The New York Yankees may be following in the footsteps of the Boston Red Sox, and that's not a good thing for Yankee fans.
Heading south? Could Alex Rodriguez be dealt to the Miami Marlins? Only the New York Yankees could make the mistake of signing Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year contract, watch his production go into a rapid tailspin, and then actually find a team to bail them out of their own fiscal irresponsibility.
Or can they?
That's the big question right now.
The Yankees are down 3-0 to the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. The story of the hour should be whether or not the Yankees can pull off the same type of improbable comeback the 2004 Boston Red Sox did against them eight years ago.
Instead it's whether the 2012 Yankees can pull off the same type of trade the last-place 2012 Boston Red Sox pulled off on Aug. 25.
What team in its right mind would take on Alex Rodriguez? With five full seasons and $114 million of guaranteed money remaining on his contract, it would seem totally ludicrous for any team in any position to want to take on Rodriguez.
Yet there it is, all over the internet. The Miami Marlins. Would the Miami Marlins actually want Rodriguez?
On Wednesday Keith Olbermann of MLB.com reported that the Marlins and Yankees had actually engaged in preliminary discussions about sending Alex Rodriguez to Miami.
Even if you buy into some of the key points made in this rumor which involve the Yankees paying a large portion of Rodriguez's remaining contract while also absorbing the cumbersome contracts of Heath Bell and/or Jose Reyes, or Mark Buehrle, the deal still makes no sense.
For a National League team that can't use a designated hitter, what does Rodriguez bring to the table?
His range at third base has been limited since returning from hip surgery in March of 2009.
That makes Rodriguez a prime candidate to be a designated hitter as his career and contract wind down.
That's not happening in Miami, though, not with the Marlins playing in the National League.
Of course, there is another scenario that does make a deal with Miami seem likely.
If New York is willing to pick up the bulk of the contract, then what prevents Miami from turning around and trading Rodriguez to an American League team?
Nothing, that's what.
That's how it could go down. The Yankees could rid their roster, if not their entire payroll, of Rodriguez. The Marlins would get a Red-Sox-like do-over on their free agent binge of last winter.
The Marlins made three big, splashy, free agent signings this offseason. One, Heath Bell, became the type of complete disaster that Red Sox fans would associate with John Lackey or Carl Crawford. He performed well below expectations, blew saves, and engaged in a public war of words with is manager Ozzie Guillen.
The Marlins also signed Reyes and Buehrle to pricey deals, but a move to bring Reyes to the Yankees would be controversial considering that Derek Jeter has held the shortstop position for over 15 seasons.
Buehrle, on the other hand, could fill one of the open starting pitching spots in their rotation.
Of course, just like the Marlins, the Yankees could acquire Reyes and then try and trade him.
There are a lot of possibilities. If the Yankees end up being swept by the Tigers, they will find themselves in an oddly similar circumstance to the one the Red Sox found themselves in after 2011 -- with a bloated payroll, many past-their-prime players and a farm system failing to produce top talent.
Could the Yankees be on the verge of an organizational house-cleaning similar to what Red Sox fans have witnessed in the last year?
We may find out very shortly.