No matter what happens this week, the Yankees will not launch a rebuild... yet.

It's hard to imagine the Yankees in a more disgraced state than the abomination that took the field this weekend in Detroit. Yesterday, after the third inning, the only reason to have the game on TV was for an old-fashioned hate-watch.

In another era - a reality not so distant - our nebbish, autotronic manager Aaron Boone would be replaced by a scalding, Billy Martinesque personality, and a fire sale would loom.

Giancarlo Stanton would disappear in a haze of money, and the twins of disappointment - Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar - would be dealt or dispatched to Scranton. Then, for the second time since 2016, Aroldis Chapman would be traded from the Yankees to an actual contender. 

Blaspheme? Close your eyes. It's not hard to imagine...

But but BUT... nobody expects such a meltdown - yet. No matter what happens in the next seven games, Boone will stay, and the Yankees will merely flood their self-owned media with updates on Zack Britton and Luis Severino, and chirpy chatter of how (insert player here) looks ready to snap out of his funk. This stems from the sedentary nature of Hal Steinbrenner, who simply sets a Yankee payroll limit and then goes away, stacking his money to the stars. 

But make no mistake: This is a crisis. Following four games with Tampa and three with Boston, the Yankees could actually start contemplating their second self-inflicted meltdown in five years. Here are the standings for next year's draft, kept faithfully at tankathon.com.

Not long ago, the notion of being swept by the Rays and Redsocks would be the stuff of Chicken Little. For one thing, Gerrit Cole wouldn't let it happen. But we've now seen enough to know otherwise. Yesterday, John Sterling described the Yankees as a team of Dave Kingmans - everybody batting .220 and swinging from their heels. And playing stupidly.

Yesterday, in the ninth, after Giancarlo Stanton had walked to load the bases on four pitches - each well out of the strike zone - Aaron Judge swung wildly at the first two offerings, neither a strike. The next pitch goes down the middle, a call strike three. Game over. I don't mean to rip Judge, one of the few Yankees who is hitting, but I ask you: With the game on the line, was that a smart at-bat?

No matter what happens this week, the Yankees won't pull the plug on 2021 - yet. 

But seven losses would move the Yankees up to 13th in the Tankathon. A few trades could re-energize the farm system. A team of young nobodies? It sure would beat hate-watching.