Trade target Yankees have been flirting with forever just removed himself completely

Pablo López probably should've been a Yankee three summers ago, but somewhere along the way, some wires got crossed in the final minutes prior to the trade deadline. Kim Ng and the Miami Marlins retained him instead. The Yankees wound up one pitcher short, shipping Jordan Montgomery into oblivion and welcoming only an injured Frankie Montas in his place. And Gleyber Torres, still a Yankee (and defiantly still a second baseman), was disgruntled.

Arguably, he didn't steer out of that skid until two years later (and only fully shed it when he left town for Detroit).

That 2022 trade deadline might sting forever, but at least the Yankees still had multiple chances left to pursue López, if they so chose. The Marlins couldn't match up, but had no designs on contending when the 2023 season began - of course, they ended up making the Wild Card round of the playoffs anyhow, which made no sense then and still doesn't now. López would be available again.

Only it was the Twins who nabbed him, and he immediately evolved and delivered their first playoff series win in decades, as well as a road ALDS win in Houston that crossed Yankees fans' eyes. Alas, it didn't get Minnesota out of purgatory; they collapsed last summer, and rode a sparkling hot streak into relevance this season, but were still very much betwixt and between. Was this the Yankees' chance to get López, now under long-term control and feeling more burdensome by the day as the Twins continue to shy away from payroll concerns?

Yes! And ... well, no, absolutely not. López felt something grab in his shoulder during his most recent start. The resulting Teres Major strain graded out highly, and he'll (optimistically) be back to pitching in September. That won't fit the Yankees' timeline. Not at all.

Longtime Yankees trade target Pablo López won't factor into 2025 deadline plans

And so, López and the Yankees will keep dancing, passing one another in the night. One season, the Yankees will be too deep in the rotation to need him. The next, they'll be in a catastrophic spot, only for the Twins to be surging, suddenly thrilled with his ace upside and financial constraints.

López is still somehow just 29 years old, blessed with phenomenal metrics. Presuming he gets over the latest injury hurdle, it seems likely he'll have five or six years of above-average production left in his bedeviling right arm.

In other words, the Yankees' chase certainly isn't over. But it just stalled out once again, and it's curtains on the process this summer.