The 2015 Yankees are starting to come together. Maybe not necessarily in the way I hoped they would be coming together, but at least they are coming together and some of the questions are being answered and the holes being filled.

Before the winter meetings started, I wrote The State of the Yankees: Winter Meetings Edition and commented on Brian Cashman’s recent comments to Mike Francesa. Now that the winter meetings are over, I thought it would be good to look at the current state of the team now that it’s more of a team by looking at three Yankees-related players to sign in the last week.

Let’s start with the worst part of the past week and work out way up, so that we can end things on a positive note.

The Ugly
David Robertson should have never been a free agent. He should have been taken care of prior to the end of the 2014 season and therefore he shouldn’t be the White Sox closer right now. But the Yankees gambled and lost with a homegrown impending free agent and decided to make a lateral move by bringing in Andrew Miller, who is pretty much a left-handed Robertson. I wanted both Robertson and Miller this offseason and if I had my pick between the two, I would have picked Robertson, but the Yankees got only one and now their bullpen is in the same shape it was in last year. It’s currently Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller and then the Goof Troop, which features a combination of Shawn Kelley and Adam Warren, neither of which I would trust to tell me the day of the week. Maybe Justin Wilson ends up being reliable or someone else steps up and becomes a trusted commodity for 2015 since the majority of relievers work on a year-to-year consistence basis. But if no one steps up, on the days when Betances or Miller are unavailable, it’s going to be another mental and emotional grind watching the Yankees’ latest collection of misfits try to navigate their way through the final outs of games the Yankees are winning.

The idea of having Robertson and Betances and Miller to lock up games after the sixth and asking a rotation that aside from Masahiro Tanaka has trouble going past the sixth inning anyway is such a beautiful idea that it makes me physically sick to think that it could have happened and now it won’t. And it could have easily happened. The White Sox gave Robertson four years and $46 million. The Yankees gave Andrew Miller four years and $36 million. So for $46 million, the Yankees could have had the best on-paper bullpen in the entire league and arguably their best bullpen since … well, ever. If you think $46 million is a lot of money to give to someone to pitch about 65 innings, just remember that last year, the Yankees gave a five-year, $85 million deal to Brian McCann with catcher being the deepest position in their farm system, three years and $45 million to a then-36-year-old Carlos Beltran and oddly enough he broke down, couldn’t throw a baseball and played in only 109 games and seven years, $153 million to Jacoby Ellsbury, which was money that could have been used to re-sign Robinson Cano. The Yankees could have re-signed Robertson, they just didn’t want to, and I’m not sure why.

So, goodbye, David Robertson. I will remember him becoming David “Copperfield” Robertson (it has always worked better than those who use “Houdini”) in Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS when he escaped the bases-loaded, no-out jam to extend the game before Mark Teixeira’s walk-off home run, which to date is one of only about two or three positive things Teixeira has done in four postseasons with the Yankees. Robertson proved himself as a middle reliever, the go-to seventh-inning guy, the best setup man in the league and then one of the most reliable closers in the game. Goodbye, David Robertson. You will be missed.

The Bad
I wanted Brandon McCarthy back and thought the Yankees should have extended him before the end of the season, so that like Robertson, we never get to this point. (The same goes for the next and last person in this column.) But I understand the Yankees not wanting to invest in a multiyear deal with a pitcher with a history of varied success in the league and injury problems. So McCarthy hit the open market and got paid (four years, $48 million from the Dodgers) more than double what he has made in his career to date. I don’t have a problem with the Yankees not signing McCarthy, but I have a problem with Cashman saying the Dodgers “went to a level we couldn’t play on” as if the Yankees suddenly became the Rays or A’s. Maybe instead of “couldn’t” he could have said “didn’t want to” so that I didn’t have to worry that the Yankees are suddenly poor. It probably wouldn’t have been in the Yankees’ best interest to give a 31-year-old, coming off his only full season as a starter in the league, a contract that will end he’s 35. Then again, the Yankees’ current rotation is Masahiro Tanaka, who could be out for at least a year any time he throws a pitch (though I guess you could say that about any pitcher), Michael Pineda, who has made 13 starts in three years a Yankee (all last season) and CC Sabathia, who was rumored to have a career-ending injury last year and hasn’t looked like CC Sabathia since the end of 2012. When you look at a rotation that is full of question marks, a $12-million-per-year starter isn’t that outrageous, even given McCarthy’s spotty history.

