Some free advice from Half-Baked Jake

The Yankees could win the World Series without playing a postseason game in the Bronx. It’s unimaginable, even sacrilegious, isn’t it? Then again, the Yankees could lose the best-ofthree AL wild card series at Cleveland and their quick exit would make all the sense in the world.

Even with a Gucci bag of perspicacity as fully loaded as HalfBaked Jake’s, there’s no answers for the Yankee enigma. So let’s sit just back Tuesday night and see if Gerrit Cole is worth the first postseason withdrawal on his $324 million free-agent deal. And hope he isn’t swarmed by Lake Erie midges like Joba Chamberlain.

In the meantime, permit HalfBaked to withdraw from his bag of acuity after five area teams’ seasons ended over the weekend (three officially).

Hire Alex Cora.

Fire Adam Gase as soon as Thursday night.

Fire Dave Gettleman last week.

Danny Ainge, think long and hard.

Ladies and Mr. Met, please welcome $14.1 billion.

Hiring Cora as manager is such an easy decision for the Red Sox that only Chaim Bloom’s ego could get in the way. And we’re not even sure if Boston’s chief baseball officer has much of an ego. So don’t complicate this, Chaim.

Bloom was given the keys to build a consistent winner after Dave Dombrowski was brought in to essentially buy a championship — which he did with

Cora in 2018. We know the Tampa Bay Rays that Bloom worked for are smart. We know the Rays are creative. We know they finished first in the AL East. We also know the Rays have never won a World Series title and the Red Sox, with much deeper pockets, have won four since 2004.

Don’t make this a test on your Yale degree or how much baseball you learned in St. Petersburg, Chaim. The ownership resetting the competitive balance tax structure by trading Mookie Betts and David Price, the Tommy John surgery for Chris Sale and the COVID-19 heart problems of Eduardo Rodriguez takes Bloom off the hook for 2020. He was dealt a lousy hand. Unless, Ron Roenicke suddenly turned