1. Spring training is two weeks away. When the Yankees report to Tampa in a couple of weeks, there will be no Juan Soto. There will be no Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo or Jose Trevino. There will be no Nestor Cortes or Clay Holmes. (If we’re lucky, there will be no Marcus Stroman.) The Yankees will look much different in mid-February than they did at the end of October. That’s a good thing.

The Yankees as currently constructed will be a better team when they show up to Steinbrenner Field than they were when they lost the final game of the 2024 MLB season at Yankee Stadium. Their lineup is longer, their rotation is better and their bullpen is deeper. They still have the same manager who decided to pull Luke Weaver in Game 1 of the World Series only to eventually bring in Cortes to face Freddie Freeman, but unfortunately, he will be here forever.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

2. What’s the likelihood that the roster construction is essentially complete because Hal won’t approve any additional spending? – Mark

It’s not a likelihood, it’s a certainty. Whenever Hal Steinbrenner approves a massive signing, he skimps on some other area of the roster to make up for it. When the Yankees traded for Soto, they went into the season without a third baseman. When they signed Carlos Rodon, they decided not to have a left fielder. The Yankees signed Max Fried, and that means they are going to start the season without a trustworthy option at either second base or third base depending on which position Jazz Chisholm plays.

3. What internal options should be given the longest look at the infield spot Jazz doesn’t play? – Chris

It seemed like Caleb Durbin was in line to be that internal candidate, but he was traded for Devin Williams, so that leaves DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza.

LeMahieu is going to get the first look and the longest look. We know this because owed money is the first place the Yankees go in building their roster. LeMahieu is owed $30 million over 2025 and 2026, so even if Cabrera or Peraza make more sense, it’s going to take a while, and I mean months for LeMahieu to not play the majority of the games. Just look at how much the Yankees used LeMahieu last season when he couldn’t hit the ball in the air for weeks at a time and was 49 percent worse than league average as a hitter.

4. Cabrera deserved to play more than he did in 2024, but that’s the way it has gone for him in his three years in the majors. The Yankees did everything they could to not play Peraza in 2022 and 2023 when they had every opportunity to give him everyday playing time, so I find it hard to believe he will be given the chance to be an everyday player in 2025.

5. How short is DJ LeMahieu’s leash if he is the Opening Day third baseman? – Paul

The Yankees didn’t release LeMahieu last season because of the two years and $30 million owed to him. The same way the Yankees told everyone Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson would be fine in 2023 before releasing them both is likely what happens to LeMahieu in 2025. Hicks and Donaldson were easy to root against and extremely hard to root for. LeMahieu is the complete opposite. I desperately want LeMahieu to turn back the clock and be his old self because when he was at his best he was awesome.

6. Sadly, over the last four seasons he has missed 26 percent of the Yankees’ regular-season games and all of their postseason games, posting a .698 OPS in 2,010 plate appearances. LeMahieu is 36 now and will be 37 in July, and I don’t see how he suddenly becomes a player he hasn’t been in five years. I want him to, but I don’t know that it’s possible. The leash is going to be at least three months I would think.

Even without a complete infield for the second straight year (after deciding to not have a complete outfield for multiple consecutive seasons), the Yankees are the best team in the American League. But the goal isn’t to win the American League, it’s to win the World Series.

7. Who do you see as possibilities for left-handed bullpen signings besides Tim Hill? – Gregg

Tanner Scott? Oh wait, he signed with the Dodgers, just like seemingly everyone else.

I’m jealous of the Dodgers, and therefore, I’m jealous of my wife’s fandom as a Dodgers fan. For the entire holiday season, every time I entered the living room, there was a Dodgers World Champions ornament glistening on our Christmas Tree, serving as a daily reminder of the Yankees’ humiliating performance in the World Series.

