Yankees: Things to look forward to during the 2018 Winter Meetings

The 2018 Winter Meetings bring all 30 MLB general managers together at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and there are a few things to look forward to for the Yankees.

It’s that time of the year again! The annual Winter Meetings run from December 9 to December 13. It’s going to be an exciting four-day event at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas with tons of buzz all around social media. For us, we’ll be standing by for any news regarding the Yankees.

Will general manager Brian Cashman and company make any splashes? That remains to be seen. The big-ticket items consist of one more top-flight pitcher (like two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber) and possibly 2015 NL MVP, Bryce Harper or four-time All-Star, Manny Machado.

As the Yanks already invested an abundance of money towards the massive contract of Giancarlo Stanton (13 years and $325 million), they may be considering to fewer years and less money towards either Harper or Machado.

It appears that Nationals owner, Ted Lerner, may not be offering Harper anything more than the 10-year, $300M deal he extended Harper towards the end of the 2018 regular season. A significant portion of any available payroll may be gone following the of signing Patrick Corbin for six-years and $140M. Eric Stephen of NYPost.com reports:

More from Yankees News

• Yankees slice surprising fan favorite off roster to make room for Tommy Kahnle
• Yankees announce corresponding move, make Carlos Rodón signing official
• Aaron Judge puts more pressure on Yankees after being named Captain
• Carlos Correa-Giants-Mets bombshell makes Aaron Judge’s return to Yankees even better
• Did Yankees troll Jon Heyman with Aaron Judge contract tweet?

"“When we met with them and we gave them the offer, we told them, ‘This is the best we can do.’ We went right to the finish line very quickly,’ Lerner told 106.7 The Fan. “And we said, ‘If this is of interest to you, please come back to us and we’ll see whether we can finish it up.’ But we just couldn’t afford to put more than that in and still be able to put a team together that had a chance to win the NL East or go farther than that.”"

If Harper does indeed want that giant payday, chances of a reunion with the Nats look to be off dwindling. Baseball team owners are becoming smarter. They are no longer interested in long-term, inflated contracts.

Organizations are concentrating more on analytics as owners are deciding to go young and inexpensive by building homegrown teams; similar to what we’ve seen the Cubs do which helped them enter the postseason in 2015 (which they hadn’t done since 2008) and then winning the World Series just one year later. It appears the Yankees are following their footsteps.

We can only hope that the Yankees leave the Winter Meetings with a top-flight starter, trade away Sonny Gray for decent prospects and possibly sign either Harper or Machado.

Otherwise, fans will be mighty disappointed as Brian Cashman has only made one splash this offseason. That was the Yanks acquiring James Paxton from the Mariners in exchange for top prospect Justus Sheffield, outfielder Don Thompson-Williams and RHP Erik Swanson.

With Patrick Corbin and Nathan Eovaldi off the table, the market for starting pitchers is beginning to thin getting thin. However, Cashman is still playing this out smartly. Regardless, this week is going to be a lot of fun for all baseball fans, that’s for sure.