Perception vs. reality.
It feels like the Yankees offense and bullpen have underachieved this year and that the rotation has been central to success.
Yet, at the exact one-third-of-the-season mark, 54 games, the Yankees led the majors in runs scored, had one of the best bullpens in the majors and had a rotation that was middle of the pack.
In other words — to borrow from Dennis Green — the Yankees are who we thought they were. It is just their offense and bullpen have not been strengths in the way imagined. The lineup has been underwhelming in batting average and on-base percentage, making it appear lethargic and unproductive at times. The relief corps has succeeded despite nothing and almost nothing from Pedro Feliciano and Rafael Soriano, respectively, the additions who were supposed to elevate the pen.
The rotation, meanwhile, has performed much better than anticipated, but still ranked 13th in ERA (3.82) and 19th in quality starts (30).
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“We are a championship-caliber-contending team with areas of need that I need to work on,” general manager Brian Cashman said in assessing the first third of the season. “We are going to have to continue to look for ways to improve our pitching.”
From all I have heard, the Yankees currently do not imagine pursuing a significant bat between now and July 31 (so we can close the Carlos Beltran rumors for a bit). Instead, they see signs of life up and down the order everywhere but from Jorge Posada. And they feel that if the DH ultimately has to be changed that could come internally from Eric Chavez getting healthy, Jesus Montero being promoted or Eduardo Nunez playing the field more to allow Alex Rodriguez, in particular, to DH more frequently.
Cashman badly wants to add a lefty reliever because the farm system does not have many (if any) options. But it could be the Yankees will just have to wait to see if Feliciano and, perhaps late in the year, Damaso Marte can return.
Thus, for the next third of the season Cashman will — as expected — be fixed on upgrading his rotation, although the Yankees currently are the only AL East team with four qualified starters (CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and A.J. Burnett) with ERAs below 4.00.
“Overall, the pitching is going to be the defining thing for us,” Cashman said. “The pitching has excelled, but it is not wise or prudent to sit back and try not to reinforce and improve on it.”
Translation: Do you believe Colon and Garcia will hold up physically all year, or Burnett and Ivan Nova can be trusted in a pennant race?
Now the good news/bad news in this area was supplied by an AL rival executive who said, “They are among a small, handful of really good and flawed teams in the American League. What they will need to be really good [starting pitching], they have the talent in a deep farm system to get. The downside, though, is the trade market is slow developing and doesn’t look very rich [in starting pitching].”
Thus, the Yankees have the chips to land a big starter but don’t expect high-end guys to be available like last year with Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Dan Haren moving. The Twins’ Francisco Liriano and the White Sox’s John Danks are talented lefties having poor seasons. Would the run-challenged A’s ever trade a starter such as Gio Gonzalez for a package built around offense (Jesus Montero)? Does Houston’s Brett Myers excite you?
Just to be sure, I asked the Yankees if they had put out any feelers or received any from Andy Pettitte, and the response was no. Because of early-season blister issues, the Yankees’ two best pitching prospects — Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances — have not had heavy workloads this year and, thus, probably could be promoted at some point and still stay under prescribed innings limits.
However, Cashman downplayed such a possibility.
“They are pitching without interference and I am glad they are doing well,” he said. “I am not holding any internal conversations about dates down the road to bring them up. Actually, I am happy Garcia and Colon are pitching so well because it is allowing all of our kids at Double- and Triple-A to take their normal turns without interruption.”
So, for now, the Yankees will hope Garcia and Colon stay in this time warp and keep delivering unanticipated excellence to provide cover as the next third of the season is defined by Cashman’s hunt for their replacements.
joel.sherman@nypost.com