Yankees let ideal target slip away as Hal Steinbrenner takes post-Juan Soto plan hostage

The New York Yankees' post-Juan Soto pivot has run aground of late. Signing Max Fried and trading for Devin Williams and Cody Bellinger got fans dreaming of another AL pennant, but December's flurry of activity has given way a dead-quiet January, with an incomplete roster left in its wake — especially in the infield, where New York still hasn't found a replacement for Gleyber Torres and is staring down the reality of penciling DJ LeMahieu into the lineup every day.

The team has had plenty of chances to find a solution over the past few weeks, and one by one they've left all of them past them by. On Wednesday, though, this offseason hit a new low: Not only did the Yankees lose out on Ha-Seong Kim, the best remaining infielder on the free-agent market, but they lost him to the Tampa Bay Rays of all teams.

Standing pat while the Los Angeles Dodgers and crosstown Mets keep loading up is one thing, but losing out on a viable free-agent target to the Rays represents a new low. And at this point in the offseason, it's clear who's to blame for what's gone wrong in the Bronx: owner Hal Steinbrenner.

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Hal Steinbrenner bears the blame for Yankees' botched post-Juan Soto offseason

Two years and $29 million is a perfectly reasonable price for Kim, who's set to return from shoulder surgery in May and checks every box the Yankees are ostensibly looking for as a defensively versatile infielder who can run the bases and hit at the top of the order. The only reason for New York to let him slip away is because Steinbrenner has inexplicably turned off the tap, unwilling to go above the highest luxury-tax threshold.

The Yankees are right at that mark as it stands, which explains why they've been unwilling to do much of anything over the last few weeks. Steinbrenner is treating the $301 million threshold as a hard salary cap, and unless the team manages to find someone desperate enough to take Marcus Stroman's contract off their hands, Brian Cashman couldn't make a significant addition even if he wanted to.

Which should have Yankees fans everywhere irate. No one is expecting New York to go dollar-for-dollar with the Dodgers; but these are still the Yankees we're talking about, and letting tax penalties get in the way of building a complete roster is the sort of thing that George never would've let stand. Cashman had a plan for rebuilding his team after losing out on Soto, but his owner has left him out to dry.