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Looking into the Yankees crystal ball

Every top free agent and trade target always gets linked to the Yankees. Some of those links may be true, others probably aren’t. I wanted to do a deep dive into some of the Yankees’ free agents and trade targets to see if we foretell if they are coming to the Bronx. The pieces are all there. The writing is on the wall.

Franciso Lindor

If you rearrange the letters in “Lindor”, you get “Dr. Lion”. Do you know who sometimes gets referred to using the lion emoji? None other than our very own Clint Frazier. Additionally, hiding within the first name of our ace Gerrit Cole is the word “tiger”. And we all know from our elementary school science classes that lions and tigers love hanging out with each other.

Who is the “Dr.” you mask ask? The Yankees head physician is Dr. Christopher Ahmad, who assumed that position in 2009 — the last time the Yankees won the World Series.

Therefore, the writing is on the wall for Clint Frazier to be dealt back to Cleveland for Lindor. Lindor will not only bring his baseball skills, but his presence will elevate Dr. Ahmad’s performance and he’ll keep everyone healthy all year, leading to another championship.

Trevor Bauer

It’s obvious. Bauer wears #27 — the number of championships the Yankees have won. Bauer also recently won the NL Cy Young — receiving 27 of the 30 first-place votes. Bauer also shouted out Caleb Cotham while accepting the award. Cotham, the Reds’ assistant pitching coach with Bauer and now the Phillies’ pitching coach, was once a Yankee before being dealt for Aroldis Chapman.

We also know that Bauer is very into analytics. If you rearrange the letters in his last name, you can get “bu ERA” (as in “boo ERA”). As an analytics-forward franchise, surely the Yankees also say “boo ERA” and look at more relevant and advanced pitching metrics.

What about the relationship between Bauer and Gerrit Cole? Sticking with the anagrams, if you rearrange “Trevor” you get “trover”, which is defined as a “common-law action to recover the value of personal property that has been wrongfully disposed of by another person.” Bauer claims Cole insulted his work ethic and said he would never make it to the bigs. In a way, Cole wrongfully dismissed Bauer’s abilities, and now he can recover that.

One last thing. Back in October, Bauer shared a picture of his plane ticket to Boston.

His seat was 12D. There are two highways in the U.S. that are currently numbered 12D: Nebraska Spur 12D and, you guessed it, New York State Route 12D. It could be a sign that he’s going to the Yankees. It could also be a sign that he’s going to the Mets. Or maybe he’s taking his talents to the Lincoln Saltdogs.

DJ LeMahieu

If you trace back the origins of LeMahieu, it literally means “the Matthew”. Who is a Matthew we know? Matthew Blake, the pitching coach. But of course, DJ is not a pitcher. Who was the last Yankees pitcher to wear LeMahieu’s #26? Johnny Barbato. Barbarto last played in Japan for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He was released on October 18, 2019. The very same day, LeMahieu hit a home run off of Justin Verlander to tie up the score in Game 5 of the ALCS, the last postseason game played at Yankee Stadium.

The very next day: LeMahieu hits a game-tying two-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS. We don’t need to go over what happened next, but obviously, the Barbato-LeMahieu connection sparked something in DJ after Barbato was released.

What does this all mean? It means that DJ’s influence on the Yankees goes all the way to Japan and he needs to stay. Speaking of Japan…

Masahiro Tanaka

The name “Tanaka” is apparently usually written with characters meaning “center of the rice paddy”, or rice field. In 2020, the Yankees were supposed to participate in the Field of Dreams game against the White Sox. The field in the movie was created in a cornfield, not too far from a rice field. The Cardinals replaced the Yankees due to 2020’s regionalized schedule, but ultimately the game got pushed to August 2021, and the White Sox’s opponent has yet to be announced. If it becomes the Yankees again, Tanaka will find his way back to the center of the rice (or corn) paddy.

These all makes sense, don’t they? You’re welcome for enlightening you. If you are not completely satisfied with the quality of this analysis, let me know @MToolsidas29 .