I thought the first announcement from the Yankees in the New Year would be a deal for Manny Machado even though I want Bryce Harper more and really want both of them. I didn’t think the first announcement would be a deal for Troy Tulowitzki.

I wanted Tulowitzki to be a Yankee … in 2015. After Derek Jeter’s retirement and Didi Gregorius’ embarrassing start to his Yankees tenure, it seemed like Tulowitzki and his enormous contract the Rockies could no longer afford were a perfect fit for a team used to giving out and taking on albatross contracts. But Tulowitzki ended up in Toronto, along with David Price, and seemingly every other player available at the 2015 trade deadline, and the Blue Jays erased an eight-game deficit in 15 days at end of the July and beginning of August.

But that was more than three years ago. Back when the Blue Jays traded for Tulowitzki, he was a 30-year-old, who had just appeared in the All-Star Game and was batting .300/.348/.471. Now, he’s a 34-year-old, who missed all of 2018 and missed 96 games in 2017, playing just 66 of a possible 324 games over the last two years. Health has never been a skill of Tulowitzki’s as he has missed significant time in each of his major league seasons, including his prime years.

Tulowitzki spent most of last offseason rehabbing an ankle injury before bone spurs were discovered in his right foot and then his left foot. He had surgery in the first week of the season and was expected to return in June before missing the entire season. (Jacoby Ellsbury would be proud.) The Yankees watched Tulowitzki work out at both shortstop and second base in December. They must have seen enough from the former Gold Glover to believe he is past the recent ankle and foot injuries to think he could step in and play nearly every day until Didi Gregorius returns sometime in the summer.

The old Yankees fan in me loves the move to sign Tulowitzki despite his long list of career injuries because of the low-risk, high-reward potential. If Tulowitzki is his old self, the Yankees just added a star at the league minimum $555,000. If Tulowitzki sucks, they can release him and only lose out on $555,000. But that’s the old Yankees fan in me.

The new Yankees fan in me worries that if Tulowitzki sucks and they have to release him, that $555,000 will prevent them from a midseason move to help an area of need midseason. The Yankees once again seem set on being under the luxury-tax threshold and every penny matters with Hal Steinbrenner’s new way of doing business. A league minimum contract shouldn’t prevent other business, but a 100-win team in the middle of a pennant race thought it was acceptable to start Shane Robinson in the outfield for the month of August.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m a 2 when it comes to worrying that the Tulowitzki might somehow ruin the acquisition of an impact player during the season. But I’m a 7 when it comes to worrying that the Yankees are now less interested in signing Manny Machado. A league minimum deal shouldn’t be an obstacle or alternative plan to signing a superstar for his entire prime, but no one can say for sure how the Yankees are going to operate, though recent history suggests the Yankees are going to pass on both Machado and Harper because of tax issues.

The Yankees haven’t done anything to show they are once again worried about going over the threshold. This offseason they have shopped in the bargain bin and on the clearance rack, so far, avoiding any big-money contracts. They re-signed Brett Gardner to a $7.5 million deal and then Brian Cashman cited a “crowded outfield” as to why the team isn’t in on Harper. They brought back CC Sabathia on a one-year, $8 million contract and then traded for James Paxton, only to not come away with Patrick Corbin, the best pitcher available on the free-agent market. Once Corbin went off the board, they turned to J.A. Happ, who was exceptional as a Yankee in the regular season, but is also a 36-year-old fastball-heavy pitcher with declining metrics around his fastball. Now with a chance to add one or possibly two 26-year-old generational talents to their lineup, the Yankees seem to be in no better position than the Dodgers, Phillies or White Sox to come away with a game-changing player this offseason.

Tulowitzki was once a star and maybe there is some of that star left in him. Maybe he is finally healthy and a change of scenery and playing for the team he has wanted to play for in the same infield spot his idol used to play at will revitalize his career. But to think a player who missed 442 of 1,296 games (34 percent) during his age 25-32 seasons and then missed his entire age 33 season is somehow going to stay healthy during his age 34 season is an incredible risk to take. I have a hard time believing the Yankees of all teams, in the middle of a championship window, are going to settle for patching up holes on their roster with reclamation projects.

