Update: Cashman says Yankees working to acquire a “small piece”

1:34pm: “We have a small piece that we’re acquiring right now that hasn’t been announced yet, so again going to continue to try to piece things together,” said Cashman during an interview with MLB Network this afternoon. Something’s in the works.

12:30pm: Despite Masahiro Tanaka’s injury and the Yankees’ apparent inability to play any better than .500 ball, the team will continue to aggressively pursue trades to improve their chances of winning this year, according to Mark Feinsand. “We’ve been aggressive because now we’ve got four starters that we were planning to have in the rotation are out,” said Brian Cashman. “We will continue to be aggressive unless I’m told otherwise.”

I think the Yankees have reached the point where there are simply too many holes to fill at the trade deadline. They could have used another starter before Tanaka got hurt, so now they definitely need one. Add that to a right fielder, a third baseman, and a reliever — at some point the Jim Miller/Matt Daley/Jose Ramirez/etc. revolving door has to stop, right? — and you’re talking about four needs leading up to July 31st. That’s an awful lot these days. This weekend in Baltimore figures to have a big impact on their deadline plans.