By Chris Trentacosta
It has been 12 years since the New York Yankees have won a World Series. In fact, the Yankees have not even won a pennant since 2009, the year of their last World Series win. 12 years without a championship marks the third longest World Series drought in the history of the New York Yankees franchise. Therefore, it is evident that something must be done this off-season, in order to turn it around.
It was thought that the Yankees would look to one of the superstar, free-agent shortstops that were available this winter. With Corey Seager and Javier Baez already signing elsewhere, it has began to look as if the Yankees have lost a step. Sure stars like Carlos Correa and Trevor Story are still available, teams are throwing money at players that they want, right away, while the Yankees sit back and watch them fall off the board. Is this part of some plan that Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman are planning, or are is the once Evil Empire, not so evil anymore.
In addition, Major League Baseball is now in a lockout. The Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and owners has expired which has basically put a pause on the off-season and may affect the regular season’s start date as well. This means no free agents will be signed. Teams like the the Texas Rangers, the New York Mets, and Detroit Tigers decided to do a lot of signings prior to the inevitable lockout, and they got a lot of big name players because of it. Now the Yankees are in a tough spot. They need a shortstop. They need pitching. They need to resign Aaron Judge, the face of their franchise, and a lockout is not going to help any of this get done any quicker.
Chris Trentacosta 