The Yankees played a form of Kabuki theater Sunday with Aaron Boone as the front man. The Yankee manager pitched Gio Urshela as a starting shortstop. He offered that a roster that still had Gary Sanchez as the frontline catcher was of championship quality. 

It was rope-a-dope. Even the Yankees had internally conceded by the end of last season that they needed to upgrade defensively up the middle. That they could not keep playing a non-shortstop at shortstop. That they could not continue with all the drama and second-guessing of retaining Sanchez behind the plate. 

By Sunday night they were done with it. They had traded Urshela and Sanchez to Minnesota. They had acquired the defense-first Isiah Kiner-Falefa to play short and Ben Rortvedt to share the catching with Kyle Higashioka. 

The price was to also take on Josh Donaldson. In sheer fiscal terms, that is $50 million over the next two seasons. In personality, Donaldson hardly comes with a reputation as a get-along teammate — and he arrives with a built-in, sticky-stuff-inspired feud with Gerrit Cole. In age, he is 36 and his health (especially his legs) has been a huge problem in recent years and his offense and defense are down from his prime. 

Nevertheless, the Yankees feel Donaldson is better all-around than Urshela, and that the overall return makes them a better club. The Twins were willing to sacrifice young talent to get out from under Donaldson, the Yanks were willing to take on Donaldson to get that young talent — and get rid of Sanchez and Urshela and the defensive deficiencies they represented. 

It also screams about the Yankees’ intentions. 

This trade, for example, closes a pursuit that was mainly open only in the imagination of desirous fans — signing Carlos Correa. The Yankees love their shortstop prospects Oswald Peraza and especially Anthony Volpe and do not want to block their way to the majors. Kiner-Falefa steps in at short until one is ready during this season or more likely next then, then slips to more of a super-sub role. 

Also, Hal Steinbrenner has not shown the inclination to spend the long money necessary for Correa when he has Aaron Judge entering his walk year and — if signed — joining Cole and Giancarlo Stanton on long, expensive contracts into their late-30s. He took on two years of Donaldson instead. That brings the Yankees’ luxury-tax payroll projection over $240 million for 2022. 

The new second tax level is $250 million. And in order to get the all-around lefty-hitting first baseman the club still craves, the Yankees will have to exceed that. By a lot if it is Freddie Freeman. And while Freeman is not the pinstripe mirage that Correa was, he still far more likely ends up with the Braves or Dodgers. The Yanks remain intrigued about trading for Matt Olson, but the prospect price might be too great, especially considering how much they used their system last year to acquire Jameson Taillon, Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo. 

It makes a Rizzo reunion the most logical fallback. And, if so, the Yankees would line up with Rizzo at first, Gleyber Torres at second, Kiner-Falefa at short and Donaldson at third with DJ LeMahieu amassing 500 plate appearances by rotating among first, second and third and playing somewhere regularly when the expected injuries arrive. 

Despite his age and leg concerns, Donaldson did appear in 135 games last year and hit 26 homers with an .827 OPS. He also publicly called out Cole about sticky stuff in June. Could this be a problem for the 2022 Yankees? Sure. 

But this stuff tends to get worked out. When Roger Clemens joined the Yankees in 1999, the hitters were predisposed to hate him for his chin-music ways. But a few jokes were made, a few conversations were had and Clemens helped the Yankees win championships. All will be better with Donaldson and the Yankees if he is still even close to a top player. 

Plus, the Yankees are ridding themselves of drama as they give up on the charade that Sanchez would rebound to be a top all-around catcher. For the more he needed to concentrate on his defense, the more his offense fell — and his defense never rose enough to make that worthwhile. It will be intriguing if — removed from the Bronx sauna — he relaxes and, at the least, his offensive game flowers again with the Twins. 

Rortvedt has the reputation as a strong defender. But he has just 39 games in the majors and has never played more than 90 in any minor league season. Can he and Kyle Higashioka cover 162 games well? Can their receiving work be so stellar as to overcome the lack of hitting? 

With Kiner-Falefa and Rortvedt, the Yanks made a sea change away from a bat-first mentality. Which will put pressure on players such as LeMahieu, Torres, Gallo and Aaron Hicks to be healthy and productive. The same is true for Donaldson. 

The Yanks decided to take this risk. They had simply reached the point at which they couldn’t line up again with a non-shortstop at short and a non-catcher catching. So they faked Sunday afternoon like they could live with it, and showed Sunday night they no longer could.