The 2022 Yankees - aka "the team from Hell" - will force long term changes to this franchise.

Every night, the 2022 Yankees achieve some new historical benchmark for incontinence. Today, their lackluster hitting is being statistically compared to the 1990 team, a pitiful outfit remembered for the likes of Mel Hall, Deion Sanders and Stump Merrill. 

Since his trade to St. Louis, Jordan Montgomery has three wins: That's as many as the Yankees. 

We are witnessing the kind of sports catastrophe normally associated with Gene Mauch and/or Scott Norwood. Coupled with the rise of the Mets, I believe the "Collapse of '22" will force an end to the Brian Cashman Era. 

It simply must happen. The Yankee fan base will demand a top-down cleansing. This will not be a tremor. This will be the earthquake, the 100-year flood, the existential crisis that threatens the Yankees' legacy as the team America loves and hates. (The Dodgers could claim that spot. Or maybe the Mets.) 

Of course, Hal will still own the team. And his desire to put profits over victories will remain the biggest cause of the malaise. The Yankees have stumbled before, but this one will be different. They will see a drop in season tickets. They will see streaming channels, such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV, turn to other, more exciting teams. The crisis will grow exponentially if some West Coast owner outbids the Yankees for Aaron Judge, or if the slugger simply decides he's had enough of NY and wants to return home. Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres won't sell tickets in 2023.

If this debacle continues, Cashman will have to take the fall. Surely, he knows this. In the end, the Montgomery trade will fester around his neck like a career albatross. Someday, Harrison Bader might be a beloved Yankee, but right now, he looks like the worst deal in memory. The Yankees need hitters, and Bader will not solve that problem. (In the last 10 games, only one - the Hicks debacle against Tampa - might have been won if we'd had a decent CF.) It's uncertain if Bader can return be mid-September, and if so, he must survive the "Welcome to NY" slump that many hitters endure. Worse, some fans might boo him as a walking symbol of Cashman's hubris.  

Sunday, the team will honor Paul O'Neill, who famously smashed water coolers after tough games. If the Yankees lose another - or get, gulp, swept - who will go crazy on the dugout fixtures? Or will they just shake their heads and pack for the flight out? 

Like Albert Abreu, the Yankees are out of options. Soon, the media will start wondering who comes next, after Cashman/Boone. Surely, one name will come up: Derek Jeter. 

Once Jeter's name is floated by the big media, the alignment of the planets would be intoxicating. He represents everything that Cashman is not. If Jeter were to take over, would Don Mattingly follow as manager? 

Of course, this is just a parlor game. We are slightly more than halfway through the most excruciating August in our Yankee lifetimes. Believe it or not, we will still probably make the playoffs, but then quickly make an exit - like all the other teams built by Cashman and his algorithms: Good enough to contend, bad enough to lose. 

But I do believe the end is near for Cash. The other night, before Donaldson's HR brought a few hours of peace, the fans were chanting "Fire Boone." One of these nights, they will turn their voices to Cashman. And maybe, just maybe, they'll bring back the post-Reggie chant of "Steinbrenner Sucks." You can hear it on the wind, folks. The big one is coming. And it will bring about change.