With baseball on indefinite hiatus, we here at Yahoo Sports MLB decided to have a little fun. We can’t watch real baseball on TV, but we can still play it … with a twist. We’ve decided to run some experiments using “MLB The Show 20” to simulate some unique baseball scenarios. This concept is lovingly inspired by Jon Bois’ Breaking Madden series.

If you’re a baseball fan who grew up outside New York, chances are you hate the New York Yankees. It’s a rite of passage, especially for those who grew up in the ‘90s.

You know why you hate the team, too. It’s not necessarily the fact that the Yankees have experienced a tremendous run of success over the past quarter century, it’s how they’ve been able to sustain that success: With a seemingly limitless pocket book.

Over the past 27 years or so, the Yankees have bought every major free agent who has hit the market. Gerrit Cole, Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira are just a sampling of players who were purchased — or acquired — by the team over that period. That willingness to spend absurd amounts of money is what has kept the Yankees on top for so long, and has made them the most hatable team in the game.

But what if that was no longer the case? What if the Yankees were suddenly forced to operate with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ budget?

Since the team will never do that, I took it upon myself to make it so. Since I don’t have any real-life authority to actually make that happen, I did the next best thing: I made it happen in “MLB The Show 20.”

The task: Give the Yankees a $50 million payroll and try to win

Here’s what I did, I started up a franchise in “MLB The Show 20,” took control of the Yankees and immediately had regrets. The team’s payroll is listed at $231 million in “The Show.” The real-life 2020 Pirates are planning to field a team with a payroll of roughly $50 million. In order to start simulating the 2020 season, I had to cut $181 million from the Yankees’ payroll.

I couldn’t do this mindlessly. The goal here is to win as many games as possible with the reduced Yankees squad. Though the team carries a massive payroll, the Yankees have plenty of young players still under team control on relatively cheap contracts. It’s possible I can still field a competitive team even after shedding $181 million. Since optimism springs eternal in March, I am going to claim my Yankees have World Series aspirations heading into the season. If the Marlins can say that every season, my fake Yankees team can too. Secretly, I’d love to just make the playoffs.

The plan takes shape: It’s time to make a ton of trades

The enormity of the task became apparent almost immediately. Thinking I could easily cut about $15 million off the Yankees’ payroll, I attempted to trade a $16 million Aroldis Chapman to the San Francisco Giants for a $584,000 Mike Yastrzemski. That trade was rejected due to budget reasons. Turns out, the simulation Giants aren’t interested in adding $16 million to their payroll.

This presents my cost-cutting Yankees with two major issues: a) I have to take real-life budgets into consideration with our trades and b) I’m going to have to balance out the salaries in each deal. I won’t be able to cut $15 million in a single trade, but I can cut $5 million and keep reducing from there.

Keeping that first issue in mind, I go straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers and make my first trade. Chapman and his $16 million salary go to the Dodgers for a $5.9 million Enrique Hernández and a $4 million Pedro Báez. The Yankees are down to $225 million.

In total, it took 31 trades (!) to get the Yankees all the way down to our $50 million target. Eat your heart out, Jerry Dipoto. It was a painstaking exercise. Around the fifth trade, the Dodgers decided their budget was tapped out. I had to start getting even more creative. Down to a $128 million payroll, it became apparent that I needed to trade Gerrit Cole. While I initially tried to keep him around, it was unfeasible to have one player — no matter how good — take up $36 million of the team’s $50 million budget.

Because I care about you, the reader. I wrote down all 31 trades just in case you wanted to experience the madness of this experiment for yourself.

View photos I spent actual time doing this. (Image via Yahoo Sports) More

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