Why Mason Miller should be the Yankees’ top trade target — and the lower-cost options on radar

The Yankees need bats. Desperately. They completed the weekend having mustered more than five runs just twice in the past 33 games.

They can talk about Aaron Judge returning at some nebulous date; sure, fine. But that appears no place close. And it is more pipe dream than strategy to hope that Giancarlo Stanton gets healthy, stays healthy and is quickly productive after missing this much time or that Austin Wells’ recent uptick in performance is the real thing or that Jasson Domínguez hits like a Martian and not 2024 Alex Verdugo.

And then just as an ice-cold Cody Bellinger was re-heating, he suffered a hamstring injury over the weekend that will cost him at least four weeks, Aaron Boone said.

If they repeat for another month what they have done offensively for the past month-plus, they are going to do more than just imperil winning the AL East. These Yankees are threatening to waste elite run prevention (the majors’ lowest ERA even after allowing 11 runs Sunday to Philadelphia).