How to strangle a farm system

Barring injuries to key personnel, earnest-but-young Yankee infielder Tyler Wade soon will be told that he's heading home to Scranton, a place where he hit .310 last season and was declared the International League's best SS. Yankee grief counselors will couch this news with statements of encouragement: He really showed something this spring, hitting .333, and he damn near won the 2B competition, which was modeled after the hit show "The Bachelor." They'll say they are sure he'll be back with the Mother Ship, as soon as someone gets hurt. It's only a matter of time! Meanwhile, hey! there are new things to discover in Scranton! Has he ever been to the Wegmans?

In Scranton, Wade will play SS, a position where he is blocked for life by Sir Didi Gregorius. He'll play beside Gleyber Torres, the anointed one at 2B, who will be waiting until August, or September, or 2019, or until Brian Roberts, Stephen Drew, Neil Walker hurts his back or plays himself out of a job. On the other side of Wade will be Miguel Andujar, the 3B who hit .317 last year in Scranton. He'll also be repeating the grade, knowing that by this time next year, there's a solid chance the Yankees 3B will be either Manny Machado or Josh Donaldson. And  he'll still be in Scranton, eating at Wegmans!

Further down, in Double A, 22-year-old Thairo Estrada will get to repeat a year in Trenton. Last year, as all-star SS, he hit .301 and impressed the Yankees enough to protect him on the 40-man roster. They even claimed he would have a shot at winning 2B this spring. Yuk yuk. Now, he will be back in Trenton. It's deja vu all over again! 

Down in the Single A Florida State League, Kyle Holder - one of the most impressive youngsters this year in spring training - will get his second shot at Tampa. Last year, he hit .271 there. Maybe he can improve, eh? He's 23, so at this pace, we can look for the former first-round pick in pinstripes by 34!

Let's not forget Hoy Jun Park, a 21 year old Korean SS, who signed for big bucks a few years back. He'll also get to repeat the Florida league... or maybe return for Year II in Charleston.

Not long ago, the Yankees traded 2B Nick Solack for Brendan Drury. Turns out, that was the most humane thing the team did for a prospect this winter.

In the miserable 1980s, the Yankees were characterized by their penchant for pissing away prospects in favor of the Steve Kemps and Danny Tartabulls of the world. I'm not suggesting we're there yet. But a franchise that turns its back on its farm system, as the Yankees have done in recent weeks, is always on the verge of making the kind of bad trade that defines it for a generation. The more the Yankees go all-in for 2018, the more pressure they put on their players - and their front office - to forfeit the future for a game or two in June. One of these days, when a starter tweaks a gonad, they'll trade young players just to fill a role and break the logjam. And one of these days - maybe it's already happened - we will get really burned. That's not baseball. It's human history. Eat your seed corn, and you will live to regret it.