5 forgotten free agents Yankees should chase (and 1 total wild card)

Kiké Hernández, Wherever You Want Him (But Preferably Not SS)

Unfortunately, this list is overflowing with Red Sox of the past like a bad dream. But what better team to plunder from than the one we've hate-watched for decades? Any Yankee fan who pretends not to follow the daily machinations of the Red Sox is kidding themselves. If that's "rent-free," then fine. They wouldn't pay rent if I asked them to, anyway. Too many English soccer stars to sign.

Hernández has long been viewed as a postseason catalyst, and rightly so. For whatever reason, Boston's beloved manager Alex Cora miscast him as a starting shortstop last season after Trevor Story's injury, and it went extremely poorly. He was a defensive liability with the weight of the fan base on his shoulders, and his versatile offense disappeared (like some kind of Bostonian IKF).

But just two years ago, he was a playoff dynamo, threatening to have the greatest postseason ever during Boston's improbable (and infuriating) run to the ALCS. After hitting 20 bombs during the regular season, most of them clutch, he hit .450 with a pair of homers to help defeat the Rays, then .385 with three more longballs in a doomed series against the Astros.

This fall, after being shipped back to LA, he regained his mojo, hitting .375 in the Diamondbacks' three-game sweep of the Dodgers and showing up when his entire team refused to. Los Angeles should re-sign him after he raised his OPS from .599 to .731 down the stretch in Dodger Town, but if they're too brazen to get that done, the Yankees should sprinkle some of his unique magic on their season.