Is Headley this year's Drew, and why are we trapped in a torturous time loop?

Last year, Yankee 2B Stephen Drew - (age 32) - hit .177 in April and .143 in May. (I looked it up.) His fielding was spotty; he was still learning the position. But he was a Cashman Catch, picked from the scrap pile for only $5 million, and fans were constantly assured - (or "YESsed," as they should say) - that any day now, Drew would explode like a 7-Eleven in Alberta.

And he did! In June, Drew hit a scorching .230.

He finished the season at .201, recovering from a bad hop that forced the Bronx Boredoms to play The Man Who Is Not There - Rob Refsnyder - in their one-game, three-hit, pre-playoff, Wild Card date with nothingness. Basically, we burned an entire year, waiting on Drew. We might as well have been waiting on Amelia Earhart.

Well, Drew is gone. This year, in Washington, he is hitting .143. Apparently, 2015 was not an aberration. He simply cannot adjust to defensive over-shifts. His line drives get caught. Maybe someday, he'll change. I wish him the best. End of story.

No... wait! It's not the end! Drew is not gone. He just turned into Chase Headley - (age 32) - who is now hitting .171.

Last night, Headley recorded his first RBI since mid-April. (He has two.) They should have stopped the game for a ceremony. The best thing to be said about Headley in 2016 is that his throws to first are no longer sailing into the Hudson River, as they did last July and August. Once again, we are waiting on a player with the growing, discomforting sense that he is beyond his sell-date and that we are burning another season - the Yankee way, during this decade.

Like Drew, who came from a disastrous year in Boston, we are waiting for Headley to find a form that was long lost in San Diego. When traded to us in 2014, he was hitting .229 with six HRs - (and the year before, he hit : .243, with only 13). For that, we will pay him $13 million this year - and next year, and the year after that. (And, of course, Refsnyder - Baseball America's 2014 All-Star 2B for Triple A - remains in Scranton, now playing - you guessed it - 3B.)

So it goes. Deja vu, all over again. We are trapped in a time loop.

Listen: This is what drives Yankee fans frickin' nuts. Our owner announces that he won't take on any more big contracts, because he wants to lower luxury taxes. So he sits on free agents like Max Scherzer, or David Price or Robbie Cano - or Yoan Moncaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaa - and then he bungees us to Headley's dorsal fin for the next four years. He clutches the pennies in his purse, and then pisses $52 million on a guy who been on the decline since 2012.

Of course, the Retrieval Empire hasn't developed a decent MLB thirdbaseman since Mike Lowell, whom Cashman traded in 1999 for three bingo cards named Todd Noel, Mark Johnson and Ed Yarnell. And we don't have anyone now in the pipeline. Meanwhile, for the Redsocks, Moncada is hitting .321 in Salem, playing beside a 21-year-old SS who is hitting .354. Boston has young prospects throughout their system, while our Double A team has more burnouts than Ft. McMurray. (Cito Culver, Dante Bichette Jr., Tyler Austin, et al...) And we will spend 2016 waiting for Headley.

Don't get me wrong. I hope the guy hits. But does this merry-go-round ever end?