"The phone calls were one after another. The first to an AL executive I greatly respect followed directly afterward by one to an NL executive I feel similarly about. The question was the same: How do the Yankees look after failing to sign Cliff Lee?

AL executive: "The way they are constituted right now, they are one injury to a veteran in their rotation or a bad stretch from CC (Sabathia) from losing their season."

NL executive: "The Yankees won 95 games last year and Cliff Lee was not on the team. To say the Yankees are worse, why? Just because they lost Andy Pettitte and they might not even lose him? Every year I hear they are too old. We'll see. I think they will win 95 games again."

These are the Yankees of late December 2010, that proverbial glass of water: Hall full or half empty, depending on your perception.

These are the Yankees, which means they are criticized as much for not spending their money this offseason as on the spending spree of two years ago that brought Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. Around the sport, there was shock that they didn't do what was necessary to sign Lee, such was their short-term, yearning need for a high-end starter.

Twice in five months, the Yankees went so far, but not all the way to land Lee. In July, when their deal in principle with the Mariners fell through, they still might have secured Lee had they been willing to add either Eduardo Nunez or Ivan Nova as the second piece alongside elite prospect Jesus Montero. But GM Brian Cashman determined that price was higher for Lee than either Philadelphia had given Cleveland or Seattle had given Philadelphia in trades with more time left on Lee's contract."