3 Deals That Yankees GM Brian Cashman Needs to Be Chasing at the Winter Meetings

Baseball's offseason is well underway, but the New York Yankees have been unusually quiet. As American League East rivals like the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox bolster up their rosters, the Bombers have stood by idly.

That does not mean the Yankees won't make any moves this winter. They have some serious team needs—they desperately need a shortstop and could use another pitcher—that need to be filled.

With baseball's winter meetings set to begin Dec. 7 in San Diego, the Yankees will have access to every front office official and agent in the industry. It is safe to say that by the time those meetings are over, a few new faces could be heading to the Bronx.

Coming in at a towering 6'7" is left-handed reliever Andrew Miller.

One of the game's most dominating setup men, Miller split time between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles in 2014 while sporting a 2.02 ERA, a 0.802 WHIP and 0.4 HR/9 and 14.9 K/9 ratios. With a sweeping slider that ranks second to few, if any, Miller is one of the best in the game at what he does.

Imagine having a weapon like that on the mound in the late innings of a ballgame...with Dellin Betances and his 98 mph fastball and devastating curve lurking in the ninth.

Should the Yankees go after Miller, that all but guarantees the end of David Robertson's tenure in the Bronx, effectively making Betances the closer, and that is okay. After a breakout season in 2014, Betances showed he is more than qualified to finish games.

Miller, who is said to be looking at a four-year deal, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, could come at a slightly lower price than Robertson, who wants a four-year, $50 million deal, according to George A. King III of the New York Post. Plus, there is a good chance he is capable of closing too if need be.

If the Yankees can land him for less than what their old closer is going for, they should go for it.

As of right now, the Yankees have a lot of starting pitchers on their roster. If Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Shane Greene and Ivan Nova can all get and/or stay healthy, this is certainly a deep and formidable rotation.

That "if" is as big as it gets.

The Yankees struggled to keep their rotation healthy in 2014, which should remind readers of the stellar jobs Greene, Brandon McCarthy and Chris Capuano did filling in. That means Greene should be given a chance to make the rotation, and the Yanks should contemplate bring back the latter two.

However, it is pretty obvious that a guy like Max Scherzer is an enormous upgrade over any of those guys.

Scherzer has led the league in wins two years in a row. He has a 3.02 ERA in that span and has made 65 starts, proving to be durable. As Jon Heyman of CBS Sports points out, he has thrown just 20,954 pitches in his career compared to the 26,321 and 29,461, respectively, thrown by top free-agent starters Jon Lester and James Shields.

Despite them all being close to the same age, Mad Max has fewer miles on his arm.

Mix that in with an incredible amount of talent, and Scherzer is one of the most sought-after free-agent prizes there is. Yes, he will come at a lot of money and a lot of years, but the Yankees sure could use a guy like him in their rotation.

There's been a lot of talk about who is going to succeed No. 2 at shortstop for the New York Yankees.

That is no easy task. After 20 years of greatness, on and off the field, it is going to be hard for anyone to live up to the precedent that Derek Jeter set.

One player who could at least make up for the production on the field, and then some, especially after The Captain's last few seasons, is the Chicago Cubs' Starlin Castro.

Just 24 years old, Castro will be no cheap acquisition. A major leaguer for five years now, he has totaled a .284 average and 9.4 wins above replacement (WAR). His offensive game has gone back and forth in those few years, but Castro was able to put it all together in 2014, hitting 14 dingers with 65 RBI, a .292 average and .777 OPS.

His defense has improved as well, as he made a career-low 15 errors last season.

At such a young age, Castro is still getting better and clearly has the makeup to be a major league star. So why would anyone even think he is available?

The answer is that the Cubbies have a surplus of highly regarded infield prospects who are close to the majors, if not there already. With Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Arismendy Alcantara waiting in the wings, there will not be enough positions to keep everyone in the near future.

Castro may come at a steep asking price. Perhaps he is not even available at all yet. However, it cannot hurt for the Yankees to ask.

All stats were obtained via Baseball-Reference.com.

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