Yankees: Five moves they should attempt to make during the Winter Meetings

The Winter Meetings are officially here and there’s a good chance the Yankees will be very active over the course of the next four days.

The offseason hot stove is starting to heat up and the expectation is that this year’s Winter Meetings will feature a lot more action than it did a year ago. The Yankees are one of the many teams who will be looking to make a big splash and according to reports they will not be denied in their pursuit of a certain ace right-hander.

Signing Gerrit Cole is the number one objective the Yankees will try to get done this week in San Diego, but even if they do there’s still more work to be done. Including signing Cole here are five moves the Yankee front office should try to make before they head back east to the Bronx.

Sign Gerrit Cole

We’ll start with the obvious first because signing Gerrit Cole is the Yankees top priority this offseason. Their main focus right now is on landing this year’s AL Cy Young runner-up and rightfully so. There isn’t a free agent available who the Yankees need more this offseason than Cole if they’re going to get over the hump and win a championship in 2020.

He’s everything they’re looking for to improve their starting rotation and it would be a failure in the eyes of the fans if they didn’t land him before the offseason is all said and done with. According to Bob Klapisch of The New York Times, the Yanks already have an offer on the table for Cole that would make him the highest-paid pitcher in major league history.

This would be a great first offer from the Yanks who are considered one of the three favorites to get Cole along with the Angels and the Dodgers. However, a seven-year offer might not be enough to convince him to sign on the dotted line so they’re probably going to have to add another year and another $35M.

Coming into the offseason there was talk that Cole would sign a deal worth at least $280M and if the Yankees and Hal Steinbrenner are willing to commit that amount of money to him you have to like their chances. During their meeting with Cole last week he reassured the Yanks he’ll have no west coast bias when making his final decision. He wants to go where he can win consistently and build his legacy as one of the greatest starting pitchers of his era. There’d be no better place for him to do both o than in New York.