How the Yankees build a world championship team... in 2025.

Oh by gosh by Boonie... next week brings the winter meetings, and it's beginning to look a lot like doomsday, at least for the '24 Yanks. In short, our team faces too many problems to be solved in one December. We need two.

Seriously, stand back and study this flaming Fox Christmas tree of crapola. We need hitting, pitching, bullpen and a 3B. We are clogged with bloated contracts, gun-shy from bad deals, staggering with players past their sell-by dates and with a middling farm system... in a division to be ruled by Baltimore for at least the next two years, unless Toronto signs Ohtani - and then it gets worse. The toilets don't flush, the showers have no hot water, the carpeting still smells of Domingo German's puke, and our chances of winning in '24 hover near those of Chris Christie. Next year looks like a long, bitter slog to a wild card, if all goes well. 

But what if - okay, I know this sounds crazy - what if, for once, we stopped thinking about next year and hatched a plan for 2025? Yes, it's not the Yankee way. We are supposed to win the world series every year. That's why we've won doodly-zip since 2009. What if - in the spirit of this holiday - we jetted off with the ghost of Christmas Future - a year from now. 

What if our entire Death Barge apparatus was suddenly recalibrated to 2025, not the immediate 12 months? To quote John Lennon. It's easy if you try... 

Some moves we might make:

1. Double down on Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, Chase Hampton and Gil Drew Thorpe - our best prospects. In short, don't trade the seed corn. Yes, they all might flop, a complete wipeout, and next December, we could be screaming at the cosmos. But if we trade them for instant help, what do we gain? Third place and a wild card? It's taken us years to dig this hole, and we did it by regularly trading our future for somebody else's past. This time, let's not - and say we did.

2. Let Giancarlo Stanton define his final season in NY. Let him hit his way to another team, another city. Nobody here expects Stanton to have a big season, but -aw, hell - he might surprise us. To trade him now, at his absolute low point, makes no sense. Same with waiving him. Why bother? Wait until August 1, when hungry teams are desperate for an injection of power. If Stanton could hit, say, 30 HRs next year, there will be a legitimate path to moving him (assuming the Yankees eat most of his contract.) So, bite the bullet and hope Stanton's trade stock improves. There is no easy fix here.

3. With regard to Anthony Rizzo, see above. Why trade him now, in a career trench? But if he hits this spring, move him. (BTW, this doesn't mean we should tank. DJ LeMahieu can play 1B. Maybe Austin Wells, too. But ask ourselves: Will Rizzo play championship caliber 1B for us in 2025?) 

4. Sign Yamamoto, the Japanese stud pitcher. Next December, he'll be 26, with a year under his belt. Hopefully, by then, he and Gerrit Cole will have formed a one-two punch, and - tripping on LSD now - maybe Carlos Rodon will be tradeable. (Right now, there is no point in trading him.) 

5. Trade Gleyber Torres - now. Not sure what we get. Don't care, as long as it's a player younger than 24. Gleyber had a fine season, but his mental lapses are worth concern. His 2B defense is starting to fray. If he moves to the OF or 1B, his value will rapidly decline. We can get something for him. So, let's do it.

6. Let the Padres trade Juan Soto elsewhere. Remember: They are a franchise with a Hate-the-Yankees fetish: They will demand more from us than they will from other teams. So fuck 'em. Let's play hardball. They can trade him to whomever. Next winter, we'll sign him for money and nothing else.  

I know you all will present varying degrees of support and criticism for this plan. I don't claim to have the answers. I don't think the Yankees need to completely tank in 2024. If Volpe, Stanton and Rodon were to dramatically improve - it's not out of the question - they could stay in the chase until September. But we need to think of '25. That's all. Before we do something stupid.