Today in Cincinnati, Brian Cashman's long-term Yankee strategy of 2019 seemingly reaches a conclusion

In a wintery 10-day stretch of 2019, Brian Cashman tried a bold new strategy for elevating his pet science project, the New York Yankees. 

On Feb. 15, he signed Luis Severino, the team's looming ace, to a four-year $40 million pact. 

On Feb. 25, he secured Aaron Hicks, the apparent CF reincarnation of Bernie Williams, to seven years at $70 million.

Just like that - boom! - the Yankees had secured two future stars to cost-conscious deals, the kind of frugality adopted by small market powers, such as Tampa and Atlanta. Instead of capturing free agents on the open market, they'd sign their own rising stars to long-term deals. Cashman was a man with a plan!

And it quickly turned to shit. 

Today - Outcome Day - let's give the juju gods an A-plus for literary irony, as Severino returns and Hicks disappears, (along, perhaps, with arguments to sign Anthony Volpe or Harrison Bader to long-term deals.)

Gone is Hicksy, and - honestly, how can we not feel a pang of regret? For nine years, we cheered the guy, through ups and downs, despite a continuous rain of injuries. This season, he gave off a lingering sense of being kept around only to justify Cashman's mistake - a hole from which he could not climb out of. Maybe he can resurrect his career somewhere else, though we all know the Hicksian continuum: Start cold, get hot, get hurt... repeat.

For the  record, Hicks outdid catcher John Ryan Murphy, whom we traded to Minnesota, straight up. But in the end, we'd have probably been better off with Murphy, a serviceable backup catcher who retired in 2020, and who never carried a millstone contract. Over eight years, Murphy ended with a career .215 batting average and 18 HRs. (Hicks' numbers over nine: .230 with 110 HRs.) 

As for Setback Sevy, we last saw him in the 2022 AL championship series - remember that one? when Houston swept us? He was coming off his final a regular season game, when he flirted with a no-hitter against Texas, only to be removed by Aaron Boone due to a pitch count. Our hopes were high. It was just Game II. Anything could happen.  We needed a shut down starter. Sevy pitched into the sixth, giving up three runs. We lost, 3-2. 

The wheels on the bus go round and round. Today is Outcome Day, when we see the results of Cashman's strategic plan, forged on a cold stretch of 2019.