Dear Mr. Steinbrenner: Thank you for salvaging last year's runner-up team. Now what?

Dear Sir, 

Along with shaker cheese, here's another travel tip for your Italian vacation: 

Pinch the women! They love it! Especially the young, artsy-looking ones. The type who carry library books. Give a big. old, American nobble - a fanny tweak, a titty-twist, a cabbage grab! They'll know you to be a thoughtful, caring U.S. tourist, an ambassador of good will...

And speaking of good will, I have a thought:

The Yankees cannot trade their way to a championship. 

You tried last winter. We obtained Donaldson, IKF and that weightlifter catcher who fell apart. It didn't work. In fact, it haunted us all year. 

We cannot trade our way to a championship.

Right now, our main 2023 trade chip would be Gleyber, and I doubt he'll bring much, beyond a bullpen arm. We'll get nothing for Donaldson, next to nothing for Giancarlo, and the brother of next to nothing for DJ - all of whom are compromised by the weight of untenable contracts. Thus, we end up packaging them with prospects.

Have you seen the news back stateside? Fred McGriff has been elected to the Hall of Fame. A great one. Nearly 500 career HRs. 

We traded the Crime Dog for Dale Murray. Let that sink in. Dale Murray. Actually, we threw in Dave Collins and Mike Morgan, and the Blue Jays gave us Dale Murray and Tom Dodd.

McGriff's ascension should remind us of what inevitably happens whenever a team gets addicted to trading prospects. 

Imagine the 1980s if the Yankees hadn't traded McGriff, Doug Drabek, Al Leiter, Mike Lowell and Willie McGee... 

Listen: Our damnation may already be in stone. Before we deal away another youngster, let's take stock what we've already sent out the door. (OF Kevin Alcantara - a 6'6" Judgian giant - is now the Cubs' #3 ranked prospect, and pitcher Hayden Wisnewsk is #12 - just to name one trading partner.) We may have already screwed ourselves for the next decade. 

Sir, what I'm getting to is this: 

You are going to have to spend money. 

You are going to have to land a couple big free agents. Not just one. Several. They will be expensive. You might have to outbid the Mets. The tabloids will bark about all the money being spent. They'll Photoshop your face on dollar bills. It will get crazy.

But this is no time to deal more prospects. 

Do that, and one of these days, it will be you who gets pinched.