Corey Seager's admiration of Aaron Judge represents missed Yankees opportunity

Let's get out all of the Yankees Negativity before the second half takes hold. After all, contrary to popular belief, we want New York to win, succeed, and not be an embarrassment to their peers. Sadly, that just hasn't been the case lately.

And the All-Star break provided Yankees fans yet another "what could have been" moment when Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager spoke to the media and was asked about Aaron Judge.

"He's unbelievable. You don't actually realize [how big he is] until you're actually beside him. You can tell he's big on TV but when you get beside him it's really impressive. Super nice guy, too. Unbelievable human." Seager also mentioned he was excited to spend some time with Judge at the All-Star festivities (along with the other big names present).

We're not going to sit here and pretend what Seager said is somehow expressing that he'd prefer to be a Yankee. He's doing just fine in Texas and got his second World Series ring last year. He's already a legend in Dallas and LA. We don't even know if he wanted to come to New York.

But we do know that Seager grew up idolizing Derek Jeter and was a Yankees fan. We do know that Brian Cashman never made a real run at the slugging shortstop back in 2021, when he hit free agency. Instead, Cashman made the ill-fated Isiah Kiner-Falefa/Josh Donaldson trade with the Twins that set the Yankees back two years and allowed Minnesota to create a path to sign Carlos Correa to a long-term contract.

Corey Seager's admiration of Aaron Judge represents missed Yankees opportunity

During that 2022 season, the Yankees paid Donaldson and IKF about $28 million total. Seager's making $32.5 million per year after signing a 10-year, $325 million contract with the Rangers. Even as he's struggling with injuries, he's better than both of those players combined.

You might also wonder a number of other things. Seager's injury history; Anthony Volpe's presence; Juan Soto's arrival; New York's payroll. Don't worry, we've got you covered.

As for Seager's injury woes, he's played in 353 games to date with the Rangers over the past 2.5 seasons. He's been an All-Star in all three of those campaigns. He won a Silver Slugger and finished second in the AL MVP voting in 2023. He's hitting .279/.351/.518 with 78 doubles, 84 homers and 227 RBI. He's struck out only 253 times. For as much as he struggles with staying on the field as consistently as fans might prefer throughout his career, his production never suffers.

In the case of Volpe, well ... you see what's happening now. He's not a suitable everyday player despite the fact he's shown great flashes of potential. IKF was brought in as a stopgap to make sure Volpe had a clear path. But the Yankees made a mistake gifting a 22-year-old arguably the most difficult job in baseball — following Jeter's footsteps. Volpe could've taken more time to season in the minor leagues. Seager could've taken over at shortstop for 2022 and 2023. Volpe, when he was ready, could've come up to the bigs to play second base. The Yankees could've rid themselves of Gleyber Torres, creating a more flexible middle infield with Seager among the rest of the options.

But if Seager was making $32.5 million, then how do the Yankees acquire Juan Soto via trade?! First of all, they could have! They can do anything they want with the spending power they have. Secondly ... they might not have needed Soto if Seager was in town, which would've allowed them to address other floundering areas of the roster, like first base, third base, center field and the overall depth. Notice how the Yankees had to scramble to remake their outfield this offseason? Outfield is the most plentiful position in the sport. A team should never struggle to field a competent group in the pastures. But the Yankees made something rather easy look far too difficult. Long story short, Seager's presence could've lessened the need for Soto, and the Yankees still could've gotten him if they wanted to, because they wouldn't have been throwing money away on players like Donaldson, Torres, Alex Verdugo, Trent Grisham, and a few others. They might've even thought twice about signing Carlos Rodón had Seager's $32.5 million been on the books.

And that leads us to the payroll discussion. Again, the problem with the Yankees has been the misallocation of funds. They should not be spending $329 million on this roster. Mistakes happen, we get it. You sign DJ LeMahieu and he immediately gets injured every season. Anthony Rizzo suffers a head injury and is never the same again. But in recent years, Donaldson, IKF, Torres, Rodón, Frankie Montas, Tommy Kahnle, Gary Sánchez, Luis Severino, Aroldis Chapman, Aaron Hicks, Zack Britton, Domingo Germán, Harrison Bader and others represented sunk costs the team either waited far too long to move on from or jumped the gun in acquiring/extending.

They just haven't been smart with the players they have chosen, for the most part, since 2019. One could even argue it all started with the Giancarlo Stanton trade in 2017, which essentially took the Yankees out of the running for Manny Machado and Bryce Harper the following offseason (both of whom would've been better acquisitions, too).

Seager is an all-world shortstop and a lefty power/contact bat, which the Yankees badly needed at the time. Volpe was a promising prospect with just one good year under his belt — he was hardly a proven commodity. But the Yankees treated him that way, and they've been paying for it. The Yankees could've afforded Seager, but they opted for a worse short-term plan instead, and didn't even set themselves up to sign a guaranteed star of a free agent to a long-term contract in the following years (with the exception of the non-negotiable Aaron Judge extension). Then decided to make a shaky choice (that we supported!) in Rodón, who got $162 million, which is 50% of Seager's contract.

This isn't really a case of hindsight being 20/20, either. Yankees fans wanted Seager. The roster needed Seager. And the front office made the wrong choice, which has become an all-too-common trend.