It's always been a matter of Hal

After you've heard lie after lie
There can hardly be a question of why...
—Billy Joel

While all the world wonders if the Yanks can outspend the deep-pocketed Twins or Braves to sign Dallas Keuchel for a year or two, it's worth noting just how many top pitchers our boys in the Bronx have failed to sign in similar quests over the past few years.

There was Max Scherzer, for instance, not only one of the top hurlers in the majors lo these past five seasons but also an outstanding big-game pitcher.

No.  We couldn't beat out the Washington Nationals for his services.

Justin Verlander?  Nope.  Instead, we had to watch him become the MVP of the 2017 ALCS against us, allowing just 1 run in 16 innings.

Chris Sale?  Uh-uh.  We all know where he went.

Signing just one of the above would likely have given us two straight rings going into this season.  Signing two would have made it a lead-pipe cinch.

Why didn't we?

Oh, various lies explanations were handed out left and right.  We didn't have the proper collection of pocket lint the Tigers would accept for Verlander, and besides Coops liked the upside of a younger Sonny Gray better.  And what did we have to make that Sale with the White Sox?

What it all comes down to, though, is money.

Not the money of the New York Yankees, which is so abundant that after each game the cleaning crew sweeps up stray benjamins that are so abundant in the team vaults that they seep up like groundwater through the innumerable cracks left in the shoddy pile that is Yankee Stadium III.

I mean Hal's money, and Hank's money, and the money of all the little Steinbrenners through the generations to come, which is not to be touched no matter how many championships graze the tips of our outstretched fingers.

We couldn't get Sale because we "couldn't" outbid the BoSox for Yoan...well, I won't complete that fearful name.

We preferred Sonny to Verlander because his girlfriend is better looking.  Kidding, kidding!  That would be impossible.

No, again it was the money.  And so it was for Scherzer, and so it was for Corbin—not that he's really in the same league as the big three above.

Point being, while Cooperstown Cashman is a magic-bean-buying fool when it comes to pitchers of almost any sort, young or old, there is a clear, overriding pattern here.

The Yankees are just not going to take a risk on an established star, no matter what his credentials.  Even though, in the contemporary game, it seems that the most reliable starting pitchers are those who have got through the crucible of the early, arm-killing years.

Keuchel may—MAY—be desperate enough, here in June, to settle for whatever absurdly low amount Hal has decided to let Coops bid for him.  But don't count on it.  If the Twins or the Braves bid him up, we can count on many more "openings" from Chad Green still to come.

Can big money for the big arms go wrong?  Sure, it does all the time.  Starting pitchers make race horses look like dependable investments.

It's beginning to look like Boston's $68-million gamble on Nathan Eovaldi may not pay out, and even their enormous plays for "Dickweed Dave" Price (7 years, $217 million) and Rick Porcello (5 years, $95 mill) begin to look overpriced.

But for whom?  The fans who already got 1 World Series ring from these signings, 3 straight division championships, and the hope of how many more?  The Boston franchise, which is probably more highly valued than ever before?

The Red Sox are run for that corporate entity, "the Red Sox," which—as the Yankees USED to do—looks to further enrich itself and popularize its brand by winning, and bringing ineffable joy to its many followers.

The New York Yankees are all about enhancing the future prosperity of Hal and his family of Cleveland-spawned warthogs.