Cashman preaches patience with '08 example

Despondent fans flooded the Yankees' phone bank yesterday after Cliff Lee decided, incredibly, to join the Phillies for $28 million less in guaranteed money than the Yankees offered.

The despair is understandable. This looks like the wrong winter to whiff on your No. 1 target, as the Yankees now have done. So to those of you wondering, "Where should the Yankees go from here," my suggestion is, "2008."

For when Brian Cashman says, "Plan B is patience," as he did repeatedly Tuesday, 2008 serves as his Exhibit A. You think the Yankees' rotation looks shaky now? How upset would you be if your nominal ace was a rehabilitating Johan Santana, Phil Hughes was pitching for the Twins and CC Sabathia was enjoying life with the Angels?

Cashman, as we all recall, passed on the opportunity to trade Hughes for Santana after the 2007 season, figuring that he could have both Hughes and Sabathia starting in 2009. The payoff came in '09, after the (sort of) original Yankee Stadium closed in 2008 with the only postseason-less Yankees campaign since 1995.

Now, to make clear: The Lee departure came by accident, rather than design. The Yankees offered Lee both a six-year, $138- million package and one that guaranteed $148 million over seven years (structured as six years for $132 million and a $16- million player option for 2017).

The lefty instead accepted a five-year, $120-million agreement from the Phillies, with whom he spent just three months in the 2009 season, but which left enough of an impression that he reached out to the team late last week.

Where do the Yankees stand? Really, it all depends upon Andy Pettitte. The free-agent lefty recently told a friend that if the Yankees signed Lee, he'd come back, and if they didn't, "I'll stay home." Now we'll see if he actually meant that. It's a pretty big deal to stop playing Major League ball, particularly when you've experienced as much success as Pettitte.

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If Pettitte returns, then the Yankees have pretty much the same roster they did at the end of last year, and they'll attempt to bolster their bullpen (Kerry Wood? Pedro Feliciano?) and bench (Bill Hall?). It obviously won't be as good as a roster with Lee in the second starter spot, yet it would clearly contend.

If Pettitte stays home in Texas, though? That's where "patience" really comes into play.

There just isn't a good alternative out there. Zack Greinke carries too much doubt for the Yankees to give Jesus Montero and others to Kansas City. Tampa Bay would never give Matt Garza to their AL East rivals. The list of remaining free-agent starting pitchers is abysmal.

Patience would allow the Yankees to take some low-risk fliers on pitchers like Mark Prior and Jarrod Washburn, let Ivan Nova run free and monitor the early-season developments of youngsters like Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos, Andrew Brackman and Adam Warren.

Patience permits the Yankees to see how the rest of the industry unfolds in the 2011 season. Maybe Cleveland will shop Fausto Carmona. Perhaps St. Louis will flop and listen to offers on Chris Carpenter. Time always brings us surprises.

Now, a warning: After that '08 failure, with the new Stadium opening with high-priced tickets, the Yankees spent like crazy. Sabathia proved a good investment to date, A.J. Burnett not so much. Patience works best when partnered with consistency.

The Yankees should be patient both today and tomorrow. It's OK to take a calculated risk as Texas did when it traded for Lee last summer. You're asking for trouble when you throw away the calculator. You wind up praying that Burnett can overcome a career-long trend of shooting himself in the foot.

And then you end up, one way or the other, dealing with despondent fans. Which is no fun.