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.

El Duque was always my favorite Yankees pitcher. His first start for the Yankees came on June 3, 1998 when I was 11 years old and at the end of sixth grade. His high leg kick, the way he changed speeds and the way he pitched in big games helped mold me into the fan I am today.

When I heard there would be an ESPN 30 for 30 titled Brothers in Exile on El Duque and his brother Livan Hernandez, I treated it with the hype and anticipation I have to see Dumber and Dumber To. And because it was a pleasant trip down memory lane to when the Yankees won every year coming off this miserable season, I decided to write down my thoughts as I watched how El Duque got to the Yankee Stadium mound on June 3, 1998.

– The El Duque leap over the base line is an every-fifth-day moment I miss. His half-jog/half-spring to the mound and back to the dugout each inning as if he couldn’t wait to get out there and pitch and get the next inning moving so he could get back out there again is also missed.

– Since I don’t speak Spanish and a lot of the documentary is in Spanish with subtitles, it makes it hard to write down everything. And with Time Warner Cable’s DVR being as reliable as CC Sabathia will be in 2015, there’s a lot of starting and stopping and fast forwarding and rewinding going on when El Duque speaks. This makes me realize how poor of a decision it was to have him in the booth this season on YES where he was asked question after question by Michael Kay, who had no sense of how difficult it was for El Duque to understand English and produce an English answer, even as Paul O’Neill kept bailing him out. I wouldn’t expect anything better from Michael Kay as the lead of a broadcast team.

– I wonder if El Duque still has the No. 40 Yankees jersey someone in Cuba gave him that he wore all the time. Seeing that put a cherry on top of his Yankees career as did him saying, “I was a Yankees fan and that’s the team I wanted to play for.”

– Brian Cashman missed on Hideki Irabu and if Gordon Blakeley hadn’t convinced him that El Duque was worth signing, the Yankees probably don’t win the 1998 World Series and who knows about the 1999 and 2000 World Series. Thank you, Gordon Blakley and sorry to see you go to Atlanta this offseason.

– El Duque getting $6.6 million as a stud international free agent has to be the best bargain of all time when you consider what the Yankees got in return on their investment. Four years after El Duque’s deal, Jose Contreras got a four-year, $32 million deal from the Yankees. Nine years after El Duque’s deal, Kei Igawa got a five-year, $20 million deal from the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka made $22 million in 2014 and will again in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

– On the day of El Duque’s MLB debut on June 3, 1998 at Yankee Stadium, they show his locker in the clubhouse and whose locker and nameplate is right next to his? Homer Bush! Aside from having no power (11 home runs in 1,377 career plate appearances), Bush did hit .348/.389/.416 in 64 games for the Yankees over three seasons and did contribute two stolen bases in the 1998 playoffs.

– Joe Torre said, “I was a little skeptical because I didn’t know what kind of command he had” going into that debut and El Duque posted the following line: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR. After the performance, Torre said, “He could pretty much put the ball wherever he wanted to.”

– It brings back memories to see the Yankees on MSG rather than YES and Al Trautwig doing the pregame and postgame shows and Ken Singleton and Jim Kaat alone in the booth. Can we go back to a Michael Kay-less booth? Give the lead play-by-play to Singleton and rotate the others in. Please?

– Bill Madden questioning whether El Duque would be able to handle the pressure of pitching in New York and in the postseason after El Duque had been harassed by the Cuban government, put his life on the line by defecting the country, ended up on an island for four days with no sign of being rescued and then needing a Hail Mary from agent Joe Cubas to work out to be given freedom says a lot about Bill Madden.

I believe what made El Duque the ultimate postseason pitcher was that the idea of pitching in the playoffs was a joke to him when it came to pressure and an insult to the word “pressure”. He could have easily lost his life trying to leave Cuba and if he had been caught, his life would have been over anyway as he would have spent the rest of it in jail. He sacrificed the chance of never seeing his children and family ever again and left his entire life behind him to come to the United States. I’m pretty sure facing Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome in a baseball game didn’t exactly faze him.

