It's almost time for Cashman to swoop in with a new veteran

Baseball is a perpetual, 24-7, all-out trade war, featuring an arms race and tariffs on imported aluminum. It never ends, and the chained ghosts of Christmases forever haunt us. Yankee historians still debate the infamous swap of Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda, even though it was akin to trading chlamydia for herpes. (Okay, who's got the best chance for a 2018 comeback? Two weeks ago, Jesus "the Ice Cream Sandwich" signed with the Generales de Durango of the Mexican Baseball League. Meanwhile, Big Mike, "the Incredible Two-Out Meltdown," hopes to return from TJ surgery late this year with the Twinkies.) In these trade wars, Brian Cashman is the Yankee secret weapon, our predator drone, relentlessly scanning the horizon in search of an ISIS wedding party to obliterate.

Write this down: He's not done with the 2018 Yankees.

Why can I say such a thing? Easy. 

Because Cashman is never done. 

The Yankees are Cashman's team. Surely, Aaron Boone knows this more than anyone else. He's getting on-the-job training in perhaps the most difficult managing assignment in sports. He's going to do what Cashman dictates, at least for now. (This could change over the season, but Boone certainly would not challenge his boss right off the bat.)   

Currently, it looks as though two of Cashman's most recent acquisitions - Brandon Drury and Danny Espinosa - could start on opening day. 

Drury is probably a lock; Cashman traded two prospects for him, and various Gammonites quickly did their impersonations of the North Korean Olympics cheering section, heralding him as a potential breakout 3B. Meanwhile, the whisper machine revved up, suggesting that Miguel Andujar needs to experience April in Scranton, which is a way of not saying the Yankees will screw him out of an extra year of arbitration. Thus far in the small sample, Drury has hit decently - 4 for 14 (.286) with a HR. And Andujar's four homer splash happened in February. Barring injuries, Drury will play 3B on opening day.

But 2B remains a crap shoot. Espinosa - a scrap heap veteran - is 4 for 18 (.222 with a HR.) Both Tyler Wade (5 for 14) and Ronald Torreyes (4 for 10) have made a better case. (Jace Peterson, the other vet, is 1 for 9, and Thairo Estrada, the other rookie, has a bullet in his hip.) Last month, the official line was that Gleyber Torres would be the starting Yankee 2B by May 15, so anybody could handle the job for a month. But Gleyber has been a disappointment. Unless he heats up, his arrival date now looks pushed back to July 1. That means Cashman could be on the prowl.

Neil Walker, the veteran 2B, remains a free agent, and he might be feeling a bit desperate, as teams' lineups crystallize. More likely is that Cashman will look for a souped-up version of Espinosa, a veteran who doesn't make the cut on some team that decides to go with rookies. Every team has an Espinosa or two. The question is whether Wade or Torreyes can stay hot enough to secure the position. They're not just competing against each other. They're up against every sixth infielder on every roster in baseball. There's a trade war going on, and Air Cashman is up there, looking for a kill. Stand by.