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The Warriors of Baseball

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(Mike Stobe/Getty)

This is not, I’m sorry to say, Paul O’Neill fans, a post about the Yankees making themselves in number 21’s image. This is not a post about the Yankees being gritty and gutty and all those other things. This is about taking a cue from a team 2,906 miles away that has been dominating its sport for years, and shows few signs of stopping.

There are obvious differences between the situations in the Bay Area and the Bronx. The former plays in a salary cap league whereas the latter doesn’t, though the luxury tax is certainly acting as a de facto tax for most teams. Additionally, individual basketball players have a much bigger impact on the team than individual baseball players do, generally speaking. The playoffs in which the Warriors play are also a lot more predictable than baseball ones. But the Yankees could take a page from the Warriors’ playbook in pushing themselves over the edge to championship territory.

In Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, the Warriors drafted and developed three great core players and built around them with trades and signings, including grabbing Kevin Durant, a top-3 player in the NBA. Could they have won and kept winning without him? Probably, but why risk it? You could argue the Yankees did something similar in developing talent like Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Miguel Andujar, Aaron Judge, and (partially) Gleyber Torres. You wouldn’t be wrong. You could even make the KD analogy with the Yankees having acquired Giancarlo Stanton about a year ago. But as we’ve established, baseball isn’t basketball and sometimes, one big ticket item isn’t enough. The Yankees need to go out and get more. The Yankees can go out and get more.

Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are as close to the caliber of Kevin Durant as a free agent in 2018-19 could be. Grabbing one of them would probably be enough, but why should the Yankees stop there? Grab them both. Grab, as Bob said yesterday, Patrick Corbin. Trade for Corey Kluber. Add on to trading for James Paxton. Becoming a super team in baseball doesn’t guarantee anything–just look at the Phillies with their rotation from a few years ago–but it certainly helps.

The Yankees have the resources to become the Warriors of MLB and the only thing holding them back is their own will, or lack thereof. Bronx brass–Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman–aren’t wrong when they say that you don’t need a $200M+ payroll to win. But there are no points for “efficiency.” You don’t get a boost for winning with a low $/WAR or anything like that. The biggest advantage the Yankees have is their financial might and they should flex it at every turn, especially in free agency when the free agents available are so talented and so fit the Yankees–and any team’s–needs. Choosing not to do so is like trying to hit a pinata blindfolded and swinging a cardboard tube instead of a bat or stick. The game is hard enough as it is; why sacrifice something else to make it harder on yourself?

The Yankees Will Get A Better Haul for Sonny Gray Than You Think

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(Presswire)

Brian Cashman, so the saying goes, is a ninja. The reputation is deserved: Yankee moves often materialize quickly and (from our perspective) out of nowhere. The organization as a whole rarely tips its hand with regard to its plans – an impressive feat considering the hyper-intense media environment in which it operates. That is why Cashman’s statements on Sonny Gray, which make it abundantly clear that the Yankees will trade him, have been so surprising.

Cashman’s candor began in earnest last August when he told Michael Kay that “if he winds up somewhere else pitching, he’s going to be pitching extremely well because the equipment is all there, the stuff is there, (but) consistently it’s not playing out right here.” Considering the fact that the Yankees were in the midst of a playoff push, this is about as honest as Cashman could be at the time without outright giving up on a member of the team.

This trend has continued since the end of the season. On October 12, just three days after the Yankees premature postseason exit, Cashman used his annual end-of-the-year press conference to once again make it clear that Gray is persona non grata. “To maximize his abilities,” Cashman said, “it would be more likely best [for him to be] somewhere else.”

As if that wasn’t straightforward enough, Cashman slammed Gray once again last week at the GM Meetings in Minneapolis. The Yankee GM told New York Post reporter Joel Sherman that the team is “going to move him if we get the right deal because I don’t think it is going to work out in the Bronx.”

Cashman’s uncharacteristic candor over Gray is certainly surprising, but there is another element of his statements worth exploring: the seeming belief that Sonny simply can’t make it work with the Yankees. Cashman made it a point in each of the above statements to emphasize that fact.

