Top 5 things the Yankees need to do this offseason

A big part of the Yankees offseason

The baseball season is just about over and unfortunately it is not ending with a New York Yankees World Series win. In fact the Yankees blew their best chance to win the series since 2009 by having their bats disappear in the postseason and now they need to retool for next season. Here are the top 5 things the Yankees need to do for next season .

1. Resign Hiroki Kuroda
This is by far the most critical part of the offseason and if the Yankees want to bounce back from their poor performance they will need to resign Hiroki Kuroda. He transitioned to the AL by having the best season of his career and that's in Yankee stadium. Kuroda was the number two pitcher the Yankees have been looking for, for a long time and if they need to give him a two year deal they absolutely should in order to bring back Hiroki.

2. Right Field
The Yankees have any number of possibilities for Right Field next season and while Nick Swisher is by far the best solution, it seems unlikely that the Yankees will bring him back next season due to his price tag. For all the complaints about Swishers struggles in the postseason the Yankees really need his switch hitting bat and it will be a lot cheaper to give Swisher 3-4 years than try and sign Curtis Granderson after he hits free agency. If the Yankees let Swisher and Granderson walk then they may need to fill two Outfield spots after next season  and we do not even know if they will be able to fill one spot internally. To me the most likely scenario is that the Yankees bring back Ichiro Suzuki or they trade for an Outfielder as there are not many free agent options for the Yankees who want to stay in their budget for 2014. Bringing Ichiro wouldn't be the worst scenario, but he would be 39 and while he may be able to flash a little more power he will be 39. The Yankees would also need to count on Ichiro's resurgence into next year and hope the hot month he had with the Yankees wasn't a fluke.

3. Catcher
This one is very straight forward. The Yankees are going to need to bring back Russel Martin because the free agent and trade market for catchers is pretty barren. Napoli isn't really a catcher, AJ Piezynski is a jerk/old and Olivio is terrible. Martin is the best option and if they don't bring him back then they will need to platoon Cervelli and Stewart and they don't want to do that. Its pretty much Martin or bust for the Yankees.

4. Resign Andy Pettitte
Some may balk that this is 4th, but really this may be a little high for Pettitte. I did initially ponder putting this with Kuroda, but really its much less important for Pettitte to return as it is for Kuroda. Pettitte surprised everybody with his comeback and made a big impact, we just don't know what he will be able to contribute next season. That being said the Yankees want him back, Pettitte just needs to decide if he wants to come back.

5. Bench
The bench doesn't seem like a huge thing but it is going to be very important next season as well in the foreseeable future because of the age of the Yankees roster. The Yankees do not know how many how many games Jeter or ARod will be able to play in the field next season so a good bench is critical. Recently Brian Cashman said that they want Eduardo Nunez to play everyday at short stop and he could potentially play short 60-70 games next season and possibly even more next season depending on Jeters recovery from his surgery. If they don't want Nunez to do that then they will need to acquire somebody who can play short stop frequently as Jeter is defiantly going to need to have a lot of rest, especially at the beginning of the season. Despite his abysmal postseason ARod is going to be okay and is going to be the primary 3rd baseman, but he and Jeter will probably be the primary DH's so somebody will need to be able to step in as the 3rd baseman frequently. If Eric Chavez returns I expect that he will fill that role, but that is in no way a certainty and he has frequently said that his previous injuries have made playing very painful for him. If Chavez does not return then there is a good chance that the bench spot would be filled internally by Corban Jospeh or David Adams both of whom are probably major league ready. The backup catcher will probably be Chris Stewart again  but after that their bench will depend on what their answer in Right Field will be.

I was initially going to include signing both Hughes and Cano to extensions and while I do believe that these are important they do not affect 2013. In Cano's case I feel that he will wait until he hits free agency as he will want a big deal and there is a very real chance that the Los Angeles Dodgers will outbid the Yankees for Cano. In Hughes's case the Yankees should sign him to an extension but it is not critical to the 2013 team. That being said I will have a post up about Phil Hughes and extension possibilities.