Well-connected Yankees insider harshly dismisses Corey Seager trade idea

When the 2021 season ended, the New York Yankees declined to enter the shortstop market. Instead of shelling out top dollar for sweet lefty swinger Corey Seager (or moderate dollar for Trevor Story or Javy Baéz), they traded for Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a stopgap. That decision allowed the Minnesota Twins to pay Carlos Correa. The cost-saving choices just kept compounding for the Yankees, all in service of eventually paving a path for top prospect Anthony Volpe (a development decision that turned out awesome).

The Yankees chose to let the Rangers and Twins be the Yankees instead that offseason. The $300 million deals went to mid-market clubs. The biggest-market club in the world refused to absorb down-the-line liability in the name of maximizing their chances of winning. The problem with that, of course, is two-fold. The league needs teams like the Yankees to flex the full weight of their financial power. When they don't, teams that can't handle the burden get absorbed into the power vacuum. The Twins have already shed Correa's money. The Rangers, one World Series richer, apparently want to get rid of Seager's, too, if we're to believe recent rumors.

So now's the Yankees' time to shine, right? Seager's contract is missing its most attractive portion — the front-end prime — but despite only playing in 102 games last season, he's still the largest upgrade possible at a position of need when healthy. And what's a six-year commitment worth anyhow? The contract doesn't look nearly as onerous as it once did — unless you're veteran Daily News scribe Bill Madden or, probably, the Yankees braintrust he's typically aligned with.

In response to a fan-tweeted Seager short porch highlight, captioned, "With 6/186 remaining (not ugly), the Yankees need to be all over Seager," Madden wrote dismissively, "Not ugly?"

Yankees insider Bill Madden might speak for the Steinbrenners when discussing Corey Seager's "ugly" contract

Madden semi-squashing the viability of this connection could be his opinion alone. It could also reflect the view of the Steinbrenner family and/or Randy Levine, who represent the controlling interests of the Yankees and a group he has a direct line to.

Madden surfaced last summer to take harsh shots at Anthony Volpe — which made you wonder whether there was an internal fissure developing regarding his long-term viability. The veteran writer appears sparingly in the space these days, but also was the first person to indicate that Steinbrenner had gone above and beyond to retain Juan Soto, and it hadn't been enough. About 30 minutes after his initial post, that nugget was proven accurate.

He doesn't speak on Yankees baseball often these days, but when he does, it's typically still straight from the source. So ... who thinks Seager's money is "ugly" after all?