Come To Think of It...What If the New York Yankees Bought Every Free Agent?

Well, here's a thought that is meant to be humorous, but is still a bit scary at the same time. What if the New York Yankees signed every major free agent? And then turned around and forced other teams to trade with them for their services?

Talk about concerns over all of the world's banks consolidating! And thoughts of Microsoft dominating the computing industry.

This would create baseball's first trading monopoly, as the Bronx Bombers would act as the resellers of baseball's best free agents.

Don't laugh, not only do the Yankees have the resources, agents for the players and the MLB player's union itself might support this because it would introduce another "middle man," which would help drive up the price of each player.

Of course, most major free agents today insist upon a no-trade clause as part of any free-agent contract. But all things are negotiable.

So, let's say the Yanks go out and sign CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe, Ryan Dempster, Ben Sheets, Brian Fuentes, Kerry Wood, and Francisco Rodriguez? And then sign Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Rafael Furcal, Pat Burrell, and Adam Dunn.

Can you imagine the line forming to try and arrange a trade with the Yankees? Instead of dealing with agents, each player's "agent", in effect, would be the New York Yankees.

This way, the Yankees basically pick and choose which players they want to hang onto and receive prospects and draft picks in return for the others.

In this economy, where there may be one bank someday, government-run businesses, and other advantages, it's not difficult to see the Yankees getting in on the act. After all, they always say the rich get richer. 

Come to think of it, the Evil Empire can get even more evil.