Yankees have one last chance to learn their lesson from Jorge Mateo

The Yankees are in a position to add some outside help and become a contender. And if they just learn from their past mistakes with Jorge Mateo, they can set the franchise up for years to come.

The Yankees have what is called a good problem to have. They have a great young nucleus on the field with more promising youth in the pipeline. To create a team that can challenge for a championship, they have to trade some of that unborn talent, a process they have already begun.

But which players should they trade, and when?

We must understand the nature of an MLB GM to answer that question. That part is easy: they are all greedy con men. You see, while an honest man cannot be cheated because he wants something for something, a con man wants to trade you nothing for something.

And that makes them susceptible to being conned. All the Yankees have to do is flip the script and trade a whole bunch of nothing for something precious. That part is hard.

For instance, Cashman should want to trade top performing players who are not real big league prospects. The trade of Jesus Montero serves as a good, but not great, example. Montero was the number three prospect back in 2011, at least according to Baseball America.

The Yankees may or may not have thought of him as a future star, but they traded him as one. Montero went to the Mariners for young, All-Star pitcher Michael Pineda. Jesus was a complete bust and, well, you already know what happened with Pineda.

The Yankees won the trade but not by much. But the point is they got maximum value for a big league bust. Unfortunately, the did not have as much foresight with Jorge Mateo.