The Yankees have to bolster their rotation. Chris Capuano is a good insurance policy and Hiroki Kuroda would be a nice addition and certainly provide stability, but those two aren’t going to take the Yankees to where they need to be. With Jon Lester off the board, that leaves Max Scherzer (yes, please) and James Shields (ehh, OK) as the only two free-agent starters left that can change my comfort level on the 2015 Yankees.

The Good
Welcome back, Chase Headley! If I had done a Yankees’ Offseason To-Do List, Headley might have been No. 1 because he allows the Yankees so much more flexibility when he’s in the lineup. Here is the Yankees’ Opening Day infield without Headley:

1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Martin Prado or Rookie
3B – Alex Rodriguez or Martin Prado
SS – Didi Gregorius

And here’s the Yankees’ Opening Day infield with Chase Headley:

1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Martin Prado
3B – Chase Headley
SS – Didi Gregorius

Headley being back on the Yankees means that both Rob Refsnyder and Jose Pirela will get more time in the minors, Martin Prado can play second or wherever he’s needed and not be forced to play only third base with A-Rod being an unknown and A-Rod can continue to be an unknown and not someone who is needed to be healthy and productive.

The four-year, $52 million deal for Headley might be too much, but as I always say, “It’s not my money,” and sometimes you have to overpay for things in the time of need. Last week I bought a Christmas tree in the Upper East Side and if I were to build a village around it with those light-up figurines, people might think the tree is part of the village. But my apartment needed a tree, that was the going rate for a tree of that size since the next size was double in price and then an additional fee or a stand that I wasn’t going to save, so I bought that tree. For the same price, outside the city, I could have bought a 12-foot tree or a forest of similar trees. But like the free-agent market this offseason, the Christmas tree market isn’t exactly a bargain.

I think we can all agree that there was never a four-year, $65 million deal on the table for Headley and that was a negotiating ploy. I know Cashman said, “Chase wants to be a Yankee,” and if he did take a 20 percent pay cut to be a Yankee then he is a legend in my book and I will buy a Chase Headley shersey right now, but I have a hard time believing the guy who was born in Colorado, grew up in Colorado, went to college in Tenneessee and California and played 908 games for the Padres before playing 58 games for the Yankees wanted to be a Yankee so bad that he was willing to leave $13 million on the table. But like I said, if he really did, I think I found my new favorite player in the post-Derek Jeter era. He did say he took less money to be a Yankee and maybe that $13 million is the difference he is talking about, so for now, Chase Headley is my favorite Yankee as usher in this new era.

Where is that era taking me? I have no idea. A little over a week ago, I said that on a scale of a 1 to 10, I was a 10 before the Yankees traded for Didi Gregorius and signed Andrew Miller and then that 10 became a 7. The Yankees didn’t re-sign Robertson or McCarthy and the rotation still scares me more than the thought of the Yankees relying on A-Rod to provide middle-of-the-order power, but for now I’m a 5 and with a couple of months to go until spring training, a 5 isn’t the worst place to be.

Before Friday, I was worried about the 2015 Yankees. I’m still worried about them and what the summer is going to be like coming off of back-to-back summers of bad baseball and two Octobers without watching the Yankees in the postseason. On a scale of a 1 to 10, I was a 10 on Friday morning before the Yankees traded for Didi Gregorius and signed Andrew Miller and now that 10 is a 7. I wish it could have fallen to a 5 or even a 4, but with question marks still in the infield and the rotation and the status of re-signing David Roberston still unknown, it’s a hard 7 right now.

