Aaron Judge responds to Yankees' lackluster trade deadline

New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge remains committed to pursuing a playoff berth this fall after general manager Brian Cashman failed to deliver a major splash ahead of Tuesday's trade deadline. 

"We added a couple arms, but like we’ve been saying all week and the past couple days, it’s on us as players," Judge explained, as shared by Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "We’re fully capable with the guys that we’ve got in this room to go out there and compete on a daily basis. The results haven’t come, obviously, all year, but we’ve still got two months left on the season and we’ve got a lot of work to do." 

Goodman noted earlier in the week that Judge publicly campaigned for Cashman to buy instead of sell despite the fact the Yankees sat in last place in the American League East standings at the time. While Cashman acquired right-handed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton from the Chicago White Sox and righty Spencer Howard from the Texas Rangers, the executive did not address New York's glaring need for at least another bat. 

The Bronx Bombers were 35-25 when Judge first began missing action due to a torn ligament in his big right toe he suffered on June 3. They've gone 1-4 since his return from the injured list and entered Wednesday afternoon at 55-52 and three-and-a-half games back in the race for a wild-card postseason berth. 

"It’s tough when you look at the standings and see where we’re at, see what other teams are doing," Judge said about clubs such as the Rangers and Houston Astros adding talent ahead of the trade deadline. "But we’ve got to stay focused on us. We’ve got plenty of stuff we need to work on here and we’ve got to continue to push forward with what we’re doing. We’ve got to execute our plan, we’ve got to prepare better, we’ve got to make adjustments, that’s the only way you get out of something like this." 

The reigning AL Most Valuable Player is correct about those in the clubhouse having to be responsible for righting the ship because it's now known the Yankees won't be getting any major reinforcements before this coming offseason at the earliest.