Recently, ESPN writer David Schoenfield wrote a detailed feature about the New York Yankees and their success in spite of old age.

Rebuking doomsayers, Schoenfield time-traveled 18 seasons (to when Jack McDowell wore pinstripes) to show why it would be unwise to count the Yankees out in 2013.

Absorbing the chart Schoenfield provides in his feature, he makes a valid argument. After all, it is tough to argue with a 1,731-1,163 team record and an average plus-148 run differential since 1995.

What is debatable however (and not mentioned in Schoenfield’s work) is that this present Yankees ball club fields one of the oldest Yankees teams in the past 18 years.

Frankly, Yankees fans accused of grumbling have every right to grumble. As the recent signings of Ichiro Suzuki and Kevin Youkilis can attest, it seems the Yankees look like a team one year away from a monster overhaul.

Double-strength aspirin in the medicine cabinet—could there something deeper going in the Yankees front office?

More specifically, is Brian Cashman and Co. simply buying time until the Yankees’ core of home-grown prospects is ready for the show? Or is pinstripe’s brass hoarding a bomber load of cash to make a few huge free-agent landings in 2014?

With the Yankees, answering these questions is always a challenge. Perhaps a hybrid of events is occurring here.

But should the Yankees be looking to enter splash mode, this slideshow will highlight seven in-their-prime free agents that might be available come 2014. 

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