The Yankees focused on scoring rather than seeking a home run at third base. They were interested in Eugenio Suarez but believed Arizona had several strong contenders for him, possibly spearheaded by the Cubs.

This led the Yankees to anticipate a delay, at least through the weekend. Even after trading first baseman Josh Naylor to the Mariners, the Diamondbacks were taking their time to see if they could make a last attempt to enter the wild card race. Moreover, with multiple teams vying for Suarez, the bidding could extend right up to Thursday’s trade deadline, potentially driving up the cost in prospects, which the Yankees were unwilling to pay for a player in his final contract year, despite Suarez’s impressive power since last year’s All-Star break. They were also concerned about waiting until the deadline and possibly missing out on Suarez, leaving them with no alternative.

The Yankees aimed to retain their better prospects because they considered pitching a greater priority than third base internally. This led them, on Friday, to trade two lower-level pitching prospects—lefty Griffin Herring and righty Josh Grosz—to the Rockies for Ryan McMahon. They view this as an improvement at third base—where almost any change would be beneficial—while maintaining flexibility for additional enhancements.

It is even still possible that the Yankees add another position player – someone such as Minnesota switch-hitter Willi Castro or Washington’s righty-swinging Amed Rosario – as they search for batters who do well against lefties (as McMahon makes the daily lineup even more left-handed) and have positional maneuverability. But the main area of fixation now is to improve the pitching.