Yanks make first bid on Gerrit Cole. Will they make the last?

Two hundred forty five million potatoes, clams, goobers, galdingoes... over seven trips around the sun... 

That's a lotta quiddich, moolah, beans, hoogins... a lotta ink. 

Is it a lotta crapola, too? 

What should we make of the very publicly leaked Yankee offer to this year's "Hollywood It" free agent, Gerrit Cole? Are we shooting for the moon... or second place? Some thoughts...

1. Sunday evening, the ancient Gammonite Bob Klapisch - of the Times, the Post, the Daily News, ESPN and the Columbia University Daily Spectator - tweeted the numbers and broke the story. Thus, it almost had to come from an old-line Yankee power source: Hal, Cashman, Randy, Trott, or Delores in the typing pool. It didn't come from Gerrit Cole. So, let's figure that the Death Star unveiled these numbers on purpose.

Thus, the question to ask today: What would that purpose be?

Well, it would seemingly absolve the Yankees from critics who assail their self-inflicted - and self-indulgent - cheapness. How can we call him "Food Stamps," if Hal is willing to spend $245 million on a pitcher? Last year, as the Bryce Harper and Manny Machado auctions unfolded, the Yankees noticeably never scribbled a number on the chalkboard. Now, they have done so... and they wanted that number to be known to the Yankiverse. Interesting.

2. Paraphrasing Regis Philbin from long ago, "Is this your final answer?" If so, for all the public awe that Hal's offer may conjure, it is merely a figure on a check that might never be cashed. The Angels have said they'll beat any offer, whatsoever. Now, they have a number to top, either by adding additional years or dollars. If this is the final Yankee offer - take it or leave it - the franchise has made it ridiculously easy for another owner to outdo.  

If the Angels go higher, will the Yankees follow suit? Also, if the two teams put down matching numbers, would Cole opt to stay home in Southern California or follow his childhood fantasies as a Yankee fan?

3. I guess the fundamental question is whether the Yankees looking to again finish second in a bidding war? From where we sit, it's impossible to know. Did their $245 million offer - most for a pitcher ever - just blow everyone else out of the water? Was it a knockout punch... or an opening salvo? 

My guess: It's a little of both. One thing the Yankees do not want is a long, drawn-out bidding war, stretching into January. Cole's decision will set the agenda for every other move Cashman makes this winter. If that is the Yankee offer, and no others shall be forthcoming, even if Cole drags his heels on choosing a team, the Yankees might be quietly looking elsewhere by the end of this week. 

Once again, they will have finished in second. And yes, we will still call him "Food Stamps."