When Tex goes down, it's time to go nuclear with juju

One of these days, Mark Teixeira will blast a line drive double to the gap in right-center, exactly where the defense has positioned their fielder, and as the Yankee 1B retreats to the dugout, he will seem to be staring at his Jumbotron portrait and .193 average. In fact, he won't be staring at anything. His neck will have turned to stone, like those gray scale men in Game of Thrones, and the 2016 Yankees will be heading into Overbay Overdrive.

We will be setting the Wayback to 2013, the season when Tex walloped 3 HRs and drove in 12 - precisely his current numbers. (He's batting 30 points higher than the .158 he managed that year.)

If you haven't successfully blotted it from memory, 2013 was the year of Lyle Overbay, a generally pleasant and over-achieving soul, who was plucked from the scrap heap and who turned in a serviceable season for a team going nowhere. Overbay hit 14 HRs and batted .240 - the kind of numbers that would rile us from Headleys or Jacobys, but with Overbay - hey, it was hard to get angry. (Also, he gave us some clutch hits along the way.)

Somewhere out there is the next Yankee Overbay, and my guess is that it's only a matter of time before Teixeira's neck issue demands a DL vacation. You don't mess around with neck issues, and they don't just magically go away.

Yesterday, the Yankees lost their backup 1B - Dustin Ackley - who wasn't hitting or fielding particularly well. Now, they're talking about the backup catcher, Austin Romine playing 1B. Of course, down in Scranton, Nick Swisher is surely taking his cellphone into the shower, fearful of missing the call. It would be a nice homecoming, Swisher returning to the place of his greatest triumphs. Folks will cheer like he's 29. But he's 36, and the knees are 80.

Listen: Desperate times call for desperate juju.

I say we empty the juju tank: We trade for Michael Pineda to Toronto for Jesus H. Montero, the lost savior, who is now playing 1B for the Buffalo Bisons. A straight-up deal, a karmic end to one of the greatest nothing trades in baseball history. And to those who would say we're giving up a major league starting pitcher for a Triple A firstbaseman, I say, just wait 'till Toronto gets a few starts from Pineda, and then let's see.

In his last 10 games, Montero is hitting .349 with 2 HRs. (For the season, he's hitting .306, with five.) He's 26. He's no longer eating ice cream sandwiches. He's eaten a lot of crow. If we have the choice of bringing back Swisher and/or Jesus, I'll take the guy 10 years younger. And it wouldn't bother me to see Pineda consistently enticing - and then disappointing - somebody else. We'll be in Overbay Overdrive, anyway.