Today's line from Tampa: Yanks too penniless to afford Boone Logan

To hear the chatter, the Yankees are not asking all that much for Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury or Chase Headley. We'll trade them anywhere - even to Uncle Buck in Baltimore - for a top 10 prospect and a handful of magic beans. We'll pay a chunk of their salaries, throw in a strand of Christmas lights and maybe get their owner in for a photo op with Donnie Landslide. (Note: Does anyone not believe that Trump only met with Kanye yesterday because he expected Kim to be there, too?) If we can jettison Brett, Jake or Chase... or all three... joy! rapture! happiness! We can afford to sign Boone Logan!

That's the line we're supposed to swallow today: The mighty New York Yankees - richest team on the planet - cannot afford the great Boone Logan - (2-5 last year with a 3.65 ERA in Colorado.) Says Joel Sherman in the Murdoch Post:

The Yankees... are interested in setup men such as Boone Logan and Brad Ziegler. But Hal Steinbrenner continues to mandate lowering payroll in 2017 to give the team an opportunity to get under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold for 2018.

Yep. To take on a salary, we must shed salary. The most telling line in Sherman's story is that it's like selling your current house before you can buy a new one. Surely, that's an analogy Hal Steinbrenner understand, while he juggles credit cards to pay that Time-Warner bill.

Once again, I stand here amazed at how easily, how effortlessly, the owners won this war. They upped prices on game tickets and cable TV rights, gouged the fan base, paid off the players union and installed de facto salary caps. It's brilliant, really. The fans pay the tab, and the rich get richer. Across America, the owners own... and the Yankees can't afford Boone Logan.

Look... I'm not pretending to be moralistic here. I'm not a Che, a Bernie or even a Schumer. (Amy, of course.) I'm a slob. I'm whining not because the EPA is about to be disbanded, or my health insurance will soon disappear, but because at the end of all this madness, the New York Fucking Yankees cannot afford Boone Fucking Logan. Nope. We are supposed to wait patiently until the winter of 2018, when our goal then will be to reduce the team payroll below the magical number of $189 million - so Owner Hal can flip his double-wide. Got that? This year, we'll root for Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin, et al - (and we will, of course)  - not because the Yankees will win anything... but because they are cheap! The battle here is not to take the 2017 World Series - no, no, no - it's for Hal to get below his SELF-IMPOSED spending limit, so he doesn't have to pay luxury taxes. (Remember: it's not a salary cap; those were rejected, and it's not collusion - that was outlawed.)

If we're lucky, next winter, after we've cleared the decks of CC, A-Rod and the entire cast of The Walking Dead, we will achieve that magical number... or maybe we can trade Brett Gardner - a great, just and loyal Yankee - for a bucket of fried chicken. And then, only then, we can afford - gulp - Boone Logan. It sound's like a Satanic chant: booneloganbooneloganboonelogan...

Well... you know what? This is one hostage situation I plan to sit out. Truth be told, I don't give a chirping godddamm whether we sign Boone Frickin' Logan. If he goes elsewhere, I can live with that. One of these days, a Nick from Scranton - Goody, Rumbelow, whatever - will become a serviceable bullpen cog, and we won't have to worry about who pitches the sixth. But it doesn't matter anymore. The owners won. Everything. They don't just own our baseball team. They own us.