For now, the addition of Tulowitzki is a move Yankees fans should be happy with. That happiness might not last depending on how the rest of the Yankees offseason goes.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

Every year I write a Christmas List here and ask for things that will make my life as a sports fan better. Whether it’s for Masahiro Tanaka to sign with the Yankees or for the Giants to make the playoffs or for the Rangers to build an even adequate defense in front of Henrik Lundqvist, I have asked for many things over the years, and like any Christmas List, sometimes I get the things on it and sometimes I don’t.

This Christmas, I don’t have a list. I have one thing I want, though that one thing has two parts to it. I want the Yankees to sign the two 26-year-old generational talent free agents. I want Bryce Harper and Manny Machado to be Yankees. That’s it. Is it too much to ask the richest team in Major League Baseball to spend somewhere around $750-800 million on two players to give them their best chance to win the team’s first World Series in a decade? No, it’s really not.

The cost of Harper and Machado is money. Yes, a lot of it, but the Yankees have it. No trade, no prospects and no more dismantling of a now mediocre farm system. Just money: the one thing that separates the Yankees from the rest of the league. Or at least the one thing that used to separate them from the rest of the league.

Somehow over the last few years, Yankees ownership has tricked its fans into believing the team can’t afford to go over the luxury-tax threshold, which is simply untrue. The truth is Yankees ownership doesn’t want to go over the threshold because they feel they are throwing away a few dollars that could better line their own pockets, not because they can’t afford to go over the threshold. So now you have an entire fanbase worried about the salaries of back-end starters, bench players and relievers, counting every penny the way the Steinbrenners do to see if the team can add any pieces during the season.

This line of thinking is what led to the Yankees not going over the top in 2018 after coming one win short of the World Series in 2017 and instead cutting payroll significantly. The 2017 Yankees had a 25-man Opening Day payroll of $196,389,700 and their 40-man roster at the end of the season cost $224,224,707. After blowing a 3-2 series lead in the ALCS, the 2018 Yankees 25-man Opening Day payroll was $166,111,632, which was over $30 million less than the year before. The 2018 Yankees 40-man roster at the end of the season totaled $192,980,833, which was over $31 million less than the year before. This way of spending is why Shane Robinson started in the outfield for a World Series-contending team for nearly an entire month in the second half because the Yankees were scared off by the initial asking prices in salary relief of potential trade targets. It’s why the team didn’t sign the best available free-agent starting pitcher in Patrick Corbin and it’s why Harper and Machado are still free agents.

I would like to think the Yankees are slow playing the Harper and Machado situation, waiting to make their move at the final minute the way they have done with big-name free agents before. But with the way ownership has worked in recent years, it’s hard to think they are going to suddenly act like the Yankees, as they are now more worried about nickel-and-diming their way to building a roster rather than building the best roster possible. For a family and a franchise that used to care only about winning and championships and doing everything in their power to a put a team on the field which left no questions, we are far from those same ideals now.

Brian Cashman cited the Yankees’ crowded outfield as to why the organization isn’t interested in Harper. It’s the biggest lie Cashman has ever told, even bigger than when he said he would grade Aaron Boone’s first season with “A’s across the board” after the manager single-handedly destroyed the last two games of the ALDS. Let’s break down the crowded out field. Aaron Judge has a place on the team. Aaron Hicks has a place on the team. Giancarlo Stanton has a place on the team. That’s three outfielders, though it’s essentially two as Judge and Stanton rotate as designated hitter (or at least they should even though Stanton was the DH most of the time in 2018). Brett Gardner? He’s essentially a fourth outfielder at this point in his career, as he was down the stretch last season after the trade of Andrew McCutchen. Clint Frazier? I would like for Frazier to be part of the equation, but after last year’s concussions, which held him to 242 minor-league plate appearances and 41 plate appearances for the Yankees, it’s hard to rely on him not only in 2019 but also in future seasons. Jacoby Ellsbury? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So the crowded outfield is essentially Judge, Hicks, the DH, a fourth outfielder, a former top prospect with concussion issues and a 35-year-old who lost his starting job in 2017, missed all of 2018 with a variety of injuries and is rehabbing after surgery for a torn labrum in his left hip. On top of all this, Gardner is on a one-year contract and Hicks is a free agent at the end of this coming season. The crowded outfield is far from crowded.

