What if the 2013 New York Yankees are one elaborate April Fool’s joke?

The New York Yankees continued their wacky preseason on Tuesday by signing 36-year-old Lyle Overbay just a few hours after he was released by the Boston Red Sox. This, in 2013, is what the Yankees have become? A team happy to loot from Boston's trash pile.

Daniel Barbarisi at the Wall Street Journal makes the astute observation that the Yankees have done a heck of a job assembling a stellar team — if this were 2006. Under the headline, "If only the Yankees had a time machine," Barbarisi writes:

In fact, that 2006 AL MVP race reads like a 2013 Yankee roster. In 2006, 30 players received AL MVP votes. The Yankees, amazingly, have eight of those players on their 2013 roster. Only 24 of the 30 MVP finalists remain in the majors, meaning that the Yankees have fully a third of those players under their control.

After reading that, I had another thought. And it's weird one, so stick with me here: What if it's all prank? What if Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and so on, are all fine? What if, on opening day, April Fool's Day (!!!), when the Yankees play the Red Sox (!!!), these so-called injured Yankees trot out there, healthy as can be? Then the Yankees look at the rest of baseball and say "gotcha!"

What if all the rest of it was just to get a reaction? Just to troll us bloggers and the Yankee haters? What if they traded for Vernon Wells just because they could, because they knew they'd get LOL'd all over Twitter, and didn't care?

What if they added Overbay — who in the past two seasons with three teams had a combined 11 home runs and 57 RBIs with a .239 average — because picking up a guy even the rival Red Sox didn't want is the perfect conclusion to an elaborate April Fool's gag?

Why would they even do this? Perhaps when you're the Yankees, baseball's most esteemed franchise, you have to think of new ways to challenge yourself. When you've won the World Series 27 times and you need a new rush, maybe you role-play a little and see what it feels like to be the team at which people laugh. Their own version of "Trading Places."

But then again, maybe none of the above is true. Maybe I have a weird imagination. Maybe the bombers think guys like Overbay and Wells are their only hope.

And maybe the Yankees are that hot of a mess this season.

Are you ready for opening day?
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