Warming up: Yankees trying to beat the Red Sox, by being the Red Sox?

The Red Sox finished in last place in the AL East in 2012. So that offseason, they set out to built a team much different than the expensive all-star players that they had brought in before; guys like Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez.

Instead, the signed guys like Johnny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster and Mike Napoli -- clubhouse guys that play for the team, and not the player.

Well, that team turned right around to win the division, and eventually the World Series.

And now here are the Yankees. They missed the playoffs last season, and needed to rebuild their team, having to replace the likes of Robinson Cano, Mariano Rivera, the disappointments of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, Curtis Granderson and Boone Logan.

Even though they said that they wouldn't, the Yankees spent a lot of money -- about $500 million -- on free-agents in an effort to set themselves up for a playoff run.

Interestingly enough, three of the players that the Yankees have signed all just happened to have played for the Red Sox in 2013 -- Matt Thornton, Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Bailey. I suppose that if you can't beat your opponents, you might as well become them.

Obviously I'm just kidding with this. I highly doubt that the Yankees set off into the offseason with the goal of signing as many Red Sox players as they can. It just so happened to be that they had needs, and those players filled the holes that needed to be filled.

Unless they go out and sign Stephen Drew, only then will I start to become very suspicious.

Yankees links worth sharing:

* After watching Aledmys Diaz workout the other day, the Yankees have decided that they won't make the Cuban shortstop an offer, reports the NY Post.

* Vidal Nuno will start the Yankees' spring training opener on Tuesday.

* A spring training notebook from Day 9 of workouts; featuring stuff on Michael Pineda, and who will start the other games this week.

* Gardner's extension makes a lot of sense for the Yankees, who almost never extend players.

* The Yankees are playing it smart by locking up Gardner for the next four, possibly five, years.

Today's warm-up song: "Suit & Tie" by Justin Timberlake. He was on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday night, and was pretty good on that. So today's song is because of that.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog, and you can follow him on Twitter @GavinEwbank.