Yankees Notes: McCann, Beltran, Trades, Prado

The Yankees’ run differential (currently -29) and tendency to get blown out suggest they’re a mediocre team, but they remain in the AL East race because no other team has pulled away, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Part of the Yankees’ struggles have to do with the fact that they have five players with at least 200 plate appearances and OPSes of .660 or lower. They acquired three of those (Brian Roberts, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran) this offseason. Of course, McCann and Beltran, at least, have recent track records of hitting well, so they could get more offense from them in the second half. Here are more notes out of New York.

• Top rotation options like David Price and Jeff Samardzija are probably out of the question for the Yankees, but NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty suggests some lower-tier options New York could pursue. Among them are Jason Hammel of the Cubs, Brandon McCarthy of the Diamondbacks, and Jorge De La Rosa of the Rockies.
• The Yankees are focused on acquiring pitching, but they should also consider the Diamondbacks’ Martin Prado at third base, Bill Madden of New York Daily News writes. Prado, 30, has hit just .271/.318/.368 this year for Arizona, although he still plays strong defense at the hot corner.