Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman

MLB

Yankees’ current roster is flawed and hard to fix

ORLANDO , Fla. — Let’s play this game, if the season began today, what would the Yankees look like.

Francisco Cervelli or Austin Romine would catch (I assume Chris Stewart is a prime non-tender candidate). Mark Teixeira would be at first. David Adams and Corban Joseph would be a righty/lefty platoon at second. If Derek Jeter were up for it, he would be at short, if not Eduardo Nunez would be. If Alex Rodriguez were eligible, he would be at third, if not someone from among Nunez, Adams and Joseph would.

The outfield would be Alfonso Soriano, Brett Gardner and a combo of Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells, with the other probably the designated hitter.

The rotation would be CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and … and … and … Michael Pineda, if healthy, and then the Nos. 4-5 spots filled out among David Phelps, Adam Warren, Vidal Nuno, Brett Marshall and David Huff. David Robertson would be the closer, Shawn Kelley the main set-up man and a bunch of kids would vie to fill out the rest — hello, Preston Claiborne, Cesar Cabral and Dellin Betances.

Of course, the season does not begin today. The Yankees will be spending plenty over the next months to attempt to address the shortcomings; already having Hal Steinbrenner being more front and center in meetings with the reps for Carlos Beltran, Shin-Soo Choo, Stephen Drew and Brian McCann.

This was merely an exercise to show where the Yankees begin. For the terrific job Joe Girardi, his staff and the players did last year to get the wounded Yankees to 86 wins masked that they really were closer to a 76-win team. And from that group, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte — who even in their baseball seniority remained among the majors’ best closers and lefty starters — are retired. The Yankees’ best player (Robinson Cano) and best starter (Hiroki Kuroda) also might be gone, along with the lefty might of Curtis Granderson and the lefty relief of Boone Logan.

Could Jeter and Teixeira make up for some of the loss? Sure. But what can the Yankees expect from them returning from significant injuries at age 39 (Jeter) and 34 in April (Teixeira)?

Thus, the Yankees start an offseason with — by far — their worst returning core since the bad old days of the early 1990s. And if you want to make the degree of difficulty even greater to fix it consider:

1. They have no impact prospects on the horizon. Zoilo Almonte and J.R. Murphy are supplementary players. Even if you stretch the idea of impact prospect to include Slade Heathcott, Tyler Austin, Manny Banuelos and Gary Sanchez, none is on the brink of helping the 2014 club.

2. The Yankees are planning to go under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold. There have been public proclamations they will go over to field a contender. But I just don’t believe it. They have spent the past three years avoiding long-term commitments with players who could have helped to prep for this moment and one team executive said: “I don’t think Hal [Steinbrenner] is going to bend on the money.”

Instead, the Yankees will try to assemble the best team possible within these financial guidelines, save around $100 million because of that over the next 24-36 months and then next offseason become much more free-spending again.

3. They have to wait on Robinson Cano and A-Rod. The Yankees have plenty to spend this offseason, but just how much depends on Cano’s costs and/or how much of Rodriguez’s contract they must pay next year. Neither issue is going to be resolved quickly.

In the best-case scenario Rodriguez’s arbitration hearing concludes next week. The arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, gives both sides two weeks to file briefs and then takes two weeks to render a decision. That would still go well beyond the Dec. 9-12 Winter Meetings, when so much offseason business is transacted.

And that is assuming a good pace — and this case has shown that is unlikely to happen. So, this could drag into 2014 and then — even if A-Rod’s 211-game suspension is upheld — he could seek a temporary restraining order. And I have been told the Yankees are not spending any of the $33.5 million budgeted for A-Rod next year (salary plus likely homer bonus) until the case is completely resolved. Again: The Yankees have to set aside $33.5 million they would spend, waiting until the Rodriguez situation is fully concluded. That means their threshold is closer to $155.5 million.

Then there is the Cano matter. The Yankees could push forward and spend the, say, roughly $22 million-$25 million budgeted for Cano elsewhere if Cano does not make a quick decision in their favor — and the chances of a quick decision are the same as Vidal Nuno leading the majors in ERA. But it becomes more difficult to construct a 2014 Yankee contender without Cano hitting third, especially since …

4. The signings of Hunter Pence (five years, $90 million), Tim Lincecum (two years, $35 million), Jose Abreu (six years, $68 million) and Marlon Byrd (two years, $15 million) combined with the early asking prices on available free agents shows that $70 million or $90 million (if A-Rod disappears) is not going to buy quite as much as it would have even a year ago. Also, not long ago, the Yankees would simply open their wallet and other teams would back away. Now, there are many teams willing to go dollar for dollar with the Yanks.

The Yankees would love McCann to catch 100 games and DH 50. For either Beltran or Choo to be their right fielder. To win the bidding for Masahiro Tanaka and have Kuroda return. And, of course, to retain Cano. But to do that and stay within the $189 million confines is going to take a magical financial shoehorn.

In other words, this is not the offseason to have many needs and a restrictive budget. The Yankees have both.