These days, deciphering the Yankees’ offseason strategy is incredibly difficult. While pretty much every year in my lifetime constituted a simple explanation—“The Yankees will be in on every major free agent”—things are more complicated in 2016. Ever since ownership’s decision to try to get under the luxury tax before 2013, their refutation of that before 2014, then their relative stinginess before 2015 and 2016, there has been a constant uneasiness as to whether the Yankees will fully jump into the market. Last offseason, the Yankees did not sign a single major league free agent.
My initial guess is that this offseason resembles that of two years ago, when the Yankees signed both Chase Headley and Andrew Miller, as well as a handful of depth signings like Chris Capuano, Stephen Drew, and Chris Young.