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3 free agents Yankees will absolutely not be signing

By Adam Weinrib |
DETROIT, MI - JULY 19: Marcus Stroman #6 of the Toronto Blue Jays walks around in the dugout during a MLB game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on July 19, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Toronto defeated Detroit 12-1. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - JULY 19: Marcus Stroman #6 of the Toronto Blue Jays walks around in the dugout during a MLB game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on July 19, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Toronto defeated Detroit 12-1. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
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Marcus Stroman #0 of the New York Mets (Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images)
Marcus Stroman #0 of the New York Mets (Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images) /

New York Yankees fans have been crafting a “dream offseason plan” for 2021-22 since the minute the 2020 season ended, knowing full well they had a weird below-the-luxury-tax season ahead of them.

2021-22, though? That was supposed to be the boom. Every shortstop your heart could desire. An ace or two in Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. Just … glorious.

Unfortunately, it’s time to reset our expectations just a bit.

Everything we’re hearing over the past few weeks as been designed to let us down easily. Maybe the Yankees will sign Corey Seager or Trevor Story, sure … but maybe they’ll look for a stopgap option instead (then reverse course in 2024 and bury their top prospects anyway).

Maybe they’ll overpay to grab Verlande–well, no, they won’t. But maybe they’ll outbid the world and get Scherz–nope. But … maybe they’ll … who else is left on the pitching market, exactly?

Maybe they’ll trade Luke Voit for Matt Olson minutes before his wedding! Or maybe, though, they absolutely won’t. Your sources are short-order cooks at the River Ave. Taco Bell.

Brian Cashman has made it obvious the Yankees will be wading in every pool they can, but it’s looking more and more likely this will not be a 2009-type offseason where they eviscerate the competition and cut the line to the World Series podium. So who can we rule out?

We’re talking about the deep ends they don’t even seem to be exploring. We’re also talking about … well, somebody who Yankee fans would really like to get their hands on. It’s time to deliver a truth bomb, though. It’s beyond time, actually.

The Yankees’ roster will look different in 2022, and will likely be improved. But don’t customize these shirseys. Wait a few weeks.

The Yankees will not be signing these 3 free agents.

3. Marcus Stroman

He doesn’t want to be here, and we don’t want him. Perfect match!

At this point, Marcus Stroman is perfectly built to exist on the other side of baseball’s classic rivalries with the Yankees. Maybe he stays with the Mets? Goes back to the Blue Jays? Explores Fenway Park (though, if he thinks the Yankees won’t be accepting of the “real him,” he won’t love Red Sox fans)?

Whatever the case, he hasn’t been an option for the Yankees since the day he was dealt to the Mets at the deadline — and reportedly threw a clubhouse fit when he realized he was going to the NL’s New York team instead of the AL’s.

Don’t believe us? Here was Stroman’s dad back in 2019:

“He was hoping it was the Yankees a little bit,” Earl Stroman told the paper. “He was kind of psyched, maybe hoping to go there. I’m not going to tell you that he wasn’t. If he was to leave Toronto at all. Don’t forget, Marcus loved Toronto, his heart was there. The brass [management] didn’t kind of appreciate him as much as the fans did. The whole country took to him and they took to me.”

And yet, somehow, we’ve gone from that level of pro-Yankees excitement to a world where Stroman logs onto Twitter every single day, pre-blocks Yankee fans, and constantly revisits his two-year-old tweet about how the Yanks never have enough pitching to make it through October.

Marcus, please don’t block me. I love your energy. I really do. Unfortunately, it’s now been weaponized against me personally in obsessive fashion, all because Brian Cashman didn’t believe him to be a difference-maker at Toronto’s price back in 2019 (and, judging by that package, it probably would’ve cost him Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt).

Enjoy the journey, Stro, but any Yankee fans trying to photoshop the righty into our uniform are just trying to bait him into another block so they can chase clout. Possibly the worst free agent fit in the history of free agency.

Chris Taylor #3 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Chris Taylor #3 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

2. Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor, a second baseman/center field hybrid with postseason bonafides, is available. The Yankees need additional outfield help, and could use a roving DJ LeMahieu-type.

And yet … six or seven teams are connected to Taylor, none of them the Bombers. It’s simply not going to happen.

The future Taylor deal already feels like one that will seem too expensive from April through September, and then seem just right all October long. Perhaps the Yankees want to “fortify” center by going big or going home with a Byron Buxton trade? Maybe they believe in Aaron Hicks too much to brush him aside, and will use Joey Gallo in center if need be?

Regardless, a Taylor contract will either be a significant overpay as the regression stick hits — something that will definitely happen if he goes to, say, Seattle or Philly — or another pitch-perfect use of $15 million on a team that prioritizes October heart over anything else.

That’s why we, uh, don’t really want him to go to the Red Sox. Boston seems like a front-runner, as we speak.

There’s not much in-between with Taylor. It’ll either be a tough-to-handle Year 3 and Year 4 for whichever team pays the man with 107 and 110 OPS+ marks in his two recent full 162-game seasons, or it’ll be the type of move that makes anguished rivals grunt, “God, roster-building is so easy. Of course that worked.”

Either way, the Yankees won’t be the team finding out. They’ve already been lapped in the process.

Carlos Correa #1 of the Houston Astros (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Carlos Correa #1 of the Houston Astros (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /

1. Carlos Correa

Face facts, Yankee fans. Carlos Correa was never atop the team’s board because the team is smart enough to know he has no plans to pivot, in the middle of his prime, to hostile territory.

Every time Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, or Hal Steinbrenner are asked about Correa fitting into the locker room, they say the right things. They echo the idea that all bygones are bygones. You know why? Because they’re legally not in a position to exclude any free agent before negotiations ever really get going.

Have you seen Aaron Judge get up on a podium and welcome Correa with open arms? Has Gerrit Cole spoken about his former teammate in detail? No. We’ve only gotten the legally-required platitudes from the front office.

Sure, the Yankees will theoretically nip around Correa’s heels. But if they’re nervous about blocking Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza with any sort of shortstop signing, and they’re getting skittish about giving Corey Seager eight or nine years, you’re telling me with a straight face that they’ll abandon all those concerns to give a sworn enemy $325 million and a decade of security?

AJ Hinch had a five-hour lunch meeting with Correa for a reason. Justin Verlander chose a slightly higher offer with the Astros out of nowhere for a reason. 2017 Astros will be Astros. Avowed cheaters protect avowed cheaters.

Would I accept Correa the Yankee? Absolutely! But think of the mental gymnastics necessary to actually bend the knee and pay him Francisco Lindor money to block a premium position for an entire era, and you’ll realize the Yankees are just window-shopping here.

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