Yankees: Latest Dodgers-Trevor Bauer update is bad news for NYY’s World Series hopes

Very rarely is there a reason for the New York Yankees to be focused on any National League team, though this offseason has been a different story. As the American League has gotten significantly worse, the Bombers’ path to the World Series, assuming they put the appropriate finishing touches on this offseason, shouldn’t be the gauntlet that it’s been.

That’s why there’s been a lot of focus on the Steve Cohen-led New York Mets, who were initially believed to be a thorn in the Yankees’ side in terms of competing with free agents and star players on the trade market. Turns out, the Yankees were never really in on Francisco Lindor, and Cohen was too cheap to pay George Springer, who landed with the Blue Jays thanks to a higher offer. Yup, they screwed us!

But enough about the Mets. The Yankees need to legitimately be concerned with the Los Angeles Dodgers because, according to the latest buzz, they could be slowly making their move on Trevor Bauer.

The Dodgers’ current rotation already runs laps around the Yankees’. Adding the reigning NL Cy Young winner to pitch alongside Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Julio Urias could be devastating for New York. It’d be a tall task to compete with that in a potential seven-game series assuming they were to meet in the Fall Classic.

If we’re looking at the NL — we don’t like to make these kinds of assumptions — but the Dodgers are the clear favorite and it doesn’t feel remotely close even with the San Diego Padres’ flurry of marquee moves.

As the Yankees hope to potentially add one more impact arm to their rotation, they better act fast if the Dodgers are looking to add the best pitcher on the open market. A Luis Castillo trade probably has to happen now!

The good news? The Yankees lineup can give any pitcher fits on any given night. However, it’ll be tough to do that if the Dodgers are sporting a four-man rotation consisting of Cy Young-like talent followed by depth pieces who’d be more than capable of taking on mid-rotation duties on most other MLB teams.

While the re-signing of DJ LeMahieu and addition of Corey Kluber had Yankee fans understandably excited, general manager Brian Cashman’s offseason feels like it far from over if this is what he’s competing with.

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