8. The Yankees used to be the destination for every big-name international star, Japanese or Cuban, but now the Dodgers have cornered the Japanese market. The Yankees spent two decades living in the past, referencing the late-’90s and early-2000s rather than doing everything they could to keep the winning ways going. They have been to two World Series in 21 years and won one. Their payroll in 2017 was less than it was in 2005. After coming within one win of the World Series in 2017, they cut payroll by $50 million for 2018. TV revenue, ticket prices, merchandise and concession costs have grown exponentially, while the Yankees’ payroll has grown depressingly slowly … when it infrequently has increased. The Yankees went to the World Series last year and despite playing 14 postseason and seven home postseason games, they are going to have a lower payroll in 2025 than they had in 2024. I wonder if tickets to the Stadium and beer at the Stadium will cost less in 2025 than it did in 2024.

9. The Dodgers won 98 games last season despite losing Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone to season-ending injuries. Yoshinobu Yamamoto missed half of the season. Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin missed the entire season. They went into October with a bullpen/punt game built into a makeshift rotation and still won it all.

The Dodgers could have done nothing this offseason and still would have gone into 2025 as the odds-on favorite to win the World Series. They could have sat back on their first real championship since 1988 and tried to run it back without adding payroll. Rather than do nothing, they did everything. They gave Blake Snell a five-year deal. They won the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes. They brought back Teoscar Hernandez and replaced Gavin Lux with Hyeseong Kim. They re-signed Blake Treinen, added Scott and signed Michael Conforto for shits and giggles.

10. The Yankees are better to begin 2025 than they were to end 2024, but they’re still playing the parlay game with their roster construction. The same game that caused them to go 15 years between World Series appearances. The same game that led to the light-hitting Trevino being used as a pinch hitter with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees have been trying to cut corners for a long time now and why it’s been more than a decade-and-a-half since a new World Series game could be used as a Yankees Classics game on YES. Needing a handful (or more) things to go right to the best version of the roster possible isn’t ideal, but that’s where the Yankees are again without a complete infield and without a lefty in the bullpen. Maybe the Dodgers will sign Tim Hill as well because why not?

1. I have completed the five stages of grief when it comes to Juan Soto no longer being a Yankee. It took me a couple of weeks to move through the first (denial) and second (anger) steps, but I was only briefly in the third (bargaining) and fourth (depression) steps. Acceptance (the fifth step) is where I am now and where I plan on remaining.

I didn’t know how the Yankees’ roster or I would rebound from the loss of Soto, but the dark place the roster and I were in when the news broke to where the roster and I are now has been quite the turnaround. It has been turned around enough that I’m breaking my promise to walk away from the Yankees and baseball and learn an instrument or language rather than suffer through a Soto-less season. At least for now.

2. I have liked what the Yankees have done this offseason since Soto chose the disgusting orange and blue. If the Yankees had been successful in signing Soto, I believe it’s obvious he would have been their entire offseason. I realize I would have willingly been accepting a less-rounded team to guarantee Soto in the lineup for the next decade and a half.

Two years ago, after the Yankees signed Carlos Rodon, no impact moves were made. Last year, after trading for Soto, no impact moves were made. History would have repeated itself with Hal Steinbrenner looking ways to cut costs after giving Soto $765 million of his inheritance. At best, by re-signing Soto and doing nothing else, the Yankees’ ceiling would have been getting humiliated in the World Series again.

Since Soto left for Queens, the Yankees have made themselves into a better team. That’s not to say losing Soto doesn’t suck or that he would have prevented them from being a better team (the Steinbrenner’s would have prevented the Yankees from being a better team with Soto because they would have been reluctant to add more to their payroll). But the Yankees now have a deeper rotation with the signing of Max Fried. They have a stronger bullpen with the trade for Devin Williams and re-signing of Jonathan Loaisiga, and they are much better defensively with Aaron Judge back in right field, Cody Bellinger now in either center or left, Paul Goldschmidt at first base and Jazz Chisholm back to second base. The offense has taken a hit because of the loss of Soto, but that was always going to be the case if he left. The only bat that would have come close to replacing his would have been to trade for Kyle Tucker, but after seeing what Soto received in free agency, there was no chance the Yankees would have been able to extend Tucker past 2025.

