ARLINGTON, Texas — Like Yankees fans, Aaron Judge would like the Yankees to get better at the trade deadline.
The Yankees captain and Juan Soto have carried a team that has several holes, particularly at third base and in the bullpen.
Judge, asked about his team’s deadline plans, said that the club has been “great” but he would welcome contributors.
“We’re the Yankees,” Judge said before Tuesday’s All-Star Game at Globe Life Field. “We’re going to try to put ourselves in the best position. And the front office will go out and fill the holes where we need them.
“But we got a great group so far, and we’ll take any help we can get.”
The Yankees entered the break one game behind the Orioles in the AL East and 18 games above .500, but in a tailspin.
The Yankees were 50-22 on June 14 and have won just eight of 26 games since.
The rotation, even with Gerrit Cole’s return, has slipped, the bullpen has dealt with too many injuries and just about every bat outside of Judge and Soto (and perhaps Ben Rice) has declined.
The Mets finished a series against the Rockies in Queens on Sunday, and a few players from both sides boarded a Mets team jet.
Pete Alonso, Jose Iglesias and Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon — friends with Iglesias from their days in Colorado together — flew together to Texas, where all would be performing in one way or another at the All-Star Game.
Alonso, though, wished the flight would have been more crowded.
“I would’ve loved to have them,” Alonso said of Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo. “I wish they were here for sure.”
Alonso was the team’s only representative at the All-Star Game. Lindor, who got off to a slow start this season that might have cost him, has yet to make an All-Star Game in his four seasons in Queens.
Nimmo has been among the better players in baseball since 2017 but somehow has not yet made an All-Star team, saying this year that he is “just not winning the popularity contest.”
It is possible that Alonso’s appeal for the Home Run Derby swayed MLB into choosing him as the team’s representative.