Cashman also said he doesn’t see Harper as a first baseman. Harper appeared at first base in one game this season and that’s the only time he has in 927 career games. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t play first base. And more than likely someone on the team is going to have to learn to. Greg Bird can’t be relied on in 2019 and who knows if Luke Voit is anything more than a great two-month story. It would be irresponsible to go into next season thinking Bird or Voit is the starting first baseman with no backup plan or no depth at the position, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Yankees went into a season with no first-base depth only to get the worst first-base production in the league during the season and refrain from fixing the situation during the season because of … money!

Cashman and the Yankees can make up any excuse they want as to why the team isn’t going after Harper, and if they don’t sign him, they can come up with plenty of bullshit reasons why they didn’t, but any reason they give will be susceptible to criticism and full of holes. If the Yankees let Harper sign with another team it will be because of the luxury tax, no matter how they spin it. Whether they talk about there being no room on the roster for one of the game’s best players or saying they offered a fair number that didn’t meet the asking price, if Harper signs anywhere else it will be because of one thing: money. That used to be the one thing the Yankees didn’t care about because they have more than every other team.

The same goes for Machado. If Machado doesn’t sign with the Yankees, the team will tell its fanbase there wasn’t a place for him in a crowded infield and that there would be no room for everyone once Didi Gregorius returns midseason. With Gregorius out for at least half the season, an infield of Gleyber Torres, Manny Machado and Miguel Andujar sounds a lot better than an infield of Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar and some average utility guy with no bat. And once Gregorius returns, you add him with those other three, and the best part is, you then have Machado for the foreseeable future and his entire prime. (I will worry about where Andujar plays when the time comes.) And if it’s not a crowded infield or a low-ball contract, the Yankees will use Machado’s hustle comments from the postseason as their reason. The Dodgers reached the World Series with Machado’s “lack of hustle” and if not for Dave Roberts’ historically bad management in the series, Machado might be a champion right now. I care just a little more about Machado averaging 36 home runs over the last four years and coming off a .905 OPS than I do about him sprinting down the first-base line on routine ground balls.

But like Harper, there doesn’t have to be room for Machado. You make room for these two. You sign them and figure out the rest later because it’s not often superstars reach free agency in their age 26 season because superstars don’t usually reach the majors as teenagers. And if they do, they get locked up to long-term contracts through their prime by their original team long before they ever get to this point. And a crowded outfield or crowded infield for one season doesn’t stay crowded for long with injuries and underperformance, and these signings aren’t only for the 2019 seasons, they are for many seasons.

The Yankees are in a championship window. They are either in the second or third year of this window depending on how you view the 2017 season and this window isn’t going to last forever. They wasted last season by not doing everything possible prior to the season to build the best team and then by not adding the necessary pieces during the season. The result: .500 baseball in the second half finished off by an absolute embarrassment in the postseason.

I’m holding on to the idea the Yankees didn’t throw away 2018 to get under the luxury-tax threshold for this offseason only to come away with Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia, J.A. Happ and an eventual reliever. I’m holding on to the idea that the Yankees don’t think they can essentially throw the same team out there for a third season in a row and think 2019 will end any differently than 2017 or 2018 did. I’m holding on to the idea that the Yankees are still the Yankees who use their financial prowess to their advantage.

I’m scared I won’t get either Harper or Machado for Christmas and for the prime of their career. I’m scared the Yankees think they can run out the same team that couldn’t get through the Astros in 2017 or the Red Sox in 2018 and think they will have a different result in 2019. I’m scared the Yankees are going to be scared of the luxury tax forever.

At this point, it will take a Christmas miracle for the Yankees to change course and become the Yankees once again, but it would make for the best Christmas story possible.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

The Yankees needed to sign J.A. Happ even if it meant going to a third year, which they kind of did. After passing on Patrick Corbin, the best pitcher on the free-agent market, who would have only cost money, Happ became the next-best pitcher on the free-agent market, who also would only cost money. Now the Yankees have a complete five-man rotation with three lefties in it.

