The re-enactment of 2013 is taking shape: In Kendrys Morales, the Yankees just brought in Pronk

If you were forced to pick the absolute worst season in this Yankee decade of despair, 2013 would be a good bet. It was the year of Lyle Overbay, Jayson Nix, Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner, an eight-month colonoscopy which ended in us finishing third in the AL East, without even a wild card birth to show for our pain. But here's a fun fact: On this date in 2013, that horrible year, the surprising Yanks led their division by two games, with Wells hitting .301 and looking like Comeback Player of the year! Nobody saw the iceberg dead ahead.

Thus far in 2019, the Yankees have sold one main hopeful narrative: A plucky gang of overachievers has kept the club above water, while the dream team heals from a spate of injuries that would have ruined any other franchise. It's boosted our morale, despite lineups that, at first glance, look Scranton-worthy.

Yesterday, the Death Star blinked. 

The Yankees resorted to their time-honored tradition of obtaining sluggers in the twilight of their careers, rather than give youngsters a chance to succeed. They traded a (lucky) player-to-be-named later for the 36-year-old DH, Kendrys Morales, who has hit .204 this year with Oakland. Maybe Morales has a month left, but he hasn't hit for power and average since 2015, when he was 32. 

I'm sorry, but to see him in the middle of the batting order inspires many emotions, none of which will be confused with hope. 

Yesterday's deal means: 

1. Giancarlo Stanton isn't close to returning. Somehow, he's hurt himself, again. It used to be that the upside of an injury was that the player wasn't likely to get hurt, again; thus, he'd be ready for the stretch run. That's not the Yankees. Jacoby Ellsbury has become a punch line, thanks to an endless conga line of tweaks, Greg Bird is right behind him, Luis Severino's mysterious lateral strain - while in rehab - casts a shadow on his future, and now we now know why Miami was so desperate to trade Stanton, the reigning league MVP, in the winter of 2018. The Marlins just wanted him gone. So the Yankees implicitly used Stanton's contract to justify ignoring Manny Machado and Bryce Harper this winter. Wow. Did we get taken to the cleaners, or what?

2. Mike Ford can go to hell. Poor guy. If he's lucky, he's the player to be named. He came up, hit a big HR and got a few hits, but Morales will claim the next month, no matter what. That's the difference between the Yankees of May and what's to come: Young players face repercussions for going 0-4. But the aging veteran deserves at least 200 at bats to get himself going. So Morales will DH every day, and the newbies - Clint Frazier, even? - can sit, or maybe further hone their depressions in Scranton. 

3. Not sure how this affects Luke Voit. (Bird is clearly done.) Morales is probably an even worse fielding 1B than Luke - last year with Oakland he started 23 games at 1B; two errors - so if Luke continues to slump, who's on first will become more than a comedy bit. I guess Morales can play the position, though he hadn't yet this year. I mean, on a team of DHs, we just bagged a full-timer. Wow. 

4. The worst part will be how the Yankee hype machine kicks into a Fox News election mode: As you read this, The Master is surely writing his homer holler. (Can Kendrys? Yes he can!) And the YES birdies will chirp extra hard to make this move look like what it's not: Admittance that the "no names" team is done, and we are back to normal - with a slow, slog-filled lineup of Pronks and Overbays.

Hey, you know what? The worst season of this decade of the damned... it might just be yet to come.