Latest Yankees rumors feature a tidal wave of reunions that feels like a sick joke

According to Jack Curry's latest intel on the YES Network just prior to first pitch on Monday, the New York Yankees - with three days to go until the MLB trade deadline - are still prioritizing lefty relief help and a swing-and-miss option out of the bullpen. They'd also take another right-handed bat, which is how names like Austin Slater, David Hamilton, and Willi Castro have persisted in the final 72 hours of wheeling and dealing.

That core of righties expanded to include Harrison Bader, whom the Dodgers also reportedly covet. The last time we saw him in pinstripes, he was unceremoniously backed into a corner and placed on waivers a few weeks after the Yankees refused to pick a lane at the 2023 trade deadline. That was ... really dumb.

Bader is a reliable righty and a defensive stalwart who was comfortable in pinstripes last time, and would likely fit nicely again - if the Yankees created a vacancy by trading Trent Grisham or ... Jasson Dominguez in a larger deal, that is.

He's also by far the best idea out of a bushel of bad apples connected to the Yankees over the past 24 hours. ESPN, for instance, tried to torture us all by tying New York to Andrew Heaney, Caleb Ferguson and Dennis Santana, three arms who made negative impacts in the Bronx between the 2021 deadline and present.

Yankees tied to Caleb Ferguson, Andrew Heaney, Dennis Santana, Nestor Cortes ... Harrison Bader ... make it stop.

Santana was DFA'd last season when the Yankees failed to unlock him. Surrendering assets to get him back would feel like bad business (though it may be necessary).

Heaney was a gas can with the Yankees after they added him in the summer of 2021, and he's completely revamped his arsenal in the Pirates pitching lab this seas -- oh, wait, WHAT? He has a 4.79 ERA and 78 Ks in 107 innings after a hot start. Why?

Ferguson induces a minuscule exit velocity, but that didn't stop the Yankees from flipping him to the Astros midseason last year after he left them dissatistifed.

And wait! It gets worse! Jon Heyman thinks the Yankees might consider bringing a rehabbing Nestor Cortes Jr. home to help the Brewers with their impending starter crunch?

According to Andy Martino's intel on SNY Monday evening, the Yankees' front office "isn't totally bought in on this team," and isn't sure how hard they should work to improve it. That sounds like an indictment on whoever built the team.

What they should not do is bring back a whole bunch of people who recently propelled similarly flawed versions of the Yankees roster. New blood or nothing. Please.