Fortunately, the Yankees have a chance to fix some of those needs this week in San Diego at the Winter Meetings. Brian Cashman talked with Mike Francesa on WFAN on Friday about the trade and signing as well as the overall state of the franchise heading into the meetings with a little over two months until spring training, so I did the only thing I know how to do when Cashman speaks and that is to comment on his comments.

On trading for Didi Gregorius.

“He’s a 24-year-old, left-handed hitting, middle-of-the-diamond, defensive-first shortstop. He struggles against left-handed pitching, hits against right-handed pitching, so look forward to getting him in here and having him play a signficiant role and probably connecting with Brendan Ryan in a platoon situation as least in the outset.”

I think I said everything I could say about Didi Gregorius on Friday without him playing a game for the Yankees yet. I really, truly hope he is the answer and the long-term answer at shortstop in the post-Derek  Jeter era and I hope the Yankees aren’t going to find themselves in the same situation the Red Sox have been in for the last decade with a longer, deeper and more complex cast to keep track of than The Wire at the position.

I wish the idea the of having him platoon with Ryan weren’t true or even an option considering Ryan is about as close to an automatic out as you get to a player, who can still be on a Major League roster, but if Didi performs, that will take care of itself.

On signing Andrew Miller.

“He’s clearly a guy that used to be a high-end No. 1 pick starter that eventually has now found his niche in Major League Baseball as a very successful setup situation, and we’ve seen it up close and personal. We thought there is a lot of value for us if we could team him with our current cast we have in the bullpen with a big guy like Dellin Betances from the right side, add Miller from the left side.”

If the Yankees’ signing means David Robertson isn’t coming back then Brian Cashman has failed. The 2015 Yankees can’t rely on only Betances and Miller the way they relied on only Betances and Robertson last season, giving Shawn Kelley, Adam Warren, David Huff and just about anyone who could pass a physical in the second half to get them important outs. Outside of Tanaka (when healthy), the Yankees don’t exactly have a rotation that’s capable of giving them distance in starts and the more high-end relievers in the bullpen, the better, so they’re not asking Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia (when healthy) and Hiroki Kuroda (if re-signed) to do things they can’t do.

The best part of having Miller is that it solves the left-handed debacle the Yankees have faced since Damaso Marte in the 2009 playoffs. Average lefties like Boone Logan or Clay Rapada or Billy Traber or Matt Thornton or David Huff or Rill Hill aren’t needed or relied on when you have Miller slinging that silly slider. And because he is going to keep me from having to watch a below-average lefty try to get David Ortiz out just because he throws with his left hand despite having limited talent, I think I’m going to go ahead and buy an Andrew Miller jersey.

On if signing David Robertson is still a possibility.

“I don’t know. I think we’re going to continue to evaluate all potential opportunities that present themselves here throughout the winter. It’s taken some time to get to where I am today … I’m not going to rule anything out.”

Let me elaborate on the previous answer as to why not signing Robertson is a disaster.

David Robertson is a proven elite reliever in New York and now also a proven closer and heir to Number 42’s job. He has been an important member of the bullpen going back to 2009 and especially the ALDS that year when his bases-loaded escape in extra innings against the Twins in Game 2 potentially saved the series.

Cashman’s track record trading for and signing big-name, free-agent relievers isn’t exactly something he will go out of his way to make room for on his resume and I’m sure he would edit his own Wikipedia page if he found the information on there. In recent years, he gave us free agents Kyle Farnsworth (three years, $17 million) Matt Thornton (two years, $7 million) and traded for Boone Logan (from Atlanta with Javier Vazquez for Melky Cabrera, Mike Dunn, Arodys Vizcaino and cash). Even though he wasn’t a big name, I would also like to included Cashman’s trade of Tyler Clippard for Jonathan Albaladejo. The best big-name free-agent reliever to come to the Yankees has been Rafael Soriano and Cashman can’t be credited with signing him because ownership did it against his wishes and he spoke out against the signing at the press conference to announce the Soriano deal.

