What to do with Cashman's last $12 million

Conventional wisdom says "Cooperstown" Cashman has about $22 mill to blow between now and October, and remain under the luxury tax (salary cap) threshold. He'll need $10 mill for mid-season trades and waiver wire geezers, which leaves us with $12 mill to spend this winter... which is, like... now!

So... what does he do?

Buy a big-ticket vet for $12 mill? Or two for $6 mill, etc? What mathematical equation should Cash employ for that last chunk of mad money?

Generally, we don't speculate on trades. Waste of time. You can't predict baseball, and you can't predict Cashman. Last winter, nobody saw the Yankees signing Matt Holliday until the Yankees signed Matt Holliday. These rumors about Yu Darvish? Ridiculous. So let's not try to name names. Here is how I wish the money could be spent. (Note: These are "in-a-perfect-world" scenarios; it's tougher than it looks.) 

$4 million on a LH bullpen specialist. It sure would be nice to enter the season with a solid lefty, rather than hold LOOGY tryouts all summer, only to realize that Chasen Shreve can't cut it. 

$4 million on a LH-hitting corner infielder. He'd play 1B and 3B, maybe with some pop. Lately, we've signed two glove-only infielders. It'd be nice to find a Chris Carter, just in case Doug Bird turns out to be the player who never plays. Everyone wants Miguel Andujar to play 3B, but what if he's a spring training washout and needs three more months in Scranton? An insurance policy, but not a mortgage.

$4 million on a reclamation spot starter. He could be the sixth starter, a Freddy Garcia type who is surviving on pure guile, and who sees the Yankees as a career capstone. Once upon a time, his name was Bartolo. Yes, we want a Bartolo, even if there is only one Bartolo. It'd be worth $4 million to take a wild chance on finding the next Bartolo.

Of course, the fear is that $12 mill buys Todd Frazier, who automatically takes over at 3B, despite being destined to hit .210. I hope Cashman realizes that signing Frazier would crush the still-evolving Yankee youth movement, bottling up player development throughout the system and leaving players like Andujar depressed and disillusioned. Once a guy gets tagged as a Brigadoon Refsnyder, he's done in the Yankee system. (And while it's true that Brigadoon didn't do much with Toronto late last summer, I still believe he'll cobble out a decent MLB career.)

Spread the money around, Cash. Diversify, and the Yankees will reap the best dividends.