Andujar goes, and probably for good.

Yesterday, the Yankees said nice things about Miguel Andujar, after sending him back to the place where he hit .317 last year. You could smell the magnanimity in their lavish praise. What a lucky player, to be assured all winter that he'd get a shot at 3B, only to be dumped in February for a 25-year-old, who could hold the position for the next five years. And that's not considering the Manny Machado option next winter. Yep, third base sure looks like a wide-open opportunity, no?

It's like the billionaire telling his mistress, "Baby, you're the greatest! And if not for Tippy, who just had her parts fixed, you'd still be tops on my weekend shortlist. So here's what I'm gonnna do: I'm renting you a posh townhouse in a beautiful seaside town - Moosic, Pa. - with laundry, electricity and Netflix thrown in, and if things don't work out here with Tippy, I'm gonna call you up for, you know, a 72-hour oil change in Jersey. So... just go, for now. And don't feel bad. We'll always have Trenton. You're the best, sweetheart! Stay young!"

From the moment the Yankees traded for Brandon Drury, the romance was over with Andujar. The courtier Gammonites have promoted Drury as a breakout star, while questioning Andujar's footwork at third. I'm not saying they are wrong. Sometimes, when everybody says it's raining, it's raining. But Yankee fans should come to grips with the ice-cold reality that - barring an injury or complete collapse by Drury - Andujar will stay in Scranton until traded to another team, probably for pitching, sometime in July. There is no ascension plan. He's in Scranton forever.

They have decided to keep Gleyber Torres, and - if their words are to be believed - they will give him a shot at 2B, at least until a new Tippy pops in from the tit farm. Once he's over being jilted, once he starts hitting at Scranton, Andujar will be the cornerstone of a mid-season prospects bundle, to bring pitching, or whatever they need, as long as it's not a young third baseman. 

In the last 40 years, the Yankees have never developed an all-star thirdbaseman. The closest they came was Mike Lowell. They're not going to break that record now.

Apparently, the jury is still out on the future of Tyler Wade. Every day, some Yankee operative assures us that Wade is in the mix at 2B, and that Neil Walker isn't a long-term solution. But I don't know how even a kid like Wade could be so naive as to believe a word from the front office. The Yankees are back to chasing the World Series. That means using the farm system to harvest body parts, and watching the ones who get away develop major league careers in other cities. Andujar is gone.