3 Yankees nightmare scenarios after MLB lockout ends

2. Losing Seiya Suzuki to Red Sox Because of a Fake Budget

Here we go again …

Japanese phenom Seiya Suzuki has officially been posted to MLB, but can’t be signed — like everyone else — until the lockout ends. For some heretofore unknown reason, though, Suzuki rumors leaked this week, and it seems like a trio of AL East teams are hot on his heels: the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays.

Brian Cashman, dressed like an elf and fighting the Grinch, was unable to comment. We’ll take the report’s word for it.

According to rumblings out of Boston, Chaim Bloom has made it known that he’s very interested in chasing the patient and powerful LF/CF/RF, especially after he cleared room by sending Hunter Renfroe to Milwaukee at the horn, just before the bars shuttered on the league’s windows.

Most thought, at the time, that the maneuver would make Boston major players for Kyle Schwarber, who was unable to complete a rumored Phillies deal ahead of the deadline, too. It seems more likely now that Bloom was reshuffling the deck chairs with Suzuki in mind, meaning the Yankees really need to hustle to get their ducks in a row here.

After all, the potential right-handed Hideki Matsui clone — who can also spell Aaron Hicks in center — had been rumored to get a $7-10 million AAV deal. How high can that really climb? $11 or 12 million for four years? If the Yankees let Suzuki walk to the Red Sox just because of a salary cap they’ve invented, while failing to address their clear outfield depth issues, that would be a miscalculation.

And one we’ve seen too many times before.