Yankees' international prospect crisis just took a brutal turn if rumors are true

When Brian Cashman declined to offer a new contract to longtime New York Yankees international scouting director Donny Rowland, did he understand the wave of defections that were due to follow? Was he okay with it? Or was this an unintended consequence of a semi-shady business?

Rowland — who, reportedly, is close to being formally replaced — found a way to attach the Yankees to top-tier name after top-tier name annually. He either couldn't seem to figure out the right big names, or fell victim to development snags along the way. Given the number of Yankees international prospects who arrived stateside with pedigree and immediately flopped over the past decade — from Dermis Garcia to Brando Mayea — it's likely a combination of both attributes.

The international market used to be the Yankees' unsurpassed strength. For over 10 years now, it's been a place where they splash cash and end up with Roderick Arias. The Yankees certainly have an offensive development issue to address at the lower levels, but we're not talking about bats that stalled out and hit a wall here. We're talking about guys who provided nothing.

Still, if you can choose between "keeping ties alive with top-ranked free agents" and "absolute dust cloud of nothingness," then you probably choose the first one and install a new support system. This whole messed-up process involves such far-reaching agreements that Rowland had handshakes with 13-year-olds in the class of 2029. Now, it seems that all of the highlights of his future labor are abandoning the Yankees.

It's tough to get too negatively invested in teenaged signings intended for three years in the future, especially when the man responsible for them kept choosing wrong, but ... wait, what about the main character of January's class?

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Just two weeks ago, when the upheaval began, we were told the Yankees would stop at nothing to bring in upper-crust shortstop Wandy Asigen. He's been spotted at the Yankees' facility since then, and took batting practice in Yankees gear back on Dec. 10.

But ... @YankeesFarm, who's been on this from the beginning, confirmed back on Dec. 9 that Asigen now had a "higher offer" from somebody else — something that simply does not happen this late in the process. And now, here comes that "somebody else," perhaps?

According to sources, the New York Mets have poached Asigen for $3.8 million, after weeks of the Yankees insisting there was no way they would lose him.

Briefly, there was hope that the Yankees knew what they're doing. Perhaps they really were wise enough to stop at nothing to retain Asigen? Apparently not. Apparently, like all other Yankees, he's a Met. And the reverberations of this defection could last decades.

Did Brian Cashman expect a flurry of totally irregular activity around the January deadline, or did he see no repercussions of letting Rowland's deal expire?

Either way, the Yankees need to pivot internationally, but they also needed to keep Wandy Asigen in place. They failed at that. This defection could be catastrophic as a new strategy is put into place.