The best Yankees relievers have been homegrown and I’m a big believer in building your bullpen from within and not going out and buying one. But if you have the resources to bring in Andrew Miller, who seems like a more stable and proven commodity than the others named, go for it, just don’t sacrifice bringing back your closer and a homegrown elite arm because of it.

The Yankees always seem to nickel and dime their own players when it comes to free agency, but are more than willing to open their wallet when it comes to other teams’ talent. Robertson should have been locked up before he ever became a free agent (the same way Cano should have been) and that’s Cashman and the front office’s fault for their contract negotiation policy and now they are going to have to overpay or extend themselves to a place they didn’t want to go with Robertson to bring him back, and that’s their own fault.

On adding starting pitching.

“It’s an area I would like to address if I can …We might not be able to get everything taken care of to our comfort level, but we’re certainly making the efforts to try and do so.”

It’s an area I would like you to address as well. With Shane Greene traded for Didi Gregorius and if Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia are healthy for Opening Day then the rotation currently looks like this:

1. Masahiro Tanaka
2. Michael Pineda
3. CC Sabathia
4. David Phelps
5.

That’s not a typo. The 5 spot isn’t filled in because it’s unknown. The Yankees have 80 percent of a rotation and the most reliable of the four health-wise is Phelps, who I hope isn’t in the Opening Day rotation and then it’s Pineda, who made just 13 starts last year, which were his only 13 starts in three years on the Yankees. Brandon McCarthy should have been locked up prior to hitting free agency (this is a common theme), but he wasn’t.

I could understand Cashman saying “We might not be able to get everything taken care of to our comfort level” if there weren’t any free-agent starting pitchers on the market this year. I mean actually zero free agents available. But Jon Lester is there and so is Max Scherzer and to a lesser degree, so is James Shields. All it will take to get one of those three is money. No players, no prospects, just money. If I’m watching spot starts being made in May and the Yankees trying to see if any of their Triple-A starts can get through four innings in the majors in June, I will remember Cashman saying on Dec. 5 that he was making an effort to address the team’s starting pitching.

On the possibility of signing Chase Headley.

“We’ve stayed in touch with Headley’s representatives and we continue to have dialogue. Thankfully we have the flexibility because of Prado and Refsnyder and Pirela, who can’t take a shot at second, we can move Prado over to third, so were protected, but we have stayed engaged no doubt about it.”

On if he would be comfortable starting with A-Rod, Prado and the two rookies at second base.

“As long as the kids stepped and did what we projected them to do. You have these future projections on players if they’re going to hit that ceiling, we need them hit it in the short term. They have to develop at the big league level just like we’re looking for Didi to do, but wed’ be comfortable to do that if that’s the best route to go, yes.”

I put these two Cashman quotes together because they go hand in hand. If we’re looking an Opening Day infield of Mark Teixeira, Martin Prado, Didi Gregorius and Alex Rodriguez or Mark Teixeira, rookie, Didi Gregorius and Martin Prado, I’m not exactly going to feel “comfortable” like Cashman suggests. I would probably feel as comfortable as sleeping on the hardwood floor of an apartment with no pillow and a sheet as a blanket. I would prefer Mark Teixeira, Martin Prado, Didi Gregorius and Chase Headley as the Opening Day infield. It’s not exactly Ritz Carlton deluxe suite “comfortable” but it’s certainly Marriott king bed “comfortable”.

On how he feels about Mark Teixeira.

“I feel good. We had good meetings with him, his operating surgeon and our medical staff at the end of the year. He’s working his tail off up in Fairfield County where he lives and I think you’re going to see a closer version to what we were used to seeing prior to that injury he sustained with the wrist.”

