!"

This group could use some sort of change, whether it is bringing up Estevan Florial to try and add a new dimension to this team or firing the manager to add some fire to the clubhouse, but the Yankee way dictates calm and belief in the process. The Yankees still act like they are smarter than everyone else, but this team hasn't played like an elite one in well over two years.

Ken Rosenthal wrote up a brilliant piece in The Athletic (subscription required) describing the Yankees' situation as an "organization-wide failure". There is no better way to describe what is happening in the Bronx but nothing will change until some combination of Steinbrenner, Cashman and Boone actually realize they have a broken baseball team. This trio appears content to run out the same group and expect different results based on precedent, a formula that is the textbook definition of insanity.