3. The additions of Fried, Williams, Bellinger and Goldschdmit make the loss of Soto hurt less. It doesn’t make the hurt completely disappear. It makes me sick to see highlights or images of Soto playing for the Yankees knowing that he won’t again. That pain will likely never go away. The only way it goes away is if Soto gains 50 pounds and hits the way he did in 2022 when he posted a .242/.401/.452 slash line with 27 home runs and was only 47 percent better than league average. If Soto puts up a sub-.900 OPS in 2025 or 2026 or any of his “prime” seasons, it’s a disaster. As the highest-paid player in the sport, he now has to be as good as he was in 2024 in each season of his prime.

4. I loved the Fried signing. The rotation before him couldn’t be trusted after Gerrit Cole, and given Cole’s arm and fatigue issues last year, it feels like he’s on borrowed time with each pitch he throws. I don’t care about the money or years given to Fried. If you haven’t come to the realization the Yankees can afford any player at any cost, you never will. If you have been tricked into thinking a $300 million payroll is a lot by the league’s owners, I feel sorry for you. Fried is great. He makes the Yankees better. That’s all that matters. As long he stays healthy and covers first base on ground balls hit to the first baseman, he will do just fine with the Yankees.

5. When you can trade an injured starting pitcher a year away from free agency and a prospect who wasn’t in the Top 30 and no one gave two shits about before the Arizona Fall League for the best reliever in baseball, you’re doing something right. Like Fried, Williams is great. He’s the best reliever in baseball. I enjoyed people bringing up the home run to Pete Alonso in the playoffs as a reason why Williams isn’t great. Emmanuel Clase was a disaster in the ALCS against the Yankees and any fan of any team would take him in a second. Should the Yankees have gotten rid of Mariano Rivera after 1997 for giving up the ALDS-winning home run to Sandy Alomar Jr.? Moronic. Like Fried, as long as Williams stays healthy, he will be great for the Yankees. 

6. Why didn’t the Yankees just sign Bellinger last offseason when all he would have cost was money, and when they could have had another strong left-handed bat in a World Series-bound lineup? I guess it’s because they didn’t want to tie up money they planned on needing to make a run at Soto with. Whoops. But now that the money for Soto is still in Hal’s bank account they’re able to finally make Bellinger a Yankee.

The trade for Bellinger was a good move. A good move that was inevitable. Possibly a year too late, but nevertheless, a move the Yankees had to make to try to balance the lineup. And they still need lineup balance. They are still too right-handed heavy. They removed Anthony Rizzo and added Bellinger. But they removed Soto and added Goldschmidt. That’s two lefties out (even if one sucked) and one in. The Yankees need another left-handed infield bat. I don’t think there is one out there worth signing. Anything of quality will have to come from a trade.

7. Last year, Soto was a 7.9 WAR player. Two years ago, Goldschmidt won the NL MVP with a .317/.404/.578 slash line and 7.7 WAR. Just two years ago, 2022 Goldschmidt was essentially 2024 Soto. Unfortunately, there has been two seasons of baseball since then, and after being 77 percent better than league average in 2022, Goldschmidt was just 20 percent better in 2023 and shockingly 2 percent worse in 2024. 

You can look at the signing of the now-37-year-old Goldschmidt in one of two ways: The Yankees just signed a 37-year-old first baseman coming off the worst season of his 14-year career OR by having the worst season of his 14-year career, the Yankees were able to sign Goldschmidt for only one year and $12.5 million!

Typically, when a player at the advanced baseball age of 36 has the worst season of their career, they settle for a minor-league deal or an invite to spring training. Because typically, the downward slope of their offense doesn’t reverse course. Sadly, the ways to reverse course are no longer a part of the game the way they were in the 80s, 90s or 2000s.

There’s the chance the pinstripes rejuvenate Goldschmidt the way they have for so many others over the years. But for every player like Matt Carpenter, there’s three of players like Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson or Matt Holliday. Hopefully, Goldschmidt has one more full season of offense left in the tank. And if not, hopefully, he will at least take ground balls hit to him to the bag himself.

8. After seven mostly disappointing seasons, Gleyber Torres is no longer a Yankee. Back in 2018 and 2019 when Torres was a force in the lineup (thanks to the juiced baseball) there weren’t many, if any, players in the league the Yankees would have traded him for. Now they let him walk for nothing.

