Yankees: Max Scherzer’s success with Dodgers should infuriate NYY fans

Most baseball fans can agree that the most important aspect of any roster is the construction of the starting rotation. That’s not to say feel free to neglect everything else, but it’s obvious any team would have a difficult time contending without a collection of capable and reliable arms able to endure a long regular season and then be able to handle the pressure in October.

And you can never have enough starting pitchers. Never!

So, if New York Yankees fans wanted yet another reason to be infuriated about this 2021 campaign, they can look across the country to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who stole the Bombers’ thunder at the trade deadline when they acquired Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals.

Yankees fans had been clamoring for Scherzer since last offseason, since it appeared there’d be a good chance the Nats fell out of contention and decided to sell off some of their top assets. Well, that happened.

Reports after the deadline suggested the Yankees “were involved” in such discussions with the Nationals, but there wasn’t much progression.

As it turns out, Scherzer would’ve reportedly shot down any deal that sent him to the Bronx.

The Yankees should be furious watching Max Scherzer dominate with the Dodgers.

It was all laid out! The Nats fell apart, the Yankees needed impact acquisitions to keep their 2021 season alive, and they needed help in the rotation.

Instead, they ended up with Andrew Heaney … while Scherzer is now the frontrunner for the NL Cy Young award.

Maybe the Yankees weren’t interested in signing him six-plus years ago because he wasn’t sold on playing in New York? It’s possible … but back in 2014, Yankees president Randy Levine shot down the idea of “bringing in a guy for six years and $25 million or over.”

Scherzer was ruled out simply because of the expected price tag attached to him. Think about that. The New York Yankees. Ruling out some of the best players in the game. Because of money. Maybe that turned Scherzer off to New York this time around?

Not to say it did, but it’s possible!

Whatever the truth is, it’s disheartening to have lived through the Yankees whiffing on a future Hall of Famer twice.

Even if the situation was out of their hands the second time around, it all comes back to what they opted not to do back in 2014 … when they paid six years and $155 million (plus a $20 million posting fee) for Masahiro Tanaka instead.

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