The free agent "I wanna play for the Yankees" dilemma

Arizona free agent Patrick Corbin graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse High School, alma mater of Breanna Stewart, the greatest basketball player in history. He grew up in a hotbed of Yankeeslamic radicals (though this will change next summer, when the Mets become mother ship to the Triple A Syracuse Chiefs.) Corbin - age 29 and a lefty - supposedly wants to fulfill his adolescent wet dreams and become a Yankee.

Should we let him?

Spoiler alert: I dunno. But this we do know: The guy threw 200 innings last year with an ERA of 3.17. That beats anything our "ace," Luis Severino, achieved, though let's remember that it happened in the NL desert, where rally-killing pitchers come to bat, and specifically in Arizona, where Carl Pavano once flourished. I hate to mention Pavano - the human cyanide tablet of a memory - but, hey, history is history, and he's the last big pitcher we cropped from Arizona. 

You can't help but fear that Corbin would be the latest in the conga line of Yankee pitchers past their sell dates - in this case, having thrown nearly 400 innings over the last two years. Even if he's not Pavano, he sure looks like Javier Vazquez. He could want a five-year deal. Would we bite?

Remember: He wants to pitch for the Yankees.

Assume sigh here.

What do we do when players target the Yankees as their fantasy destination? If it means a discount, well, count me in. (Then again, I will always favor players over the owners, whose staggering amounts of money don't even get reported to us.) Because this winter - be it truth or bullshit - some big names SEEM to want to be Yankees.

First, there is Bryce Harper, who famously grew up a Yankee diehard. In our fantasies, he has been biding his time with the Capitals, waiting to become a free agent, so he can relive those first Yankee boyhood erections. Tomorrow, Harper turns 26. (I looked it up.) After a terrible first-half slump this year, he ended up with 34 HRs, 100 RBIs and batted .249 - (almost exactly Giancarlo's numbers) - though they fell 70 points below his 2017 season (also similar to Stanton.) If we added Harper, we could have four outfielders with more than 30 HRs next year! (And we could also lose in the first round for lack of pitching.) 

But wait, then there is Manny Machado, who has made no secret of his desire to be a Yankee. In fact, a relative this summer publicly stated that Manny wants to play in the Bronx. Machado, 26, hit 37 HRs this year and batted .297 for the O's and Dodgers. It's worth noting that his hottest period came in Baltimore, where the Orioles were practically eliminated on May 1, and that Machado has been noticeably jogging out grounders in the NLCS, which is galling. Unless there is a reason - and a damned good one - I'd hope the Yankees walk away from Machado. We had one jogger this summer. It almost took us down.  

But wait... we're not done. J.A. Happ says he would love to stay with the Yankees, and so does Zach Britton, and so does Andrew McCutcheon - though, let's be real: They all could simply be trying to induce Food Stamps Hal into a bidding war. It's smart to seduce the Yankees. 

Under old George, the Yankees could be swayed. Remember how Hideki Irabu refused to go to San Diego, because he dreamed of pitching for the Yankees? Same thing happened - sort of, anyway - with Jason Giambi. And then with A-Rod, after he jumped ship and profusely apologized. He wanted to be a Yankee, so all was forgiven... and we gave him the disastrous 10-year deal.

In Hal's tenure, the Yankees have been less likely to bite, simply because a player says nice things. But this is going to be a wild winter. Boston might well be world champions - their dominance can no longer be debated - and Hal has no excuse, flimsy as it was to begin with, over luxury taxes. The Yankees will be expected to shell out. I want zeros on the checks, baby! Big zeros on the checks! But I don't care who loved us growing up.