Torres said the Yankees didn’t even reach out to him during the offseason. He was a player they kept through every trade deadline and offseason of his Yankee tenure, a player they made endless excuses and changed the makeup of their infield for multiple times to cater to and a player who was batting leadoff for them in the World Series and the Yankees didn’t even call to check in with his agent on his market over the last two months? What a fall from grace for a player I thought seven years ago was going to be an up-the-middle glove and middle-of-the order bat for the Yankees for the next decade and a half.

9. The Yankees have removed the player with the lowest Baseball IQ in the league from their lineup, but they still desperately need an infielder. Aaron Boone recently said given the current roster, Chisholm will move back to second and DJ LeMahieu and/or Oswaldo Cabrera will play third.

C: Austin Wells
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
2B: Jazz Chisholm
3B: DJ LeMahieu/Oswaldo Cabrera
SS: Anthony Volpe
LF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
CF: Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez
RF: Aaron Judge
DH: Giancarlo Stanton

It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s good and good enough. In today’s AL, good enough works. The Yankees won the AL with Soto, lost Soto and are still favored to win the AL. That’s how weak the entire league is. The Mets added Soto, are going to run a payroll north of $300 million again, and may be the third-best team in their division let alone the entire NL. The NL has become what the AL once was.

That’s fine with me! I love seeing every big-name player traded to or signing with an NL team. It makes it easier for the Yankees, at least until they reach the World Series, which is exactly what happened in 2024: They finished with the best record in the AL despite being .500 since mid-June, steamrolled two AL Central teams in the ALDS and ALCS and then got embarrassed in the World Series by a better all-around team.

10. The Yankees were able to outlast the Orioles for the division because the Orioles couldn’t get out of their own way in the second half. They were able to outlast any threat from the Astros for a first-round bye because the Astros got off to such a bad start. They were able to get past the Royals and Guardians in the ALDS and ALCS because of Soto and Stanton. But once they got to the Dodgers, a complete team was too much for two players to overcome. The Dodgers were the better team. Since losing Soto, the Yankees have taken necessary steps to become a better all-around team than they were last year, when they relied on two players in the regular season (Soto and Judge) and two players in the postseason (Soto and Stanton).

It’s been nine weeks since the World Series ended and the Yankees are a better team today than they were for the last out of last season. There’s six weeks until spring training and plenty of time for them to get even better.

1. Juan Soto wasn’t Plan A for the Yankees this offseason. He was the only plan. And now that he will be a Met for the rest of his career, the Yankees are currently freaking out at the Winter Meetings in Dallas without a plan. At least without a plan worthy of being accepted by the fan base. Because there is no backup plan when you lose out on a generational bat. There is no backup plan when the remaining free-agent options are on the wrong side of 30, have low on-base percentages and hit right-handed.

Soto was always going to go to the highest bidder and he stayed true to his plan. Whichever team gave him $1 more than the other teams was going to get him whether that team was the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Phillies, Mariners, Reds or Tigers, it didn’t matter. Everyone always knew that about Soto from the moment he turned down the Nationals’ money and wouldn’t sign an extension with the Padres.

2. Soto went to the highest bidder, but there may have been other factors at play. No one knows what Soto’s relationship was with Aaron Judge. Judge said just a couple of weeks ago he hadn’t talked to Soto during the offseason, citing “giving him space” as the excuse why. Maybe Soto didn’t like playing for Aaron Boone and couldn’t foresee ever winning a championship with him at the helm. Maybe he didn’t trust Brian Cashman after he went a whole season without attempting to upgrade left field or first base. Maybe he didn’t like that Hal Steinbrenner didn’t care to have a relationship with him until he became a free agent. Maybe after sharing a field with the Yankees’ so-called top prospects (most of whom are similar to age as him but still in the lower and middle levels of the minor leagues) he figured the team’s long-term future was bleak. No one knows what Steve Cohen said to Soto when they met in California last month. No one knows what kind of relationship they formed and what promises were made.

