Yankees: 3 Blue Jays stars NYY should’ve gotten instead

Gee, it sure has been fun watching the Toronto Blue Jays teach the New York Yankees how to play the game of baseball these past few days, huh? Riveting.

To be perfectly fair, all of you should’ve seen this coming. The Yankees have been a roller coaster unlike any other in 2021, while the Jays have been monumentally unlucky throughout this campaign. Have they lost a few close games that made you question whether this would be “their year” or not? Sure. But the run differential doesn’t lie; Toronto sits at a remarkable +143, while the Yankees, Red Sox and A’s have combined for a +146 mark. All the other teams in the Wild Card chase, combined, are about as impressively punishing as the Jays. It was only a matter of time before they made a sustained run — though we would’ve much rather the clock run out on them first.

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the Yankees’ up-and-down-and-way-up-and-way-down season in chart form:

Avert your eyes. This … this ride is terrible.

Perhaps the Yanks could’ve been more stable if they’d opted to supplement their roster with a few of Toronto’s best contributors? After all, at least three key Jays were readily available to Brian Cashman, yet he and the team’s braintrust decided to look elsewhere.

And now? Now, those three have teamed up to stalk down the Bombers with plenty of time left to leave them in the dust.

These 3 stars should be Yankees instead of Blue Jays.

3. Adam Cimber

The Adam Cimber Bullpen Supplementing story remains extremely frustrating.

As the Yankees burned through their bullpen in May and June, fans braced themselves for a September swoon. After all, if every inning is high leverage in the first half of the season, you’d better either start scoring or grab some high-leverage innings-eaters for the stretch run, right?

Well … now that you mention it …

Chad Green has a 4.74 ERA since July 9. Aroldis Chapman is a left-handed gas can. Jonathan Loaisiga is now on the IL, perhaps for the rest of the season. Zack Britton is gone. Darren O’Day was … never really here. How did New York proactively act to fix this issue? They brought in Clay Holmes and Joely Rodriguez (good-ish!), but gave Luis Cessa away, leveling things out. What if they’d just added the sidewinding Cimber from the Miami Marlins, too?

Ah, but at the time, Brian Cashman was busy assuring us no one was trading until the MLB Draft was over. No one. No one’s doing that. Don’t even bother looking! Not happening.

Well … the Jays and Marlins traded. All the way back on June 29! Since that day, he’s posted a 1.69 ERA in 26.2 innings pitched (2.34 FIP), and laid waste to the Yankees’ lefties on Wednesday — southpaws are hitting .179 off him as a group this season. Seems like an intriguing weapon!

If only he’d been available prior to the draft.

2. Marcus Semien

Ah, and now we get to my favorite section of this list: the luxury tax segment!

The New York Yankees needed infield help entering 2021. Shortstop was far from a sure thing, and the Bombers were banking on Gleyber Torres taking a leap forward at the position he was promoted to handle, yet was clearly ill-suited to run with. DJ LeMahieu was floating in the free agent waters, seemingly begging Toronto for six guaranteed years. Luke Voit was recovering from foot stuff. Everything was sort of up in the air.

At the time, letting LeMahieu walk North of the Border felt like a fate worse than death. After all, he was a two-years-running Team MVP who much of the fan base wanted to present with a blank check. Now? Man, imagine what a different place these two franchises would be in if the Yanks hadn’t given DJ $15 million annually, and instead had committed only a single year to Marcus Semien.

No, New York couldn’t have signed both men and stayed under the tax, but … take LeMahieu’s salary off the books, as well as Corey Kluber’s $11 million (!), and you have an easy window to give Semien the $18 million that Toronto presented him with as a last-ditch attempt to fill an infield hole. How’s he done? Oh, just 38 homers, 6.4 WAR, sterling defense, a 137 OPS+, and flexibility to fill multiple positions.

Presenting him with a three-year offer and jettisoning Torres might be a smarter move for the Yanks this offseason than locking down short for two-thirds of a decade with Trevor Story or Carlos Correa. Unfortunately, they didn’t make the maneuver prior to 2021.