It's tough to dress up the state of the New York Yankees.
They are bad.
Twice this season they've had series against the Boston Red Sox, and twice they were swept. Their showings against other teams haven't been much better, as reflected by their 41-38 record. They're rapidly slipping in the American League East race, trailing the first-place Sox by 7 1/2 games, the Tampa Bay Rays by 5 1/2 games and the Toronto Blue Jays by one game.
Not exactly the showing you look for when you have a payroll as high as New York's.
The man who built the team, Brian Cashman, knows that his team is bad.
“We suck right now,” Cashman said Tuesday via The AP.
He also added the Yankees are "as bad as you can be." However, while some clamor for manager Aaron Boone to get canned, Cashman -- perhaps an avid reader of this very website -- is not laying blame on the skipper.
“This is not an Aaron Boone problem and this is not a coaching staff problem,” he said, adding, “They’re doing what they need to be doing. We’re just not getting the results. ... that’s more on me than them.”
Where the Yankees go from here is unclear. There's a month until the trade deadline, and if Cashman thinks his team can compete if he adds, then he needs to do it sooner rather than later because there's a chance one more month with this group will put New York right out of postseason contention.