3. I don’t understand Yankees fans who are giving Hal a pass here and saying they are proud of the team’s inherited owner for going toe-to-toe with the sport’s wealthiest owner. The reason the Yankees are in the position of needing to bid $760 million on Soto is because of Hal and his invincible front office headed by Cashman. The organization has made a decade-and-a-half of poor choices, and none poorer than not even meeting with Bryce Harper six years ago when he desperately wanted to be a Yankee and eventually signed for half the average annual salary of Soto. The Yankees’ offseason choices from six-plus years ago led them to where they are today. It’s the Yankees’ own fault for putting themselves in a position where the loss of a single player through free agency could disrupt their entire future because of poor planning and poor roster construction. That’s on ownership and the front office. They don’t get a pass for “being competitive.” They lost. Again.

And that’s the issue with these Yankees. They’re OK with losing. The higher-ups likely feel good about this loss to the Mets because they were “competitive” the same way the manager of the team talks about how he likes his team’s “compete” after avoidable losses. The only person happier than Soto today is Hal who nows gets to keep the $760 million he offered to Soto and is somehow being praised for “trying.”

4. Why do you think seven minutes after Soto’s 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets was reported, the Yankees’ offer of $760 million over 16 years was also reported? The Yankees wanted to leak their offer to show their fans they didn’t lowball Soto and they offered $5 million less and one year more. In actuality, they offered less money overall and less money per year. Add in the Mets’ willingness to give Soto a $75 million signing bonus, escalators after five years that can bring the contract to $800 million and not a single deferred dollar in the deal, and the Mets’ offer blew the Yankees’ away. Hal wanted to save face after being repeatedly called cheap in recent years, and the best way to do that was to get the Yankees’ offer out there as soon as possible, so the fans would turned on Soto instead of him. It worked. It worked beautifully in Hal’s favor. Since last night, the vast majority of Yankees fans are calling Soto greedy and money hungry, as if they wouldn’t change employers within the same city in their own lives for more money.

The Yankees needed Soto more than he needed them. In fact, he didn’t need them at all, and the Yankees fans who have talked themselves into this being a good thing are fools. They are likely the same people who think Hal isn’t cheap because he offered a contract that wasn’t accepted despite owning the team that generates the most revenue in the sport, but is 18th in revenue-to-payroll ratio. The same fans who think paying $765 million is a bad business decision in a salary-cap-less league.

5. The Yankees have to live in the free-agent market because of their player development issues. It’s always been a problematic realization because the team’s owner has created a salary cap for his team in the salary-cap-less league, and now the problem has been elevated because the Mets just proved they will stop at nothing to get any free agent they covet. And odds are, every free agent the Yankees covet is going to be coveted by the Mets. As I said after every Clay Holmes blown save this season, when you have a closer who relies on balls in play to get outs, bad things can happen. Well, when your only way to build your roster is to rely on an auction process, bad things can happen. And taking Soto off this roster is as bad as it gets.

6. Things are bad. Real bad. This is currently the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup by position.

C: Austin Wells
1B: DJ LeMahieu
2B: Oswaldo Cabrera
SS: Anthony Volpe
3B: Jazz Chisholm
LF: Jasson Dominguez
CF: Trent Grisham
RF: Aaron Judge
DH: Giancarlo Stanton

A second-year catcher who was abysmal for the last month-plus of the season; a middle infielder-turned-first baseman who has been shut down by the end of the season in three of the last four years; a utility player with no set position; a shortstop whose development has stalled; a middle infielder-turned center fielder-turned third baseman; a left fielder who wasn’t deemed good enough to play over the worst everyday bat in the majors in the most important games of the season; a center fielder who was allowed to appear in the same amount of playoff games as me; the reigning AL MVP winner who can’t hit in October and a 35-year-old designated hitter who can only hit in October. If you want to know how the Yankees’ consecutive season wining streak since 1993 comes to an end, there you have it.

7. I can’t imagine that will be the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup on March 27 against the Brewers, but maybe it should be, at least in terms of free agency? The Yankees’ best course of action may be to do nothing in free agency. The only two intriguing free-agent options left on the board are Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, but neither of them are left-handed hitters who are going to hit elite pitching in October. Though we know the Yankees aren’t going to sit idly. Not when their highest-paid stars are in their mid-30s, not when they are coming off a World Series appearance and not when the player responsible for them appearing in that World Series is now playing for the cross-city team that was supposed to always be the little brother.

