What Exactly Is the Yankees's Plan Right Now?

They wouldn't go beyond 7 years, $160-170M for Cano. They would, however, go 7 years, $153M for Ellsbury, a far lesser player regardless of what you think of Ellsbury. They threw money at McCann, and as best I can tell, they are still considering signing Shin Soo Choo, which means they might still be in on Beltran too. If they sign either, the Yankees will have Soriano, Gardner, Wells, Ichiro, Ellsbury, plus Shin Soo Choo or Beltran. The only player out of that group with any trade value is Gardner, and that value is minimal. He's not a star player, he gets hurt a lot, and he's a year away from free agency.

So, as best I can tell, rather than invest in Cano, who may not be great for all of the next 10 years but will almost definitely be better than all six of our potential outfielders over that span, the Yankees have decided throwing big contracts at outfielders before even signing a single starting pitcher (we currently need three, though Kuroda seems to be on the verge) is their best course of action moving forward.

Does this make anyone feel good? Does it give you any confidence this team isn't flying completely blind? When the 2013 season ended, was your first thought 'We need more offense from catcher and another Gardner-type outfielder or we're #$*&ed' or was it, 'the Yanks better re-sign Cano or we're #$*&ed'?

Now we're apparently planning to make Soriano a DH, even though we need that DH spot if A-Rod/Jeter/Teixeira are going to be in the line-up more than 3-4 times a week, while simultaneously rotating five outfielders in and out of the line-up. Wow. Meanwhile, our solution to our disastrous player development track record has been to fire no one and to ask our scouts to discuss players less with other scouts so as to not have any preconceived notions influencing the evaluations. WTF?!?!

I'm not saying the Yanks had to match Seattle's offer, but if the Yanks had signed Cano for $225M but not signed Ellsbury, would you feel better or worse about this team (long term or short)? This doesn't make any sense to me.