Every January, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman aims to take a vacation, his one and only real, extended vacation of the year. In a lot of winters, his vacation is either postponed -- to never -- or it's truncated because of the seemingly year-round fretting that accompanies his particular position.
But now that Gerrit Cole has landed in the Yankees' universe, Cashman is free to leave. Heck, maybe Cole will provide a private jet for Cashman and family to Bora Bora or Bermuda or Cabo or wherever he wants to go. Now that the Yankees have landed their ace, the rest is merely cleanup.
As one rival executive involved in the Cole sweepstakes said, it's not as if the Yankees would have had a bad rotation without the right-hander. But with the best pitcher on the planet in pinstripes -- No. 45, presumably, after Luke Voit smartly hands over the jersey for a favor -- the rotation lines up neatly.
No. 1: Cole
No. 2: Luis Severino
No. 3: James Paxton
No. 4: Masahiro Tanaka
No. 5: Domingo German/Jordan Montgomery/Deivi Garcia, etc.
This could be the best rotation in baseball to go with perhaps the best offense and the best and deepest bullpen.
J.A. Happ will be moved in a trade at cost, with the Yankees perhaps eating some money or attaching a secondary prospect. No one in the fan base will fret over those bits of dollars squandered. Not with Cole in the anchor role, which was almost needed more for 2021 and beyond than for 2020 because Tanaka and Paxton are both eligible for free agency next winter.
The Yankees will need to sign a catcher for depth, behind Gary Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka, but the good thing for the Yankees is there are many, many unsigned catchers, including the guy they know and like, Austin Romine.
They'll need to identify a starting shortstop now that Didi Gregorius has moved on, but remember, they're completely comfortable with Gleyber Torres at the position. Torres played 65 games at short for Aaron Boone during a 103-win season. The Yankees could go with Torres at short and DJ LeMahieu at second, or they could cheaply sign one of the many middle infielders available and keep LeMahieu in the super-utility role in which he thrived last season.
The Yankees could flip some of their corner infield depth for young pitching to backfill some of the need that will develop whenever Tanaka and Paxton move on. But Cashman doesn't have to do that immediately. He could go into spring training prepared to play some combination of Voit, Gio Urshela and Miguel Andujar at first and third base, with Urshela at third, in all likelihood. The Yankees have great respect for what Andujar accomplished in his rookie season in 2018, when he clubbed 76 extra-base hits in 149 games, carried the lineup for stretches and earned great appreciation for character widely revered within the organization. They got Cole for cash, so there is no pressing need to dangle Andujar as a chip.
The Yankees will re-sign veteran outfielder Brett Gardner at some point, working out a price, because there's no way Gardner, who has spent his long baseball life with the Yankees, will want to miss out on the potential for another championship in 2020. The Yankees have Aaron Judge, Gardner, Mike Tauchman and Giancarlo Stanton in their outfield mix. They could take advantage of whatever trade value Clint Frazier has to add pitching.
They might add a piece to the bullpen cheaply, something they tend to do effectively.
But all the heavy lifting was finished the moment Cole said yes to their record-setting proposal. Cashman would be the first to say he doesn't have the best complexion for tanning, which is fine, but this might be his best chance in his adult life to coat on the SPF 50, lie in the sand and dream of spring training. With a lot of backing from the Steinbrenner family's bank account, except for roster pruning and tweaking, Cashman's winter work is done.