How do you upgrade first base and shortstop with limited payroll flexibility and without trading your best prospects?
Consider the following realities for the Yankees:
— The team already has a top-3 payroll in the game, behind only the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, and seems unlikely to add significantly more dollars.
— Before the lockout, the Yankees expressed a strong unwillingness to trade shortstop prospect Anthony Volpe (or for that matter Oswald Peraza) to the Oakland Athletics for first baseman Matt Olson, according to league sources.
So … how is this going to work?
GM Brian Cashman can’t discuss anything related to MLB rosters or players during the lockout, but our reporting from before Dec. 1 provides clues on how he will proceed once business resumes.
The answer will probably come in the form of a highly unique opportunity: When the lockout ends, free agents will be in a mad dash to settle on a team, and clubs looking to offload players will need to make trades in a hurry.
Without spending in the deep end of the free agent pool, the Yankees might be able to take advantage of discounts in a post-lockout scramble.
To put it another way, it might be the only way for them to improve the roster. It’s a risky strategy, waiting until February or March, but the Yanks are well-positioned to do so.
At the GM meetings in November, we were told by league sources that the Yankees were exploring the markets for top shortstops like Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien (a second baseman who has played shortstop for most of his career and could have again).
Cashman was not deterred by the presence of Volpe and Peraza in the system, because the team could simply sign one of the big names to play short and later shift them to another position, if necessary. Players are expected to be versatile enough in the current game that their position while developing should not block big league acquisitions.
BUT — and this is such a major but that we put it in caps — it was one thing to talk to the agents for Correa, Seager, and Semien (all the same person now, Scott Boras, but not at the time; that’s a whole other story) and another to accept their asking prices.
A team that is already paying out mega contracts to Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole — and hoping to extend Aaron Judge — wasn’t ever going to offer Seager the 10-year, $325 million deal he received from the Texas Rangers. Ditto for Semien’s seven-year, $175 million score.
The same can be said for Correa, and whatever he ultimately receives. As we’ve said before, the only way the Yanks end up with Correa is probably if his market craters and he takes a short-term deal. This seems like a longshot.
But perhaps that will happen for Trevor Story. If he loses the game of shortstop musical chairs, the Yanks could be there to offer a pillow contract.
At first base, the Yanks did have interest in Freddie Freeman before the lockout, and probably will again. But given what we’re saying about payroll, Anthony Rizzo on a two-year deal seems more likely. Or structuring an Olson trade around pitching depth and not one of the shortstop prospects.
As it stands today, the Yankees’ first baseman is Luke Voit, and their shortstop is Gio Urshela, with the possibility of Gleyber Torres returning to the position and Peraza contributing later in the season.
I don’t think this will be the case on Opening Day. Whether the answers will be Rizzo, Story, Andrelton Simmons, or someone else will depend on how the post-lockout rush proceeds.
It’s an impossible scenario to predict. But it’s probably the way the Yanks will construct half of their infield.