(Patrick McDermott/Getty)

Following last night’s loss to the Blue Jays, the Yankees have a 7.8% chance of making the playoffs according to Baseball Prospectus. Incredibly long odds with 31 games to play, no doubt about it, but it is doable. Considering it is Mariano Rivera‘s final season, the Yankees should have a little extra motivation to improve their roster as much as possible and make a serious run at the postseason.

Although the trade deadline passed almost a month ago, teams can still swing waiver deals at any time, even in September. The only problem is that a player must be in the organization (minors or Majors) by August 31st to be eligible for the postseason roster. There are no loopholes or exceptions, in the organization this Saturday or no postseason roster. That gives the Yankees less than five days to make any final moves and have those players be part of a potential playoff roster. There’s also the whole “the sooner you get them the more games they’ll play and help you” thing to keep in mind.

Barring a surprise return from Michael Pineda, David Phelps, or Vidal Nuno, the Yankees are as healthy as can be now that Derek Jeter has returned. Any help will have to come from outside. We already know they need to replace Phil Hughes in the rotation, but they could use more help than just another starter. Here are the club’s non-rotation problem areas — “problem areas” isn’t the right term, but you get the point — and a handful of potential trade targets.

(Ronald Martinez/Getty)

Designated Hitter
The additions of Curtis Granderson, Alfonso Soriano, and Alex Rodriguez have helped the offense in a huge way. It’s crazy, who knew adding three above-average bats to the lineup would help? New York could still use some more punch though, particularly behind the plate. That won’t happen of course; the best solution there is more Austin Romine and less Chris Stewart. DH is a prime spot for an upgrade, however.

Last week we heard the Yankees were monitoring Justin Morneau and yesterday Jon Morosi reported Kendrys Morales has been claimed off waivers by an unknown team. Both guys make sense for the Yankees at this point — Morales would be the better fit as a switch-hitter — since they could take over at DH with Granderson shifting to right field full-time. Any self-respecting contender would have Ichiro Suzuki and his 77 wRC+ (37 wRC+ since the All-Star break) glued to the bench.

We still don’t know who claimed Morales, so the Yankees may or may not have had a chance at him. Morneau cleared waivers earlier this month and is there for taking though, and since the Twins aren’t planning to make him a qualifying offer after the season, it’s unlikely he will require a big return. Same with Morales, really. Salary relief and an okay prospect seems to like a logical return for less than five weeks of a flawed no-defense slugger.

Lopez. (Thearon Henderson/Getty)

Lefty Reliever
There isn’t a team out there that couldn’t use another bullpen arm or two. The Yankees have plenty of setup man depth once Preston Claiborne returns, but they could use another left-hander to complement Boone Logan. Someone better than David Huff, anyway. Remember, they have a ton of games left against the Red Sox and Orioles. Having another southpaw to matchup with Chris Davis and David Ortiz and whoever else sure would be nice.

Javier Lopez of the Giants would have been perfect — dominates lefty hitters and has pennant race/World Series experience — but he was recently claimed off waivers by an unknown team according to Jon Heyman. I seriously doubt the Yankees are that unknown team; it would surprise me if he made it through the entire NL unclaimed. Paul Hoynes reported San Francisco was seeking a top pitching prospect for Lopez before the trade deadline anyway, so who knows if he was even acquirable.

Other potentially available lefty relievers include impending free agents Mike Gonzalez (holding lefties to a .331 wOBA), Darren Oliver (.447), and Oliver Perez (.302). Perez has stunk of late and the other two have not dominated same-side hitters this year as they have in the past. Aside from Huff and the injured Nuno, New York’s only internal option is the untested Cesar Cabral. Hard to see that happening, but who knows. Phil Coke came out of almost nowhere to dominate in September 2008. If the Yankees don’t make any moves between now and August 31st, that’s the kind of surprise performance they’ll need to contend in September.

Michael Young. (Getty)

There was one thing the Yankees could not afford to do before yesterday’s non-waiver trade deadline: nothing. And that’s exactly what they did. They did nothing. They checked in on this guy and that guy, but ultimately they did nothing. Ownership brought in Alfonso Soriano last week and that’s it. They did nothing.

“It wasn’t a deep market at all,” said Brian Cashman soon after the 4pm ET deadline. “What I was offering obviously wasn’t good enough for the opposing teams. What the teams were suggesting to me wasn’t good enough from my perspective … We will have to contend with what we have right now unless we can find ways to improve it. And obviously right now that’ll come from within and off the disabled list.”

As the first 107 games told us, what the team has right now is not good enough to contend. Not even close, really. They’re seven back in the division and three back of a wildcard spot with three teams ahead of them. Yeah, there are 55 games left to play, but that is a major uphill climb. A climb that required some reinforcements if the team was serious about contending during Mariano Rivera‘s final season. Instead, we get more excuses about how the market wasn’t favorable.

What Cashman neglected to mention, of course, is that the current market is the result of the team’s prior (non-)moves. They purposefully downgraded the lineup over the winter and got burned when the regulars started getting hurt, and now they’re desperate. Teams know this — they no doubt smell the blood in the water — and the prices get jacked up. Add in the fact that there are more contenders and fewer sellers, and you’ve got a recipe for exorbitant trade deadline prices. If they wanted help, they had to overpay. Even Corey Black for Soriano was an overpay considering Soriano said he would only accept a trade to New York. The Cubs had zero leverage and still extracted a decent prospect.

The Yankees had plenty of chances to improve the team during the offseason/free agency and passed, in part because of the plan to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold next year. They had a chance to improve before the deadline — both right at the deadline and in the weeks and months leading up to it — and passed. Now they have to try to improve during the August waiver period, which won’t be easy despite their relatively high waiver priority. They keep painting themselves into a corner and further limiting their market, which is no way to go through life.

At some point Cashman and the rest of his management henchmen have to come out and take some sort of responsibility for the roster and stop blaming the market. It was their conscious decision to address every need with an aging veteran player who had something left in the tank if you squinted your eyes real hard and believed in the magic of a pinstripes. No one forced that on them. There’s nothing wrong with taking a flier on a veteran for a platoon job or bench spot or whatever, but at some point it became the Yankees’ only method of team building. That’s just silly.

The Yankees could not afford to do nothing at the deadline. They either had to go all-in and add pieces or wave the white flag and trade away some players. They did neither and made zero progress as a franchise — they’re no closer to contending or rebuilding. They’re just an overwhelmingly mediocre club that will need an unprecedented amount of farm system success to make their sub-luxury tax threshold plan work. The trade deadline changed nothing, but this coming offseason there have to be more than cosmetic changes. The Yankees need to overhaul their team-building philosophies.