3 biggest misses of the Yankees’ offseason so far

2. Charlie Morton/Michael Brantley

The Yankees were two years too late here, and then missed the mark again.

Both likely unattainable. Both would’ve been really helpful. Same bucket.

It’s a year or two too late for Charlie Morton to be any sort of good value play, and the Yankees benefitted as much as they were ever going to by his departure from the Rays. There wasn’t a single parallel universe this offseason that involved Morton finding a home in the Bronx. In fact, it was more likely we’d have dealt with a Boston Red Sox overpay to bring him closer to his Connecticut home in an effort to embarrass us.

That said, my ideal version of a 2020-21 Yankees offseason does involve the addition of a no-nonsense veteran starter with postseason prowess. Someone they could calmly hand the ball to in Games 3 and 7, expecting victory. And Morton is exactly that.

Again, I could not care less about the taxation involved, which might’ve robbed Hal Steinbrenner of the requisite funds to name a library after himself somewhere in the midwest.

It’s possible I’ve been thirsting after Brantley for even longer than Morton, a perfect sweet-swinging lefty for Yankee Stadium’s confines. He’s basically a LeMahieu from the other side of the plate. Solid pop, eternal contact, and the exact same player in any situation, pressure-packed or home free.

Again, watching his Blue Jays deal fall apart was probably the best Brantley-related joy that Yankees fans will ever experience. But in a world in which money wasn’t an object, these two would’ve fit nicely.

If the Yankees were the Dodgers, one of them would’ve joined the cause.