8. Where do the Yankees go from here? Who knows. Eleven years ago when they lost Robinson Cano in an auction, they pivoted and spent crazily on Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran. They eventually released Ellsbury and filed a grievance against him to not pay him, paid McCann to play for the Astros and help beat them in the 2017 ALCS and traded Beltran to the Rangers.

Next year’s free-agent class is much better. But who’s to say the top names expected in it will still be free agents by the end of the next season? And who’s to say the Mets won’t want the best available free agents next year again and just keep upping their bid for them until the Yankees pull out and then leak their best offer to show they tried?

9. In all likelihood, the Yankees were going to sign Soto and call it an offseason. They would have run back the same team that just proved it wasn’t good enough to win it all against a watered-down version of the Dodgers. If the Yankees’ ceiling as currently constructed with Soto was to get embarrassed by the Dodgers without a rotation in the World Series, what would happen if the Yankees were to reach the World Series again against the Dodgers and have to face some combination of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyer Glasnow, Blake Snell, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw and others?

10. Like Boone’s 2003 pennant-winning home run that resulted in the Yankees losing the World Series, the Red Sox retooling that offseason to change the course of the rivalry’s history and Boone eventually being named manager of the Yankees only to have the most disappointing tenure of any person in the position’s history, Soto’s time with the Yankees is eerily similar. The Yankees traded away Michael King along with all of their pitching depth to acquire Soto. He led them to the World Series, which now will keep Boone and Cashman in place forever, only to be humiliated in the World Series, and now he has left them for their cross-city rival, completely changing the landscape for New York baseball moving forward. Was getting a lucky free pass to the World Series against the AL Central only to be destroyed by the Dodgers worth it to now not have King, a depleted farm system, Boone and Cashman forever and the Mets and their fans laughing in Yankees fans’ faces? Not for me it wasn’t.

On top of that, Judge’s reputation and legacy was tarnished with his ALDS, ALCS and World Series performances as was Gerrit Cole’s with him pointing to first base rather than covering it, and the Yankees pitching staff had to pitch an extra month worth of high-stress games only to win nothing, which will now impact their health and stamina for next season. Again, none of it was worth it.

It was only ever going to be worth it if Soto was going to play in New York until at least 40, try to help lead a parade through the Canyon of Heroes and one day wear the interlocking NY in Cooperstown. He’s going to do all that, it’s just going to be for the Mets and not the Yankees.

1. It’s hard to care about the Yankees until Juan Soto is signed, whether it’s with the Yankees or not. The entire elite free-agent market is on hold until Soto comes off the board, and therefore, the 2025 plans for the Yankees and every other team that is in on Soto are on hold until he signs.

There is nothing worse than the MLB Hot Stove. The amount of sourced, rumored and exaggerated reports are annoying and tiresome … every single year. No one knows a fucking thing about where Soto is going to sign outside of Soto, his family and Scott Boras, and it’s possible none of them know and won’t know until the bids start coming in. I’m sure Soto knows where he wants to play and hopes that team is the highest bidder, but there isn’t a reporter or fan who has any idea of what’s going to happen with him or how much he’s actually going to sign for.

And with that let’s get to some questions from readers …

2. I know you feel strongly about re-signing Soto (as in you won’t follow the team anymore if they don’t). But hypothetically if they don’t sign him, what would be the best use of the money they’ll save on him and the others they’ll release based on this years free-agent class? – Chris

I have made my stance clear about the Yankees and Soto: re-sign him or I’m out. I will gladly resell my season tickets on the secondary market if he goes elsewhere. I’m not going to stick around to watch Aaron Boone manage the team for an eighth season with the faces of the franchise being Mr. May, who can’t hit or catch routine fly balls in the World Series, or Big Game Gerrit, who couldn’t have given less of an effort to cover first base in the inning that currently defines both of their careers.

The only way Soto leaves and I stay is if the Yankees pull off blockbuster trades to improve the offense and go to town on the free-agent starting pitching market. But there’s a better chance Soto ends up signing with the Red Sox than there is that that backup plan comes to fruition if Soto leaves.

