Yankees GM Brian Cashman says 'the storm's upon us right now'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Acknowledging that his sinking ship of a team is “not playing well on all sides of it” and, in doing so, is “losing ground in the standings,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Thursday that he still believes in his current roster.

It's an injury-plagued and underperforming roster that, entering Thursday afternoon’s 12-4 victory over the Rays was 14-19 without captain Aaron Judge, including 4-14 in its last 20 games.

“[We’re] doing everything we possibly can to try to sail through that storm because the storm’s upon us right now and we’ve got to find a way,” Cashman said. “We’ve got good players. Forgetting the players that aren’t here, the players that are here are more than capable, certainly better than what they’re performing right now, and we just have to fight through it.”

Besides Judge having not played a game since May 31 because of a rib stress fracture, Giancarlo Stanton, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon are on the injured list.

Cashman said Judge, who has been unable to do baseball activities of any kind — or work of any kind on his upper body because of the rib — will have the affected area “reimaged” during the All-Star break “so that will give us a real idea of where that currently sits” in terms of the healing process.

Cashman struck a cautionary note when asked what kind of timeframe for a Judge return would be possible if the imaging comes back clean.

“I don’t think we’re anticipating it’s coming back clean, I think we’re anticipating and hopeful that it’s showing the healing process,'' he said. "The timeframe, regardless of what the findings are going to show, is going to be coming from our medical team. I haven’t even bothered to ask that question because his current condition restricts him in a lot of different ways. He can’t do a lot of things in the upper body that puts any stress on his rib cage.”

The expectation is that Judge, whenever he is cleared to begin baseball activities, will need at least three weeks and quite possibly more to build himself back up to being deemed ready for major league games as he’ll need to go through what amounts to another spring training.

After going 10-5 in the first 15 games in Judge’s absence, the Yankees came into Thursday 4-14 since, having lost 11 of their last 13 games. In the 4-14 stretch, the Yankees  scored 49 runs (2.7 runs per game), going 12-for-102 with runners in scoring position (2-for-11 with RISP the first three games of this series against the Rays).

“Clearly, you miss him, that’s certainly part of it,” Cashman said. “But that’s not an answer to why we’re struggling with some consistently really good players that are going through collective slumps at the same time. That has nothing to do with Aaron Judge.”

Cashman said the same thing in regard to the dual blows the rotation has taken. Fried has been on the IL since May 16 with a left elbow bone bruise and Rodon since July 3 with left elbow inflammation. Both are progressing. Rodon played catch here on Thursday and Cashman said Fried will be facing hitters Saturday in a simulated game.

“Are we missing Max? Are we missing Carlos? The answer’s yes,” Cashman said. “But even if they were here right now, the way we’re swinging the bats offensively . . .  We’ve got to get our offense going right now. We’ve got to play better defense, too.”

Cashman also disclosed that Stanton, on the IL since April 28 with a right calf strain, suffered more than a simple setback several weeks ago when he shut down his running program. Stanton suffered a “new injury” in the same calf area. That was something manager Aaron Boone, in discussing Stanton being shut down, failed to mention.

“He’s finally been cleared to start some running,” Cashman said.

For Yankees fans looking for a silver lining, Cashman provided one.

Shortstop George Lombard Jr., the club’s top position prospect,  was promoted earlier in the season to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but currently is on the minor league IL with two sprained fingers on his left (glove) hand. He has been taking ground balls for the better part of the last two weeks at the club’s minor league complex in Tampa and just began hitting.

Cashman said Lombard could get in some rehab games during the All-Star break and did not discount the 21-year-old being called up this season.

Said Cashman, “He might be a choice at some point.” 

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.