The New York Yankees have been devastated by injuries to their pitching staff this season. With four of their five opening day starters on the shelf, general manager Brian Cashman says he will be doing some serious wheeling and dealing come the trade deadline.

Cashman spoke during a phone conversation about what needs to happen for the Yankees to get back in contention and it starts with rebuilding the pitching staff.

"I have to reinforce our pitching, in my opinion," Cashman said . "I have things that I feel I have to try to do, that I'm trying to do, but it is easier said than done.”

Gone is the rotation that included CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova and Masahiro Tanaka; now the best the Yankees have left are Hiroki Kuroda, rookie Shane Greene, David Phelps, Brandon McCarthy and Chase Whitley. Cashman has quite the challenge ahead of him, but has proven in the past that he can work some magic in the face of adversity.

"We have to try to improve, reinforce and upgrade, certainly," Cashman said. "We certainly we would love to have some significant upgrades but when you lose four out of five starters, it is hard to re-materialize the same type of abilities with the guys you lost. It is whether you incrementally upgrade.”

The Yankees enter the second half of the season with a record of 47-47 which puts them five games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East and 3.5 behind the Seattle Mariners for the final wild card spot.

Potential starting pitchers on the market include Ian Kennedy, Jon Lester, David Price and Jake Peavy. Unfortunately for the Yankees, two of them belong to the Boston Red Sox.

[ESPN]

Give us a shoutout in the comments below and follow us @SportsWN and @Edler56