The last time someone asked me how I felt about Mark Teixeira and I used the word “good” in my answer was probably before the start of the 2011 season and the last time Teixeira had played was when he tore his hamstring against the Rangers in the ALCS and no one was that upset because he had been 0-for-14 in the series. Cashman just said, “I feel good” about Mark Teixeira coming off a .216/.313/.398 season (all career worsts) in which he missed games due to a hamstring injury, wrist problems, a rib cage issue, a knee problem, a lat injury, tired legs from standing on the bases (that’s not made up), light-headedness and also from hurting his pinky finger. When Cashman said, “I think you’re going to see a closer version to what we were used to seeing prior to that injury he sustained with the wrist,” I’m not sure if he meant we’re going to see 2009 Teixeira or 2012 Teixeira. I’m guessing we’re going to see 2012 Teixeira since 2009 Teixeira is never coming back.

On Masahiro Tanaka.

“Tanaka left as a healthy player, so we’ll see him when he returns from Japan and hope that he remains healthy and can be obviously what he was in the fist half of the year for us.”

There are three options with what will happen with Tanaka’s elbow:

1. Nothing and he continues to pitch the way he did before the tear was discovered.

2. His elbow completely tears and he needs Tommy John and misses a calendar year.

3. He has lingering and nagging issues with it and is on and off the disabled list.

I have to believe in No. 1 because if I don’t then the summer of 2015 is likely going to go the same way that 2013 and 2014 did. The Yankees don’t seem to be as worried about the possibility of Tanaka going down for a year any time hr throws a pitch, since they have the ability to sign a front-end starter, so I can only follow their lead and believe in the health of Tanaka’s right elbow.

On CC Sabathia.

“In CC’s case, he’s here rehabbing with Stevie just finishing off his rehabilitation program from the surgery so we expect unless there’s some sort of ? that he’ll be ready to hit the ground running 100 percent when spring training starts.”

I have no expectations for Sabathia. When there were rumors last year that his injury and surgery could be career ending, all of plans for how an older, slimmer CC could reinvent himself on the mound were erased. Now I look at him as a bonus if he can give the Yankees anything. I don’t mean “anything” as in his 5.28 ERA from last year or his 4.78 from 2013. I mean give me “anything” as in better than 2013, but worse than 2012 (3.38), but closer to that 2012 number. Just don’t give me the guy that can’t get through six innings or blows a three-plus run lead when he does. I don’t want to see that guy ever again.

On if he expects to be active at the Winter Meetings.

“I’ve been trying to be active all winter and today we obviously were able to get two things pushed across. We’re going to continue to be active, i just don’t know. It’s just hard to predict whether you’ll have anything to show for your efforts.”

I want to be surprised between now and Christmas. I want one of those “The Yankees are a closer to a (insert number)-year deal with (insert big-name free agent)” tweets or for those words to show up on the ticker on ESPN the way we got a few last offseason and seemingly have every year forever. Actually, I don’t want one of those. I need one of those. And then I can start to feel good about the 2015 Yankees.

The last time the Yankees needed a shortstop I was in fourth grade. Now for the first time since I was nine years old, the Yankees’ shortstop is someone with a number other than 2, someone not named Derek Jeter.

Part of me is still holding out hope that everything that has happened since February when Jeter announced his retirement has been one big, well-planned and sick joke. I sometimes wish I have been living in my own version of The Truman Show and that everyone in the world has been in on it by trying to make me think Derek Jeter will never play baseball again. It’s the reason why I still haven’t written my “Goodbye” column for him and have put it off for as long as possible and will likely put it off until at least spring training and maybe even Opening Day.

But if everything about Jeter over the last 10 months has been a worldwide plan to trick me into thinking the last link to my childhood baseball fandom is gone then I guess Brian Cashman and the Yankees front office is heavily invested in the joke since they traded a 26-year-old promising starting pitcher in Shane Greene for a 24-year-old shortstop in Didi Gregorius. I’m beginning to think Derek Jeter really isn’t coming back.

