6 times before Alex Bregman signing the Red Sox grabbed a perfect Yankees target

For those New York Yankees fans harboring hope that Brian Cashman could manage to find some sort of room in his budget and fit Alex Bregman - who wears No. 2 for Derek Jeter - into the team's infield picture, Wednesday night's action delivered the final blow. Bregman signed with Boston (bad) for $40 million a year (wild), proving in one fell swoop that New York never had a chance to get to that financial stratosphere, and that their chief rival had improved at their expense.

The Yankees have had a strong offseason. True. The Yankees' current starting third baseman is either utility man Oswaldo Cabrera or DJ LeMahieu. Also true.

Bregman at $40 million was never, ever happening, so at least that's 3% comforting. It's going to be far less comforting when he's looping baseballs off the Green Monster, taking them from the dirt to the upper tank nightly.

This is not the first time Boston has added a perfect Yankees target during a period of New York inaction, and it will not be the last.

6 times the Boston Red Sox added perfect New York Yankees targets instead

2024: Tyler O'Neill to Boston, Alex Verdugo to Yankees

Prior to the Yankees' trade for Juan Soto (that was cool), New York was heavily connected to Cardinals outfielder Tyler O'Neill, and the fit made perfect sense. Chronically injured slugging outfielder with speed. MVP votes in 2021 before a backslide, partially of his own making. Unfortunately, instead of pulling off a Soto miracle and pairing him with O'Neill in left, the Yankees helped Boston instead, taking Alex Verdugo off their hands and clearing a path for the slugging bicep king to head to Fenway. O'Neill raked, posting a 132 OPS+. Verdugo did not, though he clogged Jasson Dominguez's lane, so...that was something.

2022: Trevor Story, weeks before the regular season

This one's no problem! But, at the time, the Yankees sitting out a generational shortstop class all winter long, just for Boston to roll out of bed one day in March and say, "Hey, why not, right?" felt bad.

Story has played 163 games in three seasons since this moment, posting 4.0 total bWAR. Anthony Volpe, for all his faults, has amassed 6.7 in two years. Corey Seager was the move this offseason, but at the time, New York taking a flyer on Story made more sense than Boston doing so.

2018: Steve Pearce in a June trade

We'd already had this guy in 2012! Meaning we identified him first, botched it, then gave Boston the second chance at saving him instead of doing it ourselves. The Red Sox plucked Pearce up off the scrap heap, and the righty swinger posted a .901 regular season OPS in Boston, had a three-homer game against the Yankees, and won World Series MVP. fire

The next year, he hit .180 in 29 games and retired. What was any of that?!

2016: The White Sox-Red Sox Chris Sale trade

After the Yankees reloaded their farm system at the 2016 trade deadline, they really could've used a huge trade for one of their former nemeses to jumpstart their road back to contention. Unfortunately, they mis-evaluated their own ability to contend in 2017, opting for scant upgrades (like Matt Holliday) while the kids developed. As it turned out, the 2017 Yankees were awesome, and really could've used Chris Sale in October/might've buzzsawed Houston if they'd had him (and kept him healthy). Unfortunately, he was in Beantown.

Additionally, this thick trade was only possible because...

2015: Red Sox steal Yoán Moncada from Yankees

This doesn't seem like a big deal now, but at the time, it felt like the Yankees holding favored status on Shohei Ohtani all offseason as they tried to escape the doldrums, only for Boston to rise up out of nowhere and finish the deal/maintain the upper hand. While he never broke out with the Sox, he served as the centerpiece in the Sale trade ... which the Yankees could've more easily made if they'd won the earlier bidding.

2006: Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell to Boston

Sure, this is a wild card deep cut, but at the time, the 2006 Yankees were totally bereft of pitching, relying on Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small to get them into the postseason the previous year. Ultimately, this was a 97-win team that ran out Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang (who completely saved them from ignominy), Randy Johnson, Jarrett Wright, Chacon and Cory Lidle, as well as Andy Phillips at first base. They really weren't creative enough to check on the availability of the starting pitcher who singlehandedly beat them in the 2003 World Series, as well as the third baseman they let get away in '98 who's admitted that he relished defeating them because they slighted him?

Add Lowell at first and Beckett in the rotation, and the Yankees win the 2006 World Series. This was a multi-title-swinging failure, given that Boston got one in '07 (while Lowell won World Series MVP to boot).