OAKLAND, Calif. -- Stephen Drew is not the reason the New York Yankees are once again flirting with mediocrity, their 6-2 loss to the lowly Oakland Athletics dropping them back to a game over .500, even if they remain a game ahead of the rest of the pack in the just as mediocre American League East.

And he is not the reason they have now lost 12 of their past 16 games, and can only hope to leave here on Sunday with no better than a split of this four-game series.

But he is one of the reasons why the Yankees seem destined to hover around the .500 mark all season long, and why even if they prevail in their weak division, they are unlikely to go far once they venture into baseball's more dangerous neighborhoods.

Stephen Drew's batting average is well under .200 since the start of the 2014 season. Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports

Most importantly, he is one of the few players the Yankees have the luxury of changing out, and really, how much worse could anyone else do at the plate than Drew, with his .158 batting average and .529 OPS, has already done.

It was kind of a cruel joke on Yankees fans to see Drew stepping to the plate in the ninth inning of Friday night's loss, with two outs, two runners on and Mark Teixeira in the on-deck circle swinging a bat everyone in the park had to know he would never get to use in the game. Predictably enough, Drew popped out to the infield to end the game and set himself up as an easy enough foil for frustrated fans who seem to think that with another second baseman, the Yankees would be a lot better than they are.

There is some truth to that, only the second baseman they need out there now plays for the Seattle Mariners, and will until the year 2024.

Taking Stephen Drew's feeble bat out of the Yankees' lineup will not in itself make this team a legitimate World Series contender, nor will removing his fine glove from their infield do anything to shore up their leaky defense.

Clearly, something has to be done, if only to do something, and probably the only thing the Yankees can do right now is sit Drew down for a while and replace him with -- gulp! -- Jose Pirela.

Let's get real here. Pirela is no Drew with the glove, and the euphoria of his impressive spring has certainly faded away with his .200 batting average in limited duty since he was added to the roster on May 6, having missed nearly two months with a concussion suffered when he ran into the center-field wall back in March.

Even though he has had only 30 at-bats with the Yankees -- and just six hits, all but one of them singles -- some in the Yankees organization have seen enough to believe that what they saw in the spring was just another Florida mirage. His OPS, at .433, is even worse than Drew's.

Still, there isn't really much wiggle room for manager Joe Girardi and GM Brian Cashman on this roster, not with Jacoby Ellsbury on the DL with a knee injury, his replacement (Slade Heathcott) about to go on the DL with a severe quad strain, the backup shortstop (Brendan Ryan) still in Florida working back from a variety of spring injuries, and no other outfielders or infielders in the farm system anywhere close to big league ready aside from Ramon Flores, who will be called up from Triple-A to replace Heathcott. But Flores is strictly a corner outfielder, a part-time player who might spell Carlos Beltran here or there or Chris Young when a right-hander is pitching. Certainly, no difference-maker.

Neither, of course, are Drew or Pirela, but there really is nothing else to be done. Didi Gregorius is erratic at shortstop, but he's hitting 60 points higher than Drew, and his double off Oakland ace Sonny Gray in the sixth inning on Friday led to the Yankees' second, and last, run of the game. Besides, the only player on the roster capable of replacing him is -- you guessed it -- Stephen Drew. So he's safe for now.

So is Chase Headley, who despite his 11 errors -- No. 11 sparked the third-inning rally that doomed starter Chris Capuano on Friday -- and .246/6/22 slash line is the Yankees' only viable choice at third. Alex Rodriguez, who has aged out of the position, is solid as the DH and Teixeira owns his position at first and in the cleanup spot. The outfield is set, through attrition and performance -- Brett Gardner is hitting .289 with an .809 OPS -- and Brian McCann, with four homers in his past four games, finally appears to be paying off behind the plate.

So replacing Drew is really the only way to go, even if it doesn't accomplish all that much.

Even Girardi, one of Drew's staunchest defenders, was hard-pressed to explain his second baseman's long-running slump, which is now well into its second consecutive season. In the past, he has used esoteric measurements like exit velocity to justify his continuance in the Yankees' lineup. Now, he has been reduced to just cursing what he considers to be Drew's terrible luck.

"It's different from night to night," Girardi said. "We've seen him barrel balls up, but he doesn't get hits. Then he might be out in front of one a little bit. Tonight's a hard night to judge anyone when you're facing Sonny Gray. But it just doesn't seem that he gets the rewards that he should when he hits the ball hard. And that's frustrating."

That last remark is sure to draw snickers, or worse, from Yankees fans who might be tempted to believe that Drew's $5 million salary is reward enough. Because two years removed from his membership on the Boston Red Sox's last world championship team -- and his subsequent spurning of a $14 million qualifying offer in search of free-agent riches that never came his way -- Drew is quantifiably one of the worst hitters in baseball. Over his past 423 at-bats, stretching back to the beginning of 2014, Drew is batting a cumulative .151 with 12 home runs, 41 RBIs and an OPS barely above .500. It is becoming silly to continue to maintain that he will come around. What he is now is what he is likely to be.

At that point, there's really nothing else to do but sit him down and try someone else in his place.

It may not make a difference over the long haul, but for the here and now, at least it will look as if the Yankees are doing something about a player who has done virtually nothing.