NEW YORK – Early batting practice was a crowded scene on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, with DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton tinkering to resolve their respective issues. Brian Cashman was also out on the field, attempting to make sense of it all.

Acknowledging that the season thus far has been “a grind,” the Yankees general manager said that he is satisfied with the commitment shown by the club’s slumping veterans, voicing a belief that he will ultimately be satisfied by the final results.

“I’ve been through these wars enough to know that you’ve got to deal with the ups and downs the same way,” Cashman said. “We’ve got a really good team when we’re flying high and playing the way we’re capable of. Right now, we haven’t been doing that, so it looks bad. It feels bad, it tastes bad. No one likes losing, so I understand why the fans are upset.”

Cashman said that there is frustration within the Yankees’ hierarchy as well. The club was swept in a three-game series by the Red Sox this past weekend at Fenway Park and has lost eight of 12 games (entering play on Tuesday) since Aaron Judge crashed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium, sustaining a sprained right big toe that still has no timetable for return.

“It doesn’t change the fact that I’ve got a lot of belief in who we have here and what they’re capable of,” Cashman said. “They’ve got our support and we’re going to grind through it with them while we take the slings and arrows that are deservedly coming because of the current stretch we’re in. Ultimately, we’re just going to fight through it.”

Offensive outage

In part because of Judge’s absence, the Yankees are batting a league-worst .192 in June. The only time in club history they’ve posted a worse average in a month was April 1968 (.186) – the “year of the pitcher.”

“Our guys are better than what they’re showing,” Cashman said. “There’s nothing in our approach that is causing this as much as, we’ve had failure for a stretch. It’s dragging us down. Our runs scored are down, all of it is down. We’re having to rely on our pitching staff more than our offense. Some of it is because of slumps, some is because of injuries. Over the course of time, there will be a correction and we’ll return closer to our norms and what we’re normally used to seeing.”

Short story

Cashman said the Yankees stand by Anthony Volpe as their shortstop of the present and future. Volpe entered play on Tuesday batting .189/.264/.350 with eight doubles, nine homers, 27 RBIs and 15 steals in 72 games.

“When we made the decision to go with Anthony Volpe and he earned that right with his play, we said it was a long-term commitment that we were going to go with him and allow him to develop,” Cashman said. “Right now, obviously we need our offense to do better, but ultimately we’re not relying, per se, on one of the rookies to fill in a gap.”

Oswald Peraza has been swinging a hot bat at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, entering play on Tuesday batting .292/.369/.563 with 11 homers and 24 RBIs. Cashman said that Peraza will continue to receive Minor League reps at second base, third base and shortstop.

“We’re very happy with Peraza,” Cashman said. “We feel we have two high-end players. One is currently playing at the Major League level. One is sitting there biding his time at Triple-A. It’s a great situation to be in. We’ve got nothing but full support for Volpe as he develops up here, and for Peraza as he’s finishing off his development down there.”

Stanton Island

Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson said this past weekend that he believes Stanton is trying to find his timing after his most recent stint on the injured list, and Cashman agreed.

“He runs streaky hot; he runs streaky cold,” Cashman said. “But man, when he’s on, he’s one of the more difficult hitters to get out in the game. No platform is too big for him. … We miss him when he’s out. We’re missing him right now as he’s trying to find his swing, but sooner than later, there will be less questions about him because he will have found his groove once again.”

Consistency for Donaldson

Quizzed about Donaldson and his .151 batting average entering Tuesday, Cashman pointed to Donaldson’s career track record and said that the Yankees would like to see him receive more consistent at-bats after he missed most of April and May recovering from a hamstring injury.

"I'd like to get him some really consistent at-bats before we try to assess what's going on,” Cashman said. “Obviously, last year, he had a subpar offensive season, but prior to that, he's always been an above-average offensive player. This year, obviously got out of the gates, I thought, looking good. And then he got hurt and then he reaggravated his injury, so he's been down for a long period of time. I'd like to get him some runway here, where he gets consistent at-bats and then gets on a roll and be in a better position to judge."

The spin on DJ

LeMahieu was not in the lineup on Tuesday, and manager Aaron Boone is considering sitting him on Wednesday as well. LeMahieu is working on the "load" portion of his approach; Lawson explained that instead of driving up the middle, LeMahieu appears more pointed toward shortstop. He’s batting .171 (6-for-35) this month.

“Maybe there’s some compensation because of the prior [foot] injury,” Cashman said. “That’s what we’re trying to unpack right now, to see if he’s changed how he loads. That might be where the secret sauce is. Everybody is trying to speculate right now.”

Waiting game

Medical experts have suggested that Judge may not return before the All-Star break. Cashman said that he believes the Yankees can withstand that length of absence, if they must. 

“We have a lot of professional hitters, a lot of really good quality hitters that are capable of a lot of great things,” Cashman said. “We’re not going to do any trading to replace Judge, so ultimately, we’ve just got to wait for him to get back. In the meantime, we’ve got a lot of guys that are more than capable of doing great things for us. We just need that. We’re missing it right now, but it’ll come around. I do truly believe that.”