3 biggest misses of the Yankees’ offseason so far

Even with the luxury tax mandate dictating every inch of their plans, the New York Yankees have still managed to have a pretty great offseason.

A cost-effective one that wouldn’t have turned heads in 2002, but still, they’ve taken a good team and made it better.

Mostly.

There are a few exceptions to the rule here, and alternate strategies that would’ve improved the roster at a far-from-extravagant cost. There are also a few options that would’ve been too rich for their blood this year, but they shouldn’t have been. Those still qualify as gaffes.

Because, when the Dodgers are willing to incur a tax over 40% and drop significant spots in the draft to sign Justin Turner and Trevor Bauer, a behemoth like the Yankees doing the limbo under the tax line can be looked at with scorn.

It’s fair to do so.

All told, the Yankees have turned Adam Ottavino into Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson, traded spare prospect parts for Jameson Taillon, signed Corey Kluber for his resurgence tour, and done the right thing by extending DJ LeMahieu infinitely (or, at least for six years). Love ’em all! No notes!

But these three moves would’ve created an even better situation for the Yankees.

Heck, one might’ve kept them under the dreaded tax, too.

3. Joc Pederson

Why didn’t the Yankees make a bigger push for Joc Pederson?

Before you start quibbling with every decimal of the team’s salary structure, as yourself: is the Yankees lineup better with the powerful Joc Pederson platooning in it, or is it better with Jay Bruce? Brett Gardner? Mike Tauchman?

There. Thanks. That wasn’t so hard.

And for only $7 million, Pederson wasn’t exactly a bank-breaker either.

As of now, the Yankees have either gifted a fifth outfielder spot to Bruce, who posted an 88 OPS+ last season in the shortened campaign and is about to turn 34, or they’ve set up an open competition for the as-yet-unsigned Gardner, who found his sea legs by year’s end in 2020, but is still a capped-out, 37-year-old version of his best self.

Adding Bruce was a neat way to save $6 million, but if the team brings Gardner in for $3-4 million, they’ll have only saved ~$3 million and neglected to add a 30-homer clutch mashing lefty who’s got a pedigree for competing in Joctober, the month we collectively renamed after his slugging.

Again, the dollar figures only matter because the general public has embraced the role of defending the Steinbrenners’ frugal ways as the Dodgers blitz past the marker on the other coast.

Who makes the team better? Bruce, Gardner, or Pederson? That’s it, really.

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.