On Monday, the New York Yankees experienced a day straight from hell on the injury front. Gerrit Cole, the team’s ace, suffered an elbow injury scare; at the moment, it’s not clear yet what the diagnosis is on Cole’s elbow, as he is set to undergo an MRI, but things aren’t looking too swell for the Yankees. As a result of this turn of events, the Yankees have once again found themselves linked to the best free agent starter left on the market, reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

Amid all the uncertainty surrounding the Yankees’ pitching staff in 2024, one would think that the historically profligate Evil Empire won’t hesitate to sign a top-shelf starter to front the rotation in the event that Cole misses an extended period of time. However, Jon Heyman of the New York Post appears to have shut that notion down.

According to Heyman, the Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants remain “the two best hopes” to sign Blake Snell to a deal in free agency. This has been known for sometime, and it looks like nothing has changed in terms of the Yankees’ likelihood to sign Snell despite Gerrit Cole’s injury troubles.

All offseason long, Snell and the Yankees have looked like a good match; however, the Yankees know how costly it would be to sign Snell to a huge deal. After all, doing so would cost the Yankees double whatever Snell’s salary is worth in 2024. Even for the Evil Empire, that might be too prohibitive a price to push through with.

The Yankees have the likes of Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman to hold the fort anyway, so it’s not like they have to splash the cash just to fill the rotation. Potentially losing Gerrit Cole for an extended period is rough, but this does not mark the end of the world for the team in pinstripes.

As for Blake Snell, with Opening Day fast approaching, he will have to make a free agency decision soon if he doesn’t want to miss a portion of the season.