In this city, there a few people and a few jobs that are impossible to replace and Derek Jeter is No. 1 (and in the sports world is No. 1 across the board in the country). Anyone who was going to replace Chris “Mad Dog” Russo alongside Mike Francesa was never going to be “Mad Dog” and that show and time slot was never going to be the same and fortunately there hasn’t been anyone to try to fill those shoes. The person who is going to one day replace Mike Francesa every weekday from 1-6:30 on WFAN shouldn’t expect rave reviews since that transition will likely have Bob Raissman and Phil Mushnick longing for the days of the Pope. Joe Girardi had to replace Joe Torre, who spent all 12 of his seasons with the Yankees in the playoffs and six of those 12 in the World Series, and unless Girardi topped four World Series in his first five years, he was never going to be Torre. David Robertson had to replace not only the Yankees’ 17-year closer, but the greatest closer in the history of baseball. Despite a revolving door of sandwich makers, the cafeteria in the Time Life Building in Rockefeller Center is probably still looking for a sandwich-making replacement for Norma. And now Didi Gregorius is taking over (not replacing) for Derek Jeter.

Aside from actually becoming the First Shortstop Since Fourth Grade, former Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers didn’t exactly do Gregorius any favors when he traded for him and gave his evaluation of the shortstop.

“When I saw him he reminded me of a young Derek Jeter. I was fortunate enough to see Jeter when he was in high school in Michigan and he’s got that type of range. He’s got speed. He’s more of a line drive-type hitter, but I think he’s got the type of approach at the plate where I think there’s going to be power there as well.”

So for any irrational Yankees fan out there, that December 2012 quote couldn’t have been more perfect for setting Gregorius’ expectations as high as possible by implanting the idea that Gregorius looks and plays and could be Derek Jeter. Sure, Towers didn’t know at the time that his newly acquired young player would be the Yankees’ shortstop of the future in two years, but in retrospect he couldn’t have given a worse possible quote to stifle expectations for a kid being asked to do an impossible job unless he said, “Didi Gregorius is related to Derek Jeter.”

The person who took over for Derek Jeter was never going to have a fairytale transition into their new job unless their April 2015 replicated Shane Spencer’s September 1998. But when it comes to Didi, he might be best set up to be the new Yankees’ shortstop because he isn’t a big name free agent or a proven star, who the Yankees had to either back up the money truck for or trade the farm to acquire. If the Yankees had signed Hanley Ramirez or traded for Troy Tulowitzki, the First Shortstop Since First Grade would have A-Rod-like pressure from their first at-bat with the Yankees. Ramirez would have cost the Yankees another multiyear deal for eight figures for a player in his 30s with past injury and personality problems. Troy Tulowitzki would have cost the Yankees an even longer contract for an even more injury-prone player and some of the organization’s best prospects on top of that. If Didi doesn’t live up to Kevin Towers’ initial comparison and isn’t the long-term answer for the Yankees then all it cost was a 26-year-old right-handed starter, who is anything but proven. And if it does work out, the Yankees just got the foundation up the middle for the future for an unproven 26-year-old right-hander.

I have seen Gregorius play minimally during his 191 career games in the majors, but if his glove is as good as touted and his offense can mirror his 2013 season (.252/.332/.373) or if his offense starts to show signs of what he did in 260 Triple-A plate appearances last season (.310/.389/.447) then I have no problem with Didi being the future. Even without knowing what he is yet or what he will become, he’s a better option than watching Stephen Drew or Brendan Ryan become the First Shortstop Since Fourth Grade since we already know what they are.

As recent as Friday morning I was scared about where this Yankees offseason was headed and what my 2015 summer was going to look like with holes still up the middle and question marks in the rotation and in the bullpen. But I feel a little more comfortable in knowing that there is a real, true, viable player who could be the Yankees’ answer at shortstop.

Didi Gregorius doesn’t have to be Derek Jeter and if he wanted to, he can’t be. No one can. For now, he’s just the First Shortstop Since Fourth Grade and with four months until Opening Day, he can’t be anything more.