Happ was the perfect trade deadline acquisition. No, he didn’t pitch against the Red Sox in the biggest series of the regular season in August due to a rare illness, and no, he didn’t pitch well in his only start in the ALDS (Game 1) against the Red Sox, the team he was supposed to be able to dominate as he was advertised to Yankees fans throughout July. But he did go unbeaten for the Yankees in the final two months of the season, helping them avoid a complete collapse in the standings and clinch the first wild card. (Again, I wish they had lost out on the first wild card or at least lost to the A’s in the wild-card game to avoid the result of the ALDS.)

The addition of Happ fills out the rotation along with Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton and CC Sabathia. Yes, there are lingering health questions about Tanaka’s elbow that have been going on for over four years and Paxton has never really pitched a full season in his career and Sabathia is guaranteed at least one trip to the disabled list in 2019 and now a 36-year-old joins that group. But what team doesn’t have health questions surrounding their starting pitching? With pitching comes the risk of injury and the Yankees’ risk of injury with their pitching is no better or worse than the rest of the league.

I wanted Happ back and I thought it made sense to have him back, given his career success, his history against the Red Sox (minus the ALDS) and the AL East and the fact that he has been as durable as any pitcher at his age with the amount of work his left arm has seen. (Knock on every piece of wood you can find.) Re-signing Happ after not wanting to sign Corbin was the right move and I’m not scared of Happ’s age or the diminishing spin rate on his fastball (at least not yet). What I’m scared of is that the Yankees will add in an elite reliever whether it’s David Robertson, Andrew Miller or Zach Britton and a utility guy like Neil Walker and call it an offseason. That’s what scares me.

The Yankees are in a championship window. They are either in their second or third year of it depending on how you view their improbable 2017 postseason run. The 2017 Yankees weren’t good enough despite holding a 3-2 lead in the ALCS before losing Games 6 and 7. The 2018 Yankees weren’t good enough despite replacing Chase Headley, Starlin Castro and a worthless DH spot with Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton and winning 100 games. Now the possibility of the Yankees running the same not-good-enough-team from 2018 back out there for 2019 and expecting a different result.

The league is going to suck again in 2019. It might actually suck more than it did in 2018 with more and more teams tanking and trying to duplicate the Cubs and Astros model. It used to take a special season to win 100 games, but there was nothing special about the 2018 Yankees and the 2019 Yankees shouldn’t have any trouble reaching the 100-win mark even if they didn’t add another piece to their team. You can only plan for the regular season and build the best possible team for the 162-game schedule. The postseason can’t be planned for. You can’t plan for Nathan Eovaldi to finally realize his potential after a career of disappointment or for Steve Pearce to become the most feared hitter in a lineup with the top two MVP candidates or for Jackie Bradley Jr. to go from hanging on to a career in the majors to a three-run home run machine and you can’t envision going into the postseason with your bullpen as your biggest weakness and suddenly have no-namers putting up zeros as if that’s all they had ever done. The 2018 Red Sox reminded us how big of a crapshoot the postseason is even if you win 108 games in the regular season. It can’t be planned for. Only the path to it can.

Right now, the Yankees have done a good enough job planning their path to the postseason that it would take a season decimated by injuries for them to not get there. Because the American League is going to suck as much if not more than it did in 2018, you can pencil in the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros and Indians right now, and take your pick on which mediocre team will serve as the one-and-done second wild card.

Happ was a necessary addition and the Yankees are better today and than they were before they brought him back. They are good enough to get to the postseason, but I’m not sure they are good enough to win the postseason.

Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are still free agents and they are still both 26 years old and either in the prime or have yet to enter it. The Yankees could go out and sign both (they have the money to even though they have somehow tricked Yankees fans into thinking they don’t) and create the best lineup in baseball to go along with one of the best rotations in baseball. Add in Robertson or Miller or Britton (or two of the three since they will end up trading for someone like that anyway in July) and while these high-priced signings might not guarantee a championship, they would put the Yankees in the best possible position for one in this current window.

The end of this coming season will be a decade since the last Yankees championship, and if the team wastes another year of this window, I’m not sure when the drought will end. The offseason can’t stop with Happ.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.