For the second straight year, I was asked to participate in SB Nation’s simulation of the MLB offseason. The sim is run by Max Rieper at Royals Review, who acts as the agent for the full free agent class. A GM from each team is free to bid on FAs, negotiate trades with other teams, and the like. In a departure from last year, teams were briefed on their 2022 payroll, but not given specific directives or goals for the offseason — more on that in a bit — and instead encouraged to be as realistic as possible.
For the Yankees, I enlisted the help of Jake Devin, Peter Brody, and Dan Kelly as my assistant GMs and head of player development, and we came up with a strategy that I think reasonably mirrors what the IRL Yankees will do this winter: Get a real No.