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.

The best starting pitcher on the free-agent market is gone. Patrick Corbin signed a six-year, $140 million deal with the Nationals after the Yankees wouldn’t go to a sixth year with the left-hander and now the Yankees find themselves in some trouble.

There is still the possibility the Yankees could pull off another trade for a starting pitcher the way they did for James Paxton in November, but without their best trade chip in Justus Sheffield, the dream of Corey Kluber or Carlos Carrasco in pinstripes will most likely never be anything more than that: a dream.

I’m happy Corbin is not a Yankee though that is contingent on the Yankees using the $100-plus million they would have given him to use on Bryce Harper and/or Manny Machado (emphasis on the “and” there). I still believe the Yankees should sign both Harper and Machado, and not one or the other, given that they are both 26 years old and are either in their prime or might have not even entered it yet (which is scary). But Hal Steinbrenner is unlike his father was, and the penny-pinching son of the former owner, who would have never let the team go through the month of August with Shane Robinson playing every day, is more likely to give Yankees fans a back-end starter and an elite reliever and call it an offseason than he is to sign the two biggest free agents available.

I’m holding on to the idea that 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, a back-end starter and an elite 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. Maybe I’m just kidding myself.

Corbin wasn’t going to be the No. 1 or No. 2 starter that Yankees fans envisioned after an offseason of hype, considering he has had one really good Major League season and just two years removed from an ERA above 5. But he would have fit nicely into the rotation along with Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton and would have been a better starting option than the depth the Yankees currently have. All Corbin was going to cost was money. No prospects. Just money. And the Yankees balked at a sixth year for him, thinking they could make better use of that sixth year and $20 to $25 million by spending it on someone else. Someone like a 36-year-old J.A. Happ.

Happ was everything you could ask for from a trade deadline acquisition, pitching only one stinker as a Yankee in the regular season before laying the biggest of eggs in Game 1 of the ALDS in Boston. Happ came to the Yankees as a durable, veteran lefty who knew the AL East well and had dominated the Red Sox in his career. Unfortunately, when the Yankees needed him to dominate the Red Sox as a Yankee, he missed the pivotal early August series with a rare illness and then would have been better off missing his one postseason start as well.

I’m not about to dismiss Happ for what he did in the ALDS because his body of work as a regular-season Yankee was outstanding. Without him, the Yankees might have lost out on the first wild card (which in hindsight I wish they had or I wish they had at least lost to Oakland in the wild-card game to prevent the embarrassment of the ALDS). However, he is now 36 and relying on someone at that age to continue to take the ball every fifth day, not only next season but the year after (since it will likely take at least a two-year deal to sign him) is risky. And when you’re in a championship window, which the Yankees are in, it might not be the most sound decision. Now it’s their only decision.

The Yankees could have solidified their rotation with money: the thing they make more of than any other team in the league. They could have added a younger lefty with the ability to miss more bats, but they were scared away by the dollar signs and the thought of paying a potentially worthless Corbin six years from now when their current window will most likely be closed. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar and Luis Severino aren’t going to be young forever. And aside from Stanton whose deal is locked in, the others aren’t going to be cheap forever. So now with Corbin off the board, unless Brian Cashman has the greenlight to sign Machado and then flip Andujar in a deal for someone like Kluber or Carrasco, the only satisfying way to complete the rotation is to sign Happ, and they can’t be scared of spending because he’s the last worthy free-agent starting pitching option.

The Yankees were willing to throw away last season to get under the luxury tax, and for what? To sit back and piece together a team to try to get over the hump of the last two seasons? Are they really not going to use their financial muscle on the most talented free-agent class in history? They already passed on Corbin, and if they don’t sign Happ, we’ll have our answer.

***

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.