Yankees Edition:What I Want for Christmas, The Bullpen

To say that the bullpen was decimated by the recent trades done by Brian Cashman would likely be an extreme exaggeration but one must remember, I am a Yankees fan through and through. I am not paid by the Yankees, hell I'm not paid for my writing whatsoever, and this is a fan blog. Not a blog run by an insider or expert. I get emotional, I get worked up and sometimes I react from my heart and not my head. Sue me. I think many will agree though that regardless of their affiliations, jobs or fandom they will agree that the Yankees bullpen took a hit with the losses of Adam Warren and Justin Wilson. Maybe a bullpen arm or two will be under the Yankees tree this holiday season? One can hope so here are a couple suggestions.

First and foremost, and we've already covered this on the blog once so we won't spend too much time here, the Yankees can easily replace Justin Wilson. Antonio Bastardo is a Wilson clone in almost every sense of the word. He's 30-years old and he strikes out a ton of guys, although he does struggle with command from time to time. The redundancy here though is that New York didn't get anything special for Wilson via the trade and they sold it as a money saving, eventually, move. Why would they go out and sign a more expensive arm off the free agent market? They probably wouldn't truth be told but he would make sense for the team regardless.

Another arm I like, and I believe he is a bit underrated, is the right arm of Tommy Hunter. Hunter, for Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles pitcher, has been delegated to the bullpen the last three seasons but made 20 starts as recently as the 2012 season. He didn't pitch great in Chicago, truth be told, but the sample size was small being in just 19 games. Hunter is AL East tested and proven and is a true power arm at just 30-years old. He could handle the 6th or 7th inning for the Yankees with ease and likely step into the rotation for two weeks to a month at a time if an injury were to occur.

I know these weren't the big names you all expected when you decided to give this a read but there just aren't that many game changing relief pitchers on the market right now. The Yankees will have to either fill the needs from within with another revolving door or the team is going to have to be smart about it, they absolutely cannot simply throw money at the issue this time around.

Santa, your move.

Yankees Edition:What I Want for Christmas, The Offense

The starting pitching list is officially in Santa's hands and he's passed it down to his elves and workers but I'm not done. This is the Greedy Pinstripes, not the happy with whatever or the frugal pinstripes. We, the fans, now have the starting pitcher we need on the way but the offense could use another punch in the arm. In my personal opinion relying on Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to replicate their 2015 seasons would be foolish for New York. The problem is where would they play a new player? It almost has to be the outfield, doesn't it?

The outfield market still looks appealing with a lot of talent out there. One of the more underrated outfield bats out there is still available as well in Justin Upton. Truth be told Upton is probably a better all-around player than Jason Heyward if you leave out the advanced defensive metrics and is not getting nearly the attention he deserves. If the Yankees jump on it now they may be able to show Upton the attention he deserves without having to give up the monetary "attention" that many originally though Upton would command.

Upton is a Top 5 left fielder in all of Major League Baseball, defensive metrics or not, and would be an immediate upgrade over the Top 10 left fielder the Yankees already have in Brett Gardner. Whether the Yankees trade Gardner or shift him (or Upton preferably due to arm strength) to right field and trade Carlos Beltran, that's for Brian Cashman to decide, but Upton makes this offense exponentially better and he's one of the few left on the market that would.

It's unlikely, or nearly impossible, for Upton to join the Yankees this season. I know this. This is also the time to dream and reach for the stars and I am. Upton hitting third in front of Jacoby Ellsbury and Starlin Castro with Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Brian McCann, Chase Headley and one of Brett Gardner or Carlos Beltran hitting behind him makes this lineup one of the best in the league.

Make it happen Santa, I mean Cash.

Yankees Edition:What I Want for Christmas, Starting Pitching

It's almost Christmas Day people, get excited. While many are scrambling to get their shopping completed, their presents wrapped and their plans and work week's done I am just over here scouring the free agent market wondering what I would want for Christmas if I were the New York Yankees. The Yankees presumably are interested in many starting pitchers and some have even gone as far to say that the team with six starting pitching options already "needs" another pitcher. Since it's the holiday season and it's time to reach for the stars I'm going for it with this Christmas list I'm sending to Santa this year.

The starting pitching market is absolutely stacked so take your pick. Ian Kennedy, Wei-Yin Chen, Doug Fister, Scott Kazmir, Kenta Maeda was available through the posting system, Henderson Alvarez before the Oakland A's snatched him up, Cliff Lee, Mark Buehrle, Yovani Gallardo, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Minor and a slew of others but one guy is probably better than them all, and younger than most of them too. Mike Leake

Leake is a 28-year old starting pitcher that pitched for the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds last season. He's not the ace the Yankees "need" but he is a durable arm that can give you 200 innings every single season. Leake was traded mid-season 2015 meaning he is not attached to any draft pick compensation making all the more attractive, even more so than Chen who recently announced he wanted $100 million or Gallardo who in my opinion is just average.

Leake  has posted a 3.0, 1.5 and 2.9 WAR in each of his last three seasons respectively and would be an obvious upgrade over Ivan Nova, CC Sabathia or maybe even Michael Pineda who battles with consistency year in and year out. If I'm the Yankees I'm asking for Leake or a Leake clone. Young, durable, a pitcher that allows the team to keep the 20th overall Draft pick and a pitcher that can make the team better.

Santa, make it happen dude.