MLB Insider's Update After Gerrit Cole-Yankees Meeting Shows Once Again They're Willing to Spend

We don't know much more about the chances Gerrit Cole shirks the west coast to be a Yankee following his initial meeting with the two sides, but the information that leaked after the event proved once again that this offseason's....different for the Bombers.

Whether they sense the necessity and urgency of supplementing a championship-level core, or they've simply been waiting all along for someone like Cole, it's fairly clear the team intends to spend this offseason in an effort to get what they want. That's something we very much did NOT hear last offseason, when every fan tried hard to convince themselves the Yankees were "in" on major free agents, though it was quite clear all along they weren't flexing many of their muscles.

"He may prefer LA" is nothing new. We've known that for years, the second we glanced at Cole's birth certificate and let Josh Reddick lead the rumor mill. Win or lose, "the dollars will be there" is a sentiment we simply haven't gotten from the new-age Steinbrenners in six years.

And, of course, there are the obvious parallels between CC Sabathia's 2009 free agency and this Cole-centric cycle.

If the dollars are there, to this degree, then we already have evidence that preferences can change, and titles can follow.