– Brian Cashman refers to the Indians as the odds-on favorite in the 1998 ALCS with a 2-1 series lead. That’s clearly Cashman just downplaying the situation as he does with every player or game considering the Yankees went 114-48 and the Indians went 89-73. We don’t need to downplay everything, Cashman. I’m sure if the Yankees were to trade for Mike Trout today, Cashman would say, “We’re getting an average defender who can hit for contact with a little bit of power, but his ceiling isn’t that high.”

– I remember reading about Joe Torre saying how calm El Duque was on the morning of Game 4 knowing that a loss would likely lead to the end of the Yankees’ season and I was able to find a quote from Torre referencing that day.

“I saw El Duque at a buffet luncheon at the hotel, and he was passing out plates of food to people as if he was one of the waiters. He seemed pretty relaxed to me.”

Apparently El Duque was relaxed because here is his line from the Game 4 start: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K.

That ALCS Game 4 start helped continue the late-90s Yankees dynasty as the Yankees would win three straight games in the series to advance to the World Series (and win four straight there). Had El Duque not done what he did in Cleveland, the Yankees trail 3-1 in the series and are likely one championship less and that 114-win regular season is remembered much differently.

– El Duque made 14 playoff starts from the Yankees from 1998-2002 and 2004 and went 9-2 including an 8-0 start to that record. Here is his line from those 14 starts: 90.1 IP, 70 H, 30 R, 28 ER, 51 BB, 93 K, 8 HR, 2.99 ERA, 1.340 WHIP.

He also made three relief appearances from the Yankees (one in Game 5 of the 2000 ALDS and two in the 2002 ALDS). Here is his line in relief (he took the loss in Game 3 of the 2001 ALCS): 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2 HR, 2.70 ERA, 0.890 WHIP.

– It was fitting that El Duque started and won the clinching game of the World Series a year after his brother helped the Marlins to the World Series while El Duque was still in Cuba listening to the Marlins win over the Indians on a radio. His line from Game 4: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K.

– Ricky Ledee gets a hit in the footage of Game 4 of the World Series and Joe Buck says, “There’s another hit for Ledee.” Ledee went 6-for-10 with three doubles and four RBIs in the series. I miss the days of role players on the Yankees getting big hits and overachieving and never have I missed them more than after a year of Brian Roberts, Kelly Johnson and Stephen Drew.

– The documentary doesn’t show any El Duque highlights from after 1998, but I will always remember how fun he was to watch pitch in 2004, going 8-2 with a 3.30 ERA in his return. (He could have had more than eight wins, but got a no-decision in a seven-inning shutout, 10-strikeout game and another no-decision in a six-inning, two-run game.) He started Game 4 of the ALCS and would have earned the series-clinching win if not for some ninth-inning comeback that I vaguely remember happening.

– The following fall in 2005, I was in Boston at college on a Friday (Oct. 7) waiting to go home for Columbus Day Weekend and go to Game 4 of the Yankees-Angels ALDS. I was watching Game 3 of the Red Sox-White Sox ALDS. The White Sox led the series 2-0 and in the bottom of the sixth, the Red Sox trailed 4-3 with the bases loaded and no outs after Damaso Marte couldn’t retire any of the three hitters he faced (single, walk, walk). El Duque came in to relieve Marte. He got Jason Varitek to pop out in foul territory. Then he got Tony Graffanino to pop out to short. And then in a full count against Johnny Damon, he struck him out swinging on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. El Duque returned in the seventh to pitch a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and came back out for the eighth and pitched around a two-out single.

El Duque went into the worst kind of jam there is against the defending champions and . It brought a smile to my face, not only because he ended the Red Sox’ season, but because he was doing what he had always done: pitched his best when it mattered the most. He was just doing it for another team even though he should have only ever done it for the Yankees.