The new con has already begun.

 

When management decides to spill the negotiating details with any player, the implication is clear: they don't want him.

Aaron Judge gets that, as was clear at his press conference the other day, conducted in as close to gritted teeth as the California Redwood ever grits. He was surprised and clearly unhappy that Brian Cashman had leaked the details of the Yankees' final offer, because he understood full well what was going on. 

The sheer totals of the money thrown around in such negotiations are staggering, of course—and immediately kill any and all sympathy for the player in question.  

Thirty million a year for eight years? What idiot greedhead would ever turn that down???

And general managers like Cashman can always count on sportswriters—never noted for their industry—to simply print the whopping total. You will never see them put the amounts in any context, by writing the likes of, "Thirty million a year—or the equivalent of 10 Yankees luxury boxes," or whatever it may be.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of perfectly rational reasons not to offer Aaron Judge $30 mill a year for eight years, or anything like that. 

It's just that only a few weeks ago, the Yankees weren't telling us any of those reasons.

Instead, we were informed—over and over again, through convenient leaks in the press and through social media—that we absolutely HAD to re-sign "Beloved Yankee Aaron Judge." It was, of course, the reason why the Yankees could not possibly fill a gaping hole by signing any of the College of Shortstops who became available as free agents this last offseason, headed by Carlos Correa.

Of course, back in the long-ago days of 2019-2020, we were informed that we could not possibly sign the likes of Bryce Harper, or Manny Machado, or Patrick Corbin, or J.T.L. Realmuto because, well, there were all these great free-agents shortstops who were going to be hitting the free-agent market!

 

...Pretty much any one of whom would have won your New York Yankees another 2-3 rings...

Anybody else seeing a pattern here? 

But wait! The biggest lie of all is yet to come. In fact, it's already in development.

Just four days ago, a blog called "Fansided" ran the remarkable scoop that "MLB insider predicts Juan Soto megatrade to Yankees' evil empire."

https://fansided.com/2022/04/04/juan-soto-trade-rumors-yankees/

Wow, just the sort of headline that used to make our pulses race, don'tcha know!

And a real "major-league insider" was even produced, former GM-turned-"baseball analyst" Jim Bowden. According to Bowden, the Nats will fail to ink Soto to their own mega-offer, and thus "will trade him to the Yankees on Dec. 29 for a package of seven prospects that includes their [our] best prospect, Anthony Volpe."

An oddly specific prediction, that, for something that is supposed to happen over 8 months from now. 

But sure, it could happen. Washington could trade the 23-year-old superstar who finished second in the NL MVP race last year for a guy who until this year has never played for a team higher than the Hudson Valley Renegades, or batted over .302 in a season.

Of course, it also could be that we'll all have to buy industrial-strength umbrellas, to avoid the copious qualities of porcine excretions that will be falling on us once pigs learn to fly on Dec. 29. But somehow, I doubt it.

Folks, this is the start of the next propaganda campaign, to justify the steady tightening of the HAL purse strings. Don't fall for it.