NEW YORK, NY – We’re a week past Thanksgiving and everyone is thankful that there are no more Turkey Day leftovers. 
We can all look ahead to the next holiday, where a portly fellow in a red suit will reverse burglarize your house. With Christmas only three weeks away it’s time to take a look at what might be on the NY Sports Holiday Wish List.
The New York Rangers already unrwrapped their Christmas gift when they won the #1 overall pick in the draft. They picked top prospect Alexis Lafreniere who will no doubt be a star in the NHL. Now the Rangers just want the season to start. Like any kid on Xmas, they just want to play with their new toy. The Blueshirts are still light at the centre position but they will be happy to simply take the ice and show off their new talent.
The New York Yankees are wishing for some starting pitchers for Christmas. They’ve been focused on trying to re-sign DJ Lemahieu but the two sides appear to be locked in a stalemate. That has been the Yankees focus so far this offseason. But they still need starting pitching. They might still sign Masahiro Tanaka, but they are going to need more than that. Luis Severino won’t be back on the mound until around June of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery last winter. And the Rangers can’t assume that he will be back to anywhere near his pre-injury best. They will need pitching and lots of it.
[Tommy John or Shawn Hill surgery?]
The Mets, like the Rangers, already have their gift, albeit in a different way. The team is no longer under the Wilpons’ thumb after being sold to billionaire Steve Cohen last month. Cohen has already flashed the cash and the Mets have made the jump from irrelevance to a prime destination for free agents. For the holidays they’ll want a few more pieces this offseason to start climbing the NL East standings once the regular season gets under way (hopefully) this spring.
The only thing the New York Knickerbockers should want for Christmas is to not be the laughing stock of sports. The team has hopped from calamity to calamity over the last two decades and it’s been clear for years that James Dolan simply does not care. The Knicks have been unlucky in the draft lottery and they’ve squandered whatever luck they had. Hopefully some billionaire will come through and buy the Knicks. Maybe Steve Cohen can scratch together a few billion for another acquisition. Doubtful though. The Knicks will continue to toil in sports purgatory for the foreseeable future. Not good enough to garner interest and not lucky enough to rebuild through the draft. It’ll be another sad Christmas for the Knickerbockers.
That’s all for me today. Comment below and come back tomorrow for Santa’s coal magnet, Short Matt.
