On the same day as the All-Star Game comes bad news from the Yankees’ Droid Repair Shop in Tampa, Fla., where the installation of new gears on Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon have not rejuvenated the outfielders as had been hoped. Though Matsui has been on the shelf since late June, he is still experiencing soreness in his left knee. Damon’s shoulder is still troubling him enough that his planned encounter with a batting tee has been put off until the end of the week. For both players, the setbacks could prove to be small bumps on the road to activation or harbingers of longer stays on the disabled list. In Matsui’s case, season-ending surgery is now being raised as a serious possibility.

There is no way of knowing which outcome the Yankees will receive, which complicates the outlook for the second half of the season. The two 34-year-olds were having seasons that ranked with the best of their careers, and without them, the Yankees lineup has looked naked. Matsui departed the lineup 19 games ago. In that time, the Yankees have hit like the pre-Ripken shortstop ideal, batting .241 AVG/.324 OBA/.362 SLG and scoring 4.5 runs a game. The league average is 4.6. However, those proved to be the good old days: The offense could do a fair imitation of average with Matsui out, but removing Damon proved to have been the last prop. In the eight games since he vanished, the team has batted .223/.293/.319 and scored 3.3 runs a game.

Ironically, the team’s pitching, a source of concern all season long, has been terrific in recent days. During Matsui’s absence, the team has allowed 4.2 runs a game. Since Damon vanished, it has allowed only 2.9 runs. The club’s 9-10 overall record during the post-Matsui period is almost entirely attributable to the offense. The reasons aren’t difficult to see. The production of Yankees outfielders has been pathetic. Brett Gardner will be an excellent player if he hits .290 in the majors and a periodically useful Scott Podsednik-type fourth outfielder if he hits .270, but right now he’s hitting .167. Going back to last fall, Melky Cabrera has hit .227 in 423 at bats. Bobby Abreu is hitting .274/.345/.436 — the average performance for an American League right fielder this season is .276/.344/.456, so the Yankees are outclassed at this position about half the time.

When you add in Joe Girardi’s indulgent use of Jose Molina, the failed effort to make Wilson Betemit a productive part of the offense (he’s started about half the time since Matsui was sidelined), Derek Jeter’s soft season, Jorge Posada’s ill-timed slump (he’s hitting .200/.296/.286 over his last 20 games), and Robinson Cano’s complete lack of productivity — though he’s put the utter futility of April behind him, he’s hit only .288/.318/.413 since, numbers which border on the productive in the same way that the Bronx borders on Staten Island — and you have an offense that increasingly comes down Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, and prayer.

While a 9-10 record in 19 injury-plagued games is not exactly the equivalent of going belly-up, the Yankees are treading water at best at a time when they need to be making up ground, particularly when Tampa’s moment of vulnerability is now and Boston may soon see a healthy David Ortiz back in the lineup, further strengthening their already powerful offense. Decisive action must be taken, but it’s not clear what the Yankees can really do. Solutions will not be found in-house. Austin Jackson, the team’s best outfield prospect, is still at Double-A, and doesn’t yet profile as the next middle of the order hitter; at 21, there’s still time for him to up his production, but rushing him to the majors doesn’t seem like the most promising way of achieving anything either for his development or for the Yankees’ postseason outlook. The Yankees have no other hitters of even Jackson’s current potency at Double- or Triple-A.

That leaves Brian Cashman to make trades, but even a very good trade for a star hitter seems unlikely to project the Yankees into October. To truly enter the playoff picture, the Yankees would probably have to win no fewer than 95 games. To do so, they would have to close with a frantic flourish, going 45-22 over the remaining schedule. If the pitching remains constant at its post-Matsui 4.2 runs allowed per game, to achieve that kind of winning percentage they’ll need to average over six runs a game of offense, something they haven’t achieved all season and a level to which not even the Rangers and Red Sox have aspired.

For that to happen, the Yankees will need either a miraculously extended hot streak by just about everyone on the roster, or two trades: one for Albert Pujols, and then another for Pujols’s secret, Boo Radley-like, more powerful brother. If these moves aren’t a possibility, then it might be best for Brian Cashman to hold on to his prospects and think about selling off what he can and trying again next year.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.