3. Fourteen years ago, the Yankees were trying to sign Cliff Lee to fortify their rotation after not trading for him that summer because they didn’t want to include Eduardo Nunez in the deal. The same Eduardo Nunez, who, four years later would be released by the team for nothing in spring training, and then four years after that, helped the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the ALDS and win the World Series.

Back then, the Yankees didn’t have a Plan B if Lee signed elsewhere, and he did. He went to Philadelphia and the Yankees filled their rotation with Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. By the time October came, Colon was hurt and Garcia was fatigued and ineffective. The Yankees went out in the first round. I wrote about the Yankees’ lack of a Plan B back then and I’m writing about their lack of a Plan B for Soto now.

4. The Yankees think they have a Plan B. We saw it begin to unfold at the end of last week when they non-tendered Jon Berti, but gave Trent Grisham $5 million. Why did they make those two moves? Well, not bringing back Berti freed up money for Soto, and bringing back Grisham allows him to potentially be their everyday center fielder if Soto goes elsewhere and Aaron Judge moves back to right. Why do you think Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo were held on to at the deadline? Why do you think Verdugo played over Jasson Dominguez and was never pinch hit for a single time by Dominguez in the playoffs? Because they are part of Plan B and the Yankees didn’t want to sour the relationships.

If Soto goes elsewhere, the money allocated from him will have to spent somehow. And then somehow is a combination of Torres and Verdugo and the Yankees going after free-agent bats like Pete Alonso, Teoscar Hernandez and Christian Walker and free-agent arms like Corbin Burnes, Slake Snell and Max Fried.

In actuality, there is no Plan B for the offense. The only plan this offseason for the offense is to re-sign the generational 26-year-old star and have him anchor the lineup for the better part of the next decade. Anything else is a letdown.

5. I know your posture on Soto, but realistically, if we had a better GM we could spend on better impact players with shorter contracts? – Douglas

I don’t think signing Soto to a 14- or 15-year deal is a bad business decision. Soto is a historic talent who may not have even entered his prime yet. Stocking up on the game’s best players increases your odds of wining. The first three hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup are all current and former MVPs. Two of them have exceedingly long contracts. That’s the price of doing business with top talent.

The Yankees’ trio of Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton couldn’t hang with the Dodgers’ trio because Judge was such a zero, but remove Soto from the trio and you have a soon-to-be, 33-year-old Judge and a 35-year-old Stanton. Who becomes the third member of the trio? Alonso? Please, no. Anthony Volpe? Please hold your laughter. Austin Wells? Doubtful.

As of right now, the Yankees’ 2025 Opening Day position players will be Wells at catcher, either DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera or Ben Rice at first base, either LeMahieu, Cabrera, Jazz Chisholm or Caleb Durbin at second base, either Chisholm, LeMahieu or Cabrera at third base, Volpe at shortstop, Dominguez in left field, Grisham in center field and Judge in right field with Stanton as the designated hitter. I don’t know that a lineup featuring only those names keeps the Yankees’ consecutive season winning streak going.

6. We know what the Yankees are without Soto: a postseason-less team. We saw that in the last season without Soto in 2023. Without Soto in 2024, they certainly don’t win the division, and maybe aren’t a postseason team for the second straight year? It was Soto and Stanton who carried the Yankees in the ALDS and ALCS. It was Soto who had a 1.373 OPS against the Guardians and a 1.084 OPS against the Dodgers in the World Series. While Mr. May was striking out every at-bat, Soto hit the way he hit all year. He hit the way he has hit his entire career. Because there is no difference between regular-season Soto and postseason Soto. For the truly great ones, which he is, there is never a difference between their regular-season numbers and their postseason numbers.

Even more so, Soto cares deeply about winning, even for someone who has already won. It was Soto sitting in the dugout by himself staring out at the field watching the Dodgers celebrate their World Series win, while the rest of the Yankees had retreated to the clubhouse to listen to their manager (who still has never won anything as a player or manager) tell them how proud he is that they were embarrassed in the World Series, producing the single-worst defensive inning in the history of the Fall Classic.

7. How much is Cohen going to pay Soto? In my opinion, let him go and use the money to make a more rounded team. – Mike

To me, Soto is either going to sign with the Yankees or the Mets.

