SIMULATION: Parameters for Yankees transactions at FanSided Winter Meetings

The other day, this Yankees blog nearly broke the internet when detailing the loss of Shohei Ohtani to the Seattle Mariners. For those that missed the fine print, this is a fantasy exercise to keep our creative juices flowing this offseason.

It is the site experts’ goal of the FanSided baseball network’s to spur conversation, debate and good-natured entertainment all season long, especially during the winter months. I mean, would you rather me write another article detailing candidate No. 47 currently interviewing for Yankees’ managerial opening?

If you hadn’t already guessed, I’m not the general manager of the Yankees. As happy as I’d be to take the job, I’m pretty sure Brian Cashman was waiting to be named 2017 MLB Executive of the Year before signing his new deal. So I’ll have to wait my turn to call the shots of baseball’s greatest franchise.

I’m coming for you, Cash!

The moves “I” made were part of FanSided’s Winter Meetings, as all 30 team sites were involved to create a fun and at times frustrating exercise to see how “we” could better our clubs for the future.

No actual teams were harmed in the making of this project, I promise.

The parameters of the exercise were simple, with one person representing the commissioner and another acting as player agent:

• If a player involved in a deal has a no-trade clause, then that must be dealt with.
• Cash could be included but we could not include PTBNL.
• Deals could involve minor leaguers, though we needed to watch for Rule 5 draft eligibility issues.
• Offering opt-outs were okay; team options were okay; no-trade provisions were okay but no payment deferments were allowed.
• Counter-offers, contract extensions and rescinded offers were also accepted.

As for payroll, we the faux GM’s were allowed to add up to 15 percent on top of the club’s salary from 2017.

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In keeping with realism, knowing that the Yankees wish to get under $197 million next year, I kept an eye on the bottom line while strategically adding necessary pieces to bolster our chances of winning World Series championship No. 28.

Yes, I’m a GM in the making.

Quite simply, who wouldn’t want to sit in the control tower and pull the strings of our favorite professional sports team? Most of us already do it through fantasy sports, so this was a welcome experiment that hopefully offered a quick escape from the circus that is securing Shohei Ohtani.

If you don’t see the point in this SIMULATION, then I’m sorry. Try as we might, we can’t please everyone. There are tons of other articles on Yanks Go Yard that detail the actual goings-on of the real world.

Just please stop throwing out the phrase of the year, “Fake News.” It’s not funny, and it doesn’t apply here.

Next: SIMULATION: Shohei Ohtani spurs Yanks for Mariners

With that being said, I’ll soon be releasing a list of the trades and free agent signings “we” the Yankees made at the second annual FanSided Winter Meetings. Stay tuned…