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The Yankees opened their Division Series last night with one of the game's premier left-handed pitchers on the mound. Of course, it might have been a different left-hander. Tyler Kepner:

Teams make bad decisions when they are desperate, and the Yankees seemed desperate in the winter of 2007. They had just parted with Manager Joe Torre. They had lost their third division series in a row, chiefly because their No. 1 starter, Chien-Ming Wang, had been trounced twice. They needed an ace like the Twins' Johan Santana, and the general partner Hank Steinbrenner wanted him badly.

Yet, the Yankees made no deal. They had the money to pay Santana, and the prospects to get him, starting with pitcher Phil Hughes. But General Manager Brian Cashman never authorized a formal trade proposal because he saw another pitcher on the horizon: C. C. Sabathia.

--snip--

The wait was painful. The Yankees missed the playoffs in 2008, winning 89 games but never seriously contending. Santana had 16 wins for the Mets. Hughes had none for the Yankees.

Of course, the story has a happy ending (for the Yankees): Sabathia wins 19 games for the Yankees (plus at least one more in postseason), Hughes dominates as reliever, and -- sorry about this one -- Santana gets hurt and Mets lose 92 games.

Or rather, the story has a happy middle. Because it hasn't ended yet. I can't help noticing that the Yankees finished six games behind the wild card-winning Red Sox in 2008; if they'd had Santana -- who pitched brilliantly that season for the Mets -- they would have challenged the Red Sox and they might even have beaten them. I can't help noticing, too, that the Yankees would quite likely have qualified for the postseason this year, without Sabathia (but with Santana, injury and all). The Yankees did win 103 games this season, but probably could have won 90 and still been playing today.

Would their championship chances be as strong if they'd made that deal for Santana? Quite probably not (though considering the Yankees' resources, can we know they wouldn't have signed Sabathia even after acquiring Santana). At this particular moment, though, we can't yet know if Sabathia instead of Santana was the better move. It will be another year or two before we can make more than a wild guess.