MLB Hot Stove: New York Yankees To Sign Max Scherzer Following Chase Headley Four-Year Contract? [VIDEO]

Just as word got out that the New York Yankees signed third baseman Chase Headley to a four-year contract, word also began to spread that the Yankees would not make a push for free agent starter Max Scherzer. Scherzer is a former Cy Young Award winner and by far the best pitcher available on the market, and the Yankees are the Yankees – notorious spenders that are expected to go for it every year.

Now that the Yankees haven't made the playoffs in two seasons and now that legacy shortstop Derek Jeter has retired, shouldn't they be going for it now?

If GM Brian Cashman is being truthful and the Yankees don't sign Scherzer, then they are clearly not contenders. Cashman said recently that Scherzer's asking price of $200 million is too high. Who are these Yankees? When is any price tag too high?

Maybe its the Yankees that have learned from disastrous deals they've made with free agents in the past. Those mistakes stare them in the face every day: Mark Teixiera from first base, Alex Rodriguez from third, or the bench, or the front page of the tabloids, CC Sabathia from the snack stand. The Yankees are filled with aging, expensive players who are well past their prime (and we haven't even mentioned Carlos Beltran). So maybe restraining from pulling the trigger on Scherzer, who has won 39 games over the past two seasons, is the right move?

But then again, maybe its not. The Yankees are still overflowing with cash, like almost every team in the league. And their rotation is in shambles. With a lineup that struggled mightily last season not really improved, a strong pitching staff will be key for contention. Sabathia hasn't pitched like an ace in several years, and besides Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees don't have a true starting shutdown arm. And who knows if Tanaka is even healthy at this point? Brandon McCarthy recently left for the Dodgers, meaning New York will probably rely on some combination of Ivan Nova, David Phelps and Adam Warren.

Signing Headley was a nice start. But it doesn't remedy what's become a strange and reoccuring problem for the Yankees in recent years: a tendency to go in, but not all in. Scherzer will be expensive, but he could be worth it.