Bomber Bites With Jumping Joe—Are the Yankees Destined For Fourth Place in 2015?

The Winter Meetings are over and the landscape of the AL East has changed.  In one of the most active Winter Meetings ever, the Red Sox found themselves vastly improved even after Jon Lester spurned them for the Cubs.  The Blue Jays continued to get better.  The defending champion Orioles are still the team to beat despite losing Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis.

This leaves the Yankees and Rays seemingly battling to stay out of the AL East cellar.  The Rays are still trying to find their way after losing most of the front office and perennial manager of the year candidate Joe Maddon.  The Yankees meanwhile have been able to fill their shortstop hole with the trade for Didi Gregorius prior to the meetings but walked out of the Winter Meetings down two pitchers.

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The Yankees may not have intended to ever re-sign David Robertson, but they stated at several points this off-season that resigning Brandon McCarthy was a priority.  When they refused to up their offer to four years, McCarthy signed with the Dodgers.  The Yankees seem to be in denial for what the market rate for free agents is this off-season as they consistently low ball the free agents they appear to be targeting.

At a time when the Yankees are looking for starting pitchers, the Red Sox managed to acquire three solid starters in a little more than 24 hours during the Winter Meetings.  They were able to acquire Wade Miley from the Diamondbacks and sign Justin Masterson to a free agent deal.  Then they swapped Yoenis Cespedes for New Jersey native Rick Porcello in a deal with the Tigers.

The Yankees are have major holes in their starting rotation, no proven closer, and the same lineup that struggled to score runs the last two seasons.  For a team that only managed to win 84 games last season and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2012, the prognosis is not good.

But there are still 69 days before pitchers and catchers report to Tampa.  A lot can happen in 69 days.  However, the Yankees will have to commit some serious cash to improve the club.  As it stands, the Yankees payroll is expected to be around $195 million as presently constituted.  That’s a lot of money for a team likely to finish in fourth place in the AL East.

Signing Chase Headley would be a step in the right direction, and he is the only real option available via free agency to upgrade the offense.   But the Headley signing alone won’t catapult the Yankees into contention.  They need a difference maker.  Fortunately, there is one such difference maker on the market.

That difference maker, of course, is 2013 Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer.  Scherzer is the only available free agent that can propel the Yankees from pretender to contender.  Scherzer is one of the best pitchers in the majors and is not an injury, something that can’t be said about the rest of the Yankee rotation.

Any other solution to the Yankees problems will cost both money and the few prospects the Yankees have to trade.  The Yankees saved money but not resigning Robertson or McCarthy.  They will be paying their shortstop about $10 million less next season than last.  The draft pick they will lose by signing Scherzer will be made up by the one they gained when Robertson signed with the White Sox.

Before the Winter Meetings, I was lukewarm on the Yankees signing Scherzer.  The amount of money it will take to sign agent Scott Boras’s prize jewel this off-season is going to be immense to say the least.  It will probably take close to $200 million and seven years to get the job done.  One need only look at CC Sabathia the last two seasons to see how those types of contracts tend to turn out.  But after the shake out from the Winter Meetings and the dwindling options available to the Yankees, Scherzer may be the only chance the Yankees have to next season without decimating a farm system that is only starting to recover after years of neglect.

Even Hal Steinbrenner, the owner who seemingly cares more about profits than winning, has to realize that his profits will drop of a cliff if the Yankees are a fourth place team who misses the playoffs for a third consecutive year.  There is no Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera retirement tour this season.  There is will be no masking the Yankee failure this season.  If the Yankees are a bad team, fans will stay home and YES rating will plummet.

Signing Scherzer could change the Yankees fortunes.  The Yankees don’t have to be a fourth place team next season.  All it will take is money.