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Around the Empire: Yankees news - 12/6/20

The Yankees’ biggest priorities ahead of the winter meetings; Gary Sánchez has and up-and-down week in winter ball; MLB teams to bring lawsuit against insurance providers.

Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George, the new stadium Photo by Pat Carroll/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

New York Daily News | Kristie Ackert: Ackert lays out what she believes should be the Yankees’ top priorities for the offseason. At the top of the list? DJ LeMahieu. Of course, shoring up starting pitching depth comes in as a close second. A Yankees team that re-signs LeMahieu and manages to shore up its rotation very well could enter 2021 as the AL favorites.

New York Post | Mollie Walker: Gary Sánchez made his Dominican Winter League debut earlier this week. The catcher struggled, whiffing three times, including once against prospect Albert Abreu. As bad as it feels to see Sánchez struggling again the moment he’s stepped into another batter’s box, I want to caution against taking too much away from a few Winter League at-bats. Given he hasn’t played in a game in two months and was likely to be rusty after such a long layoff. Case in point: Sánchez homered in his second game.

New York Post | AP: MLB is suing its insurance providers (lots of lawsuits going around this week), claiming the insurance companies have refused to pay certain claims despite the league’s “all-risk” policies. The league cites, as it has often done in recent months, “billions” in losses. Of course, the league continues to point to the dollars left on the table from not having fans in the stands during the pandemic, but fails to note the costs that also came off the table, such as costs incurred by hosting fans, the costs cut via massive leaguewide layoffs, players’ prorated salaries, etc. As ever, we on the outside will have no idea what teams’ gains and losses truly look like, but perhaps their insurance providers will soon learn.