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As baseball comes to the midway point, with the trade deadline right behind, there are plenty of burning questions as to what comes next. Here are ours:

WILL THE REAL 2024 YANKEES PLEASE STAND UP?

Go ahead, try to figure out this Yankee team. Aaron Boone sure hasn’t. On June 24, on the eve of their three-game series in Boston against the Red Sox, the Yankees sported the best record in baseball (50-22), led the majors in runs, team ERA (2.94) and Aaron Judge and Juan Soto were both having huge seasons. Since then, starting with being swept by the Red Sox, they’ve gone 6-17 with a major league worst 6.20 ERA, prior to Friday night’s 4-1 win over the Orioles.

The collapse has been near total, especially the offense. In particular, Anthony Volpe has looked totally lost at the plate and starting to give the Yankee brass regret for having taken him over Gunnar Henderson in the 2019 draft. He’s dropped 29 points on his batting average since June 12 with no homers and only 9 RBI since May 16. If this continues the Yankees may just have to send him back to Triple-A for a re-set. Alex Verdugo has dropped from .266 to .239 since June 14. Soto, playing through a painful hand injury, has four homers and 10 RBI since June 16. Worst of all, the whole Yankee team — other than that July 6 breakout against a spent Red Sox bullpen – has too often appeared lifeless and, fair or not, that’s a reflection on the manager who, much to the fans’ dismay, is loath to criticize them at least in public.

Unfortunately, these fast starts, followed by midseason swoons, have become a disturbing pattern with Boone’s Yankee teams of late. In 2022, they started 61-23 and finished 38-40 to barely make the playoffs, and last year they got off to 36-25 start and went 46-55 the rest of the way to miss the playoffs altogether. With the second highest payroll in baseball at $307 million, this cannot happen again. But how to reverse it? Amid so many leaks sprung in so many places, Brian Cashman’s best acquisitions at the trade deadline might actually be the return of Clarke Schmidt, Giancarlo Stanton, Jasson Dominguez, Jon Berti and Scott Effross from the injured list after the All-Star break. If he does anything at the trade deadline, he should make a run at Miami’s closer Tanner Scott. The only consolation for Boone is that the Orioles have been unable to take advantage of the Yankees’ woes, playing almost as badly recently, with their lead down to one game after losing to the Yankees Friday night.

ARE THE METS TWO RELIEVERS AWAY FROM THE WORLD SERIES?

Right around the same time the Yankees were starting their slide, the Mets, who were 22-33 on May 29, were starting their rise from the ashes, and after sweeping the Nationals they entered the weekend at 47-45 tied with the Padres for the third wild card. A lot of things happened — Francisco Alvarez came back from the injured list and has become a team leader, both offensively and defensively behind the plate. Since being inserted in the leadoff spot May 18, Francisco Lindor has lifted his average from .190 to .249, while Brandon Nimmo, since moving into the No. 2 hole behind Lindor on June 14, has injected himself into the MVP conversation, now ranking fourth in the NL in both OPS and slugging.

Now that Mark Vientos has taken over at third base, it’s a solid Mets lineup from 1-9,  and the starting rotation, with the addition of rookie Christian Scott and the re-emergence of David Peterson, is suddenly five deep quality-wise and maybe even deeper if Kodai Senga returns the second half. J.D. Martinez and Jose Iglesias have proven to be inspired signs by David Stearns, both productively on the field and with their leadership in the clubhouse. So instead of looking like sellers at the deadline, the Mets are now definitely buyers and if Stearns is able to address their one weakness — the bullpen — they will be a force to be reckoned with in the postseason. Stearns potentially filled one hole last week with the trade for righty Phil Maton. Now he needs to set his sights on Miami’s Scott, while on a lesser scale there’s Oakland’s set-up man Lucas Erceg. Meanwhile, it’s a little curious why the Mets have not given a longer look at left-hander Josh Walker, who’s averaging 12.2 strikeouts per nine inning at Syracuse.

SHOULD DOMBROWSKI BE EXEC OF THE YEAR AGAIN FOR THE RED SOX?

When the Red Sox fired Dave Dombrowski as president of baseball operations in 2019 it sent shockwaves through baseball because he had built three consecutive first-place teams as well as a world championship team just 11 months earlier. Their reasoning was that Dombrowski built those teams by sacrificing a lot of top prospects in their system for Craig Kimbrel and Nathan Eovaldi, and signing high salaried “win now” free agents David Price and J.D. Martinez. The Red Sox upper management complained privately that Dombrowski didn’t have much of a process to his dealings, relying more on instincts, and the perception was that he’d stripped the Red Sox farm system dry.

So here we are now, going into the All-Star break and the Red Sox are one of the most surprising teams in baseball, in third place in both the AL East and the wild card standings with Alex Cora, one of the frontrunners for AL Manager of the Year, on his way out the door. And the nucleus of this Red Sox team is all homegrown players — third baseman Rafael Devers, rookie center fielder/shortstop Ceddanne Rafaela (more RBI than Lindor, Pete Alonso, Jose Altuve, Matt Olson, Alex Bregman), outfielder Jarren Duran (first AL player to ever record 100 hits, 10 triples, 10 HR and 20 stolen bases before the All Star Game), and their three top starting pitchers Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello — all of whom were signed under Dombrowksi’s watch. They need another starting pitcher to be any kind of a factor in October but will ownership go for it? Dombrowksi sure would.

WHO AMONG US HAD SETH LUGO AND REYNALDO LOPEZ ON OUR CY YOUNG AWARD BINGO CARDS?

Seth Lugo wanted to be a starter in all his time with the Mets, but they viewed him too valuable as a long relief man, and that was the deciding factor for him when he left as a free agent for San Diego on a one-year deal after the 2022 season. He did so again last winter when he signed with the pitching-poor Royals and went right to the top of their rotation where he presently sits, leading the AL with 11 wins and 2.21 ERA.

On the other hand, the White Sox didn’t quite know what to do with Reynaldo Lopez, shuttling him back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen from 2020-23 before finally trading him with Lucas Giolito to the Angels for a couple of top prospects at the deadline last year. Then last December Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos — does he ever make a mistake on a player? — signed Lopez for $8 million as a free agent and inserted him into the depleted Braves rotation where, after 16 starts, he’s 7-2 with a 1.71 ERA.



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