Even then, Story’s wish to play for a contender was a factor.
Terrific signing, full stop. But I do think it legitimately got pretty dicey there. If you’d have devised a “waiting out the market” approach back in October, would you have guessed that the top free agent shortstops would sign with Detroit, Minnesota, Texas, Texas again, and the Dodgers? With the top second base fallback options signing with the Nats, Mets and Cubs?
I like the Yankees offseason for them, but they might have easily moved something like Peraza+Torres+ for Olson and signed Story themselves, or signed Correa to the same deal the Twins did without blocking Volpe. Houston, Seattle, SF or LAA could have gotten involved, someone might have accepted another wild overpay by a bad team (Baltimore, Colorado), or the Braves could have pre-signed a SS replacement (to play third) and dealt Swanson.
I have a ton of faith in Bloom and trust that he’s on top of these dynamics, had contingency plans, etc. But it might have gone very differently.