Win or lose, Yankees always reload mid-season

Historically when it comes to handicapping the New York Yankees in any given season, it’s virtually impossible to reasonably predict where the Bombers are going to finish in the final standings. The reason is the Yankees team after the trade deadline is usually not the same as the Yankee team that started the year.

“Historically, I think they always do that,” Jays’ manager John Gibbons said, before Toronto’s 4-2 win last night. “We talked about it earlier in the season, I didn’t think they were getting enough credit for what they had on the field and even then they were playing good ball. Any time they’re in (the post-season race), they’re not going to sit still. They never do. They’re almost forced to sometimes.”

Gibbons recollection of recent Yankee history is fairly accurate. Consider that for the past 12 seasons in a row, according to reliable website Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Yankees have finished each year supporting more payroll than they had on Opening Day. In fact the Yankees added about $138.6 million in salaries for the 10 seasons between 200716, making for a different annual look from Opening Day to October. They have finished 10 straight seasons at over $215-million payroll.

The Yankees came to Toronto on Tuesday to face the Jays with additions in the rotation and also in the bullpen from the team the Jays saw July 3-4-5 in the Bronx. In that series, the Jays took two of three to even the season log at 5-5. Here are the most significant changes made by GM Brian Cashman since then.

The Yanks, in the rotation, lost hardthrowing right-hander Michael Pineda to injury, so they went arm shopping, coming home with Twins’ right-hander Jaime Garcia and A’s righty Sonny Gray in the final days of July.

Now armed with a rotation of Gray, Garcia, CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino, New York’s five-man group will be making $63.1-million in 2017 and that’s even with Pineda’s $7.4 million on the sidelines.

Compare that to a Jays starting five that is combining in 2017 to make just $31.4 million, led by Marco Estrada ($14M), J.A. Happ ($13M) and Marcus Stroman ($3.4M). The Jays dumped Francisco Liriano’s $13-million, while the Yankees added $15.6-million to their payroll with Gray and Garcia.

“We’ve seen Sabathia plenty of times and now they’ve got Gray over there. It’s definitely a new look. They sent (righty Jordan) Montgomery down. He’s been tough on us a couple of times this year. We just have to play better than they do.”

But it’s in the bullpen where the Yankees have ramped up on velocity, now armed with five relievers that can consistently throw fastballs in the high 90s — lefty Aroldis Chapman and right-handers Dellin Betances, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green. That pen is as deep as they have been this century.

Recall in 2016 when the Bombers thought they were going to have to rebuild, for once, at the trade deadline. Cashman traded away Chapman and lefty setup man Andrew Miller, along with right fielder Carlos Beltran and right-hander Ivan Nova for a bushel of young prospects. They were thinking rebuild.

But in the second half of that year they slowly discovered they had some huge, ready-for-primetime youngsters like right fielder Aaron Judge, catcher Gary Sanchez and shortstop Didi Gregorius. They quickly realized the future could, in fact, be 2017, re-signing Chapman to close out games and then those deadline moves.

“It’s always been a slug-it-out division,” Gibbons conceded of the Yankees, Red Sox, O’s and Rays. “We haven’t played our best ball against those guys (in the East) and we need to now. It goes back to that we know these guys and they know us. It’s whoever executes. But we’ve had our tough time in the East this year, no doubt. That’s contributed to where we’re at. It’s been a big part of it.”

The Jays can fool themselves that they entered Tuesday only five games out of the race for the second wild-card and are still alive, but ever since the night in Kansas City, June 23, when they blew a 4-1 lead in the ninth without Roberto Osuna, now entering the series against the Yan- kees to begin a 10-game homestand, the Jays had been 17-22 with six walk-off losses, outscored by opponents 225-164.

That’s not good, but not only that, with Aaron Sanchez out indefinitely, with Cesar Valdez on the DL with right-shoulder impingement and with Joe Biagini in the minor league converting back to being a starter and learning to pitch from the wind- up, it turns out that as of Tuesday game-time the Jays still had not settled on starters for Wednesday vs. the Yankees or for Saturday against the Pirates. Daunting? Even though a handful of games back, the Jays trail in the wild-card standings the Yankees, Royals, Rays, Mariners, Orioles, Twins, Angels and Rangers.