Last week, Hal said, “I’ve got ears. I know what’s expected of me.” I don’t know that Hal actually knows what’s expected of him, but we’re going to find out. The Yankees generate more revenue than any other team, and yet, they aren’t even in the top half of the league in terms of revenue-to-payroll ratio.

If the Yankees offer X and the Mets also offer X and Soto signs with the Mets, well there’s nothing you can do about it. (In that event, I wouldn’t walk away from the Yankees.) If the money is equal and Soto leaves, so be it, what can do you do? But if the Mets outbid the Yankees then that’s unacceptable. If you’re not going to go out of your way to sign Soto, who are you going to go out of your way to sign?

8. How did Boone manage to garner a second-place vote for AL Manager of the year? – Floyd

Knowing that the Yankees’ lack of ability to situationally hit and poor fundamentals keep getting exposed, what is being done to address the one defines that are the clearest weakness of this franchise? – Mark

Let’s lump these two together since they both have to do with the manager.

The first one is easy: Someone who never watches the Yankees play or is lazy or a combination of both voted for Boone.

As for the second one: Nothing is being done. It’s about accountability, which is a concept Boone doesn’t believe in.

Do you know why the Yankees love Boone and love “playing for him?” Because there is no accountability. Who doesn’t love a boss who doesn’t care about performance, production or results? Boone is the boss everyone in every job in every industry dreams of.

Boone doesn’t hold his players accountable because he isn’t held accountable by Brian Cashman, who isn’t held accountable by Hal, who doesn’t hold anyone accountable because the Yankees aren’t something he purchased because he achieved extraordinary wealth after a lifetime of hard work and smart business decisions.

After 2023, Steinbrenner said the season was “unacceptable” and then didn’t fire a single employee. Cashman has blown through more than $3 billion of payroll over the last 15 years while producing one embarrassing World Series appearance. Boone has a litany of performance-related excuses for his players after every single game and those players spend all season talking about tomorrow until there are no more tomorrows and then they talk about next year. Boone mentioned already looking forward to next year in his statement after his option was picked up. Hal said last week he is looking to talk about an extension with Boone. Why? Because the Yankees beat up on the AL Central in the postseason and reached the World Series before getting beat up themselves by a non-AL Central team? What does it say about accountability that the entire Boone era has been a collective disappointment and the owner is ready to extend him and go against the no-extension policy within the organization?

Can you imagine the Yankees running back a Boone-led team, but without Soto in 2025? It’s not only dangerously close to happening, it’s more likely to happen than it is to not because free agency is crazy and all it takes is one team out of nowhere to come in with some absurd offer and Soto is gone.

9. Soto is the last player of his caliber to ever reach free agency. Every young player is taking the double-digit year deals for the nine-figure payouts years before they can reach free agency. In the summer of 2022, Soto turned down a $440 million offer from the Nationals. Sure, he’s going to blow past that number now, but it’s hard to think anyone else would be willing to turn down nearly half a billion dollars.

It would be one thing if the Yankees could produce great everyday talent or recognize the right free agents to sign. That would make missing out on Soto hurt much less and even acceptable. But look around the field and aside from Judge, the rest of the non-Soto players were signed as free agents, acquired through trades, are busts or unknowns. The Yankees’ two top prospects right now are Dominguez, who they didn’t want to play over Verdugo in the playoffs, and Spencer Jones who is a month younger than Volpe and couldn’t even muster an .800 OPS in Double-A this year. Soto just spent a year with the Yankees and is familiar with their young talent, and it’s why he likely questioned player development when the Yankees visited him in California.

10. Everyone expects Soto to make a decision during the Winter Meetings which begin two weeks from today. I wish he would do it earlier than that. I just want to know where he’s going, so I can know where I’m going. I don’t want to walk away from the Yankees and baseball, but without Soto I don’t see another option, knowing Cashman and Boone aren’t going anywhere.

Is Soto going to spend the rest of his career in the Bronx or elsewhere? Am I going to spend six-plus months a year watching and writing about the Yankees or is it time to learn a language or an instrument? As of now, I can’t help but feel like when the Yankees open against the Brewers on March 27 at Yankee Stadium I’ll be spending the afternoon playing the saxophone and speaking Italian.