Recent slump showing Yankees have some real flaws and concerns

The New York Yankees looked like the best team in baseball through the first two-and-a-half months of the season and a legitimate World Series contender.

They still might end up being both of those things, but their recent slump — which was given an exclamation point with an 8-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday, capping off a three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium — is starting to show that this team still has some very real flaws.

Some of those flaws are the same ones that have existed in the Bronx for a couple of years now.

The biggest flaw of them all — a lack of depth throughout the lineup.

While the offseason additions of Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo added two big bats to go around Aaron Judge, they are still very dependent on the Judge-Soto duo to carry almost all the offense.

That is only magnified given the recent injuries to designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

With Thursday's loss to the Reds, the Yankees are now just 5-14 in their past 19 games, a stretch that has seen them score just 91 runs.

The injuries to Stanton and Rizzo might get some of the blame for that, but it can't be all of it — especially when Rizzo himself was not hitting well before he left the lineup.

The bigger issue is that the Yankees are getting almost no production this season from any of their infield positions with the lone exception of shortstop Anthony Volpe, and even he has tailed off in recent weeks.

Of the 11 Yankees hitters who have registered at least 100 plate appearances this season, the only ones with an OPS+ over 100 (with 100 being a league-average hitter) are Judge (219), Soto (181) and Stanton (120). Judge and Soto are the only two currently in the lineup.

Even more concerning is that five of those players with 100 plate appearances have an OPS+ lower than 90.

It is simply not a very deep lineup. That has been an issue in recent years where the Yankees would only be able to go as far as Judge could carry them. The addition of Soto has changed that a little this season, but only to the point where the lineup only looks like it will go as far as Judge, Soto and their starting pitching rotation will carry them.

That is going to be a problem playing in a division with the Baltimore Orioles whose lineup has almost no weaknesses from top to bottom if they do not figure out a way to fix it.