Yankees trade deadline acquisitions will help, but the rest of the team must step up for a playoff run

The 2024 trade deadline came and went Tuesday evening and, as expected, the New York Yankees were active. Most notably, they landed Jazz Chisholm Jr. in a four-player trade with the Miami Marlins this past weekend. On deadline day, they brought in righty relievers Mark Leiter Jr. and Enyel De Los Santos , and sent lefty Caleb Ferguson packing.

An infield bat and a bat-missing reliever was the minimum for the Yankees at the deadline and they acquired just that in Chisholm, Leiter and De Los Santos. Chisholm's already made an impact too. He swatted two home runs Monday night (albeit one against a position player) while also playing third base for the first time in his career.

Leiter has struck out 34.9% of the batters he's faced this season, a top-10 mark among qualified relievers. De Los Santos has a 28.2% strikeout rate. They'll join a bullpen with a 23.0% strikeout rate this season; for context, the MLB average is a 23.1% strikeout rate for relievers. Chisholm has upgraded the lineup and Leiter and De Los Santos add strikeouts to the bullpen. Three sensible deadline additions for New York.

"More than anything, he's a good pitcher," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about the Leiter trade ( via the Associated Press ). "He's also thrown the ball really well the last month. We're excited to get him, and I know he's excited to get here."

The Yankees enter Tuesday with a 63-45 record and sit a half-game behind the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. They've won three straight games as well. At the same time, the Yankees are 13-23 since June 14, better than only the historically bad Chicago White Sox . The offense has been mostly OK during this stretch. The pitching is collapsing, both starters and relievers.

And that is what will determine how the rest of 2024 plays out for the Yankees. Chisholm, Leiter, and De Los Santos will help, of course, but players already on the team must perform better. Basically everyone except the peerless Aaron Judge and Juan Soto , and rookie starter Luis Gil , gets a share of the blame for his 13-23 stretch. There has been underperformance up and down the roster.

All-Star closer Clay Holmes , for example, has blown four of his last six save chances. Convert three of those blown saves (not even all four) and the Yankees are in first place. Veterans Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman combined for a 6.51 ERA and less than five innings per start in July. Even Gerrit Cole has labored. He has a 5.40 ERA in seven starts since coming off the injured list and is now missing Tuesday's scheduled start .

Alex Verdugo and Anthony Volpe have begun to pick it up at the plate the last few days, but from May 1 to the All-Star break, Verdugo hit .223/.263/.352 and was a minus-0.2 WAR player. Volpe slashed .234/.274/.353 during that time and spent most of it hitting leadoff in front of Judge and Soto. Third base has been a wasteland all year: .234/.296/.336 and plus-0.4 WAR.

Rookie catcher Austin Wells has performed very well the last few weeks -- Wells is hitting .298/.405/.575 in his last 35 games -- and Gleyber Torres has finally been performing as expected after a sluggish start to the season. Carlos Rodón's last two starts were very good as well. The last few before that? Not so much. Setup man Michael Tonkin and Luke Weaver stumbled at times too.

Chisholm will help with the third base problem, assuming he remains there the rest of the season. Leiter and De Los Santos bolster the bullpen. The deadline moves should move the needle. But, at the end of the day, either the guys already on the team will perform better than they have the last few weeks and the Yankees will make noise in October, or they won't and the Yankees won't.

Boone's favorite saying is "it's right in front of us," meaning it's on the Yankees to seize the opportunity. The last few weeks, they have not done that. They were 49-21 and had the best record in baseball at one point. They've played White Sox-caliber baseball since then, and Chisholm, Leiter and De Los Santos will only help so much. It's on the players who've been there all season to pull their weight again.

"I look forward to getting through these next 24 hours," Boone said Monday about the trade deadline ( via the Bergen Record ). "... (After that, it's) here we go, boys. This is what we got, let's go get 'em.''