About the time No. 9 hitter Christian Vazquez's 338-foot home run disappeared over the short porch in right field and Vazquez raised his right arm in celebration rounding first base, you kind of had the feeling Tuesday wasn't going to be the Yankees' night.
Vazquez's Yankee Stadium special in the fourth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead. It felt insurmountable. It was. Barely. Boston went on to a series-clinching 4-3 victory and the Yankees' 102-win season came to a crushing end.
The Yankees won 100 in the regular season and two in the postseason. As a wild-card team, they needed to win 10 more postseason games to bring World Series trophy No. 28 to the Bronx.
So how do they get those extra 10 wins in 2019?
Simple: They go on the most historic free-agent spending spree in baseball history.
How historic? We're going to lay out a realistic plan for the Yankees to spend a cool billion dollars this offseason. That's "billion" with a "b".
You are the New York Yankees. You can afford it. Your fans pay through the nose to watch this team. They cram into a ballpark that is so expensive to visit it may as well be gold-plated. They watch the YES Network in record numbers. They love this team and its young stars, the disappointing ALDS result notwithstanding.
Just win, baby? Sure. But first, just spend, baby.
First off, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Sign 'em both.
With dozens of moves over the last few years, the Yankees under Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman have gotten under the luxury tax threshold for the first time since the payroll penalty was instituted in 2003. They did it with this offseason in mind because the Yankees' penalty if they go over the threshold next season resets from 50 percent to 20 percent.
You be the GM: What should Yankees do in offseason?
This free-agent class includes two once-in-a-generation talents in the prime of their careers. Machado turned 26 on July 6. Harper turns 26 on Oct. 16.
Hall of Fame caliber players just do not come onto the free-agent market at that age. The last was Alex Rodriguez, who was 25 when he signed a 10-year, $252-million contract with the Texas Rangers before the 2001 season.
So the Yankees may have to pay about three times that much _ $750 million _ to land both Machado and Harper. They have it. How about $375 million each for the next 12 seasons? That's an average of more than $31 million per season per player. Nice work if you can get it.
If you're wondering where Harper and Machado would fit in the lineup, don't wonder too long. Talent makes its own room. Harper takes over left field from Brett Gardner, who saves the Yankees $10.5 million when he is allowed to leave as a free agent, and Machado becomes the third baseman, just as his mentor A-Rod did when he joined the Yankees in 2004.
Miguel Andujar, a wondrous offensive talent, is such a butcher at the hot corner that he didn't even play in Game 4. He can move to first. Miguel Cabrera did it and he's headed to the Hall of Fame.
Or, if the Yankees really want to get radical and save money to pay the two free-agent studs, they can make Andujar a near full-time designed hitter by trading Giancarlo Stanton.
Let's face it: Stanton never seemed comfortable in his first season in pinstripes. He gets mad props for staying in the lineup on a bad hamstring when Aaron Judge was hurt, but there's just something lacking in Stanton's overall presence, and his final at-bat of the season was putrid.
Stanton was the only Yankee during their furious ninth-inning rally on Tuesday who had a bad at-bat when he predictably struck out on four pitches against Craig Kimbrel. If waving at sliders in the dirt in a clutch situation was an Olympic sport, Stanton would have a gold medal. Something tells us he may approve a trade to a less pressurized market, perhaps for some prospects or a defense-first catcher or an arm or two.
Full disclosure alert: I thought the Stanton trade was gluttonous when the Yankees made it. It was great for the box office and TV ratings, but adding a right-hander slugger was redundant when the trade was made and is even more so now that Andujar and Gleyber Torres blossomed as rookies to join Judge.
The Yankees went to Game 7 of the ALCS without Stanton last year. They made it to Game 4 of the ALDS with him.
Stanton's need for DH at-bats took away an avenue the Yankees could have used for Andujar and Gary Sanchez to get more DH time. Sanchez is a special offensive talent who, in my opinion, is in danger of getting severely diminished by the mental and physical challenges of catching.
Why grind a bat like that into the dust when Sanchez is never going to be more than an average catcher? And he has a long way to go to become just average.
But that bat is fierce, maybe as much as Stanton's, and Sanchez came a few feet away from a walk-off grand slam when his ninth-inning drive was caught on the warning track in left for a sacrifice fly.
Here's the projected 2019 lineup: Harper LF, Judge RF, Machado 3B, Didi Gregorius SS, Sanchez DH, Aaron Hicks CF, Andujar 1B, Torres 2B, DFC (defense-first catcher) C.
And keep Luke Voit around to play some, too. But mostly because he's a hoot.
Steinbrenner and Cashman can figure out how to make the money work. Or we can do it for them.
Going into the offseason, key Yankee free agents include CC Sabathia, J.A. Happ, Lance Lynn, David Robertson, Zach Britton, Andrew McCutchen and Gardner (assuming his $12.5 million option with a $2 million buyout is declined).
Forget about the guys the Yankees added mid-season in trade. If you delete just Stanton, Gardner, Sabathia and Robertson from the 2019 payroll, that's nearly $60 million in savings based on their current salaries. That should cover Machado and Harper's combined 2019 salaries, give or take a few million.
The Yankees also are going to have to spend for the rotation as the only starters who are signed for next season are Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka. Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances will be back to anchor the bullpen.
Good news! The free-agent market has attractive pitchers, too, such as Houston's Dallas Keuchel, Arizona's Patrick Corbin and former Yankees reliever Andrew Miller. And there's nothing that says the Yankees can't bring back Happ, Sabathia, Robertson or Britton if the price is right.
So let's say the Yankees shell out $250 million for a bunch of new (or returning) arms. There's your one billion dollars.
And there's your best chance to wipe out the horror of seeing the Red Sox celebrate twice at Yankee Stadium. Once when they clinched the AL East on Sept. 20 and again on Tuesday night, when they played "New York, New York" in the visiting clubhouse as an obvious revenge troll job to Judge's Fenway Park boom box troll job after the Yankees' only win in Game 2.
Watching the Red Sox celebrate twice has to sting, like getting champagne in your eyes. If the Yankees want to feel that burn in 2019, they've got to go big. They've already gone home.
