The bold Yankees question at center of flawed AL East race

By all accounts, the Yankees are trying to be responsible as they crawl deeper into these last few days before the trade deadline. They are trying to stay true to their mission statement — championship or bust — even as they look every day at their baseball team and its record, and sometimes wonder: How did we win that many games? 

So instead of packaging top-shelf prospects for Eugenio Suárez, they imported Ryan McMahon, who has thus far produced nice work in a small sample size. They do what they should have done back in spring and added Amed Rosario, a thoroughly professional and useful player, to their roster. 

They x out the days until Aaron Judge can come back. 

And, mostly, they send a message that they are intent on protecting their most valuable future assets. It doesn’t appear Spencer Jones is going anywhere. It doesn’t appear Rafael Flores is going anywhere, or Cam Schlittler. It is the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do. It is the responsible thing to do.