This suggests that the Yankees believe there is something to the statistics that show Sonny seemingly cannot pitch in Yankee Stadium beyond simple sample size noise. His home/away splits are downright remarkable, as Dominic mentioned in his excellent review of Gray’s season a few weeks ago. Gray pitched to a 3.17 ERA on the road and a 6.98 ERA at home – and those trends were present in 2017 too.

This also suggests that Cashman is right when he expresses confidence that the team will find a compatible suitor for Sonny this offseason. If the Yankees believe that there is something about the organization and Sonny that isn’t compatible, other teams very well may as well. And if that’s the case, teams will see a pitcher with a proven track record of success – including in big postseason matchups – who, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it work with the Yankees. His age, track record as a starting pitcher and success away from Yankee Stadium create a buy-low package that many teams won’t pass up.

Think about it. If Sonny Gray had been a Cleveland Indian this year and had an identical season, many of us would want the Yankees to go after him. Furthermore, Cashman wouldn’t be so blunt about his intentions if he didn’t know there were interested teams out there.

Because the bulk of our familiarity with Sonny comes during his Yankee tenure, it can be easy to forget the track record that made so many of us excited when the team traded for him in 2017. That underlying record hasn’t changed, even if his value is obviously lower than it was then.

This is not to say that the Yankees will receive a huge haul for Sonny as it is to say that it will not be as meager as we might think. I can’t predict what a trade will look like – and even if I did, it would suck – but I do not think the Yankees are in a position where they will just dump Gray for scraps. He still has considerable upside, and some team will take a chance on him. And if Brian Cashman is to be believed, he’ll probably realize that upside– just not in pinstripes.

What would a full teardown have looked like in the Bronx?

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Ah, what might have been… (Elsa/Getty Images)

Last week, Josh Norris unveiled his Baseball America cover story, “The House That Cash Built,” on how Brian Cashman built the current Yankees roster. It’s a great read and you should give that a look when you have some time.

While the piece gives you an inside look at the team, the most intriguing news was the revelation that Cashman wanted to go for a full rebuild and was rebuffed by ownership. It’s not shocking. A third of current rosters are in tanking mode and a few others, namely the Cubs and Astros, have recently come out of a tank to find startling success.

The Yankees of 2013-16 were growing stale and old and were in danger of being stuck in mediocrity. Yet with a fan base demanding World Series titles, ownership understandably didn’t want to go through a 3-4 year rebuild that would have sent attendance dwindling and didn’t offer guarantees of success. The Steinbrenner family instead wanted Cashman to chart a middle course.

That reload-on-the-fly tightrope walk which Cashman pulled off has led to a surprise ALCS appearance and a strong roster built for long-term success. But what would a rebuild have looked like in the Bronx, beyond simply a near-empty stadium? Was there an opportunity for the Yankees to make something even better around their current core? Those are the questions I want to answer here.

1. The first step? Practically the same

If you were designing the first part in a teardown, it would be to sell players off, either in the offseason or the trade deadline. Well, that’s exactly what the Yankees did in 2016. Gone were Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, two high-priced, high-leverage relievers, something which you scarcely need if you’re not planning on competing. They also traded Carlos Beltran, a veteran on an expiring deal, for three prospects.

In return, they received three highly touted talents in Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield and Gleyber Torres, none of whom were ready to plug into the MLB roster right away. Dillon Tate was another high-upside talent who was worth the risk if you’re trying to build a winner years down the road. Perhaps, in a full rebuild, they decide not to take back Adam Warren in the Chapman deal with less of a need for veteran relievers, but it’s plausible they would have bought low on him anyway. It’s not like they would have received Eloy Jimenez instead.

The only trade at that deadline that doesn’t make sense in the context of a teardown is the Tyler Clippard deal. At the time, it was clear he was part of a compromise between ownership and the front office. It was essentially ownership saying, “Fine, we’ll let you trade the big relievers, but you have to get a veteran back to save face.” Vicente Campos was a small price to pay for a reliever at the deadline and whether he factored into the Yankees’ plans is questionable.

Forcing Alex Rodriguez into retirement was another necessary step that likely happens either way. He was very clearly done at the plate and the team needed to give at-bats to Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge, both of whom seem to have done some good with that playing time. Billy Butler also probably doesn’t enter the fray, giving more at-bats to Tyler Austin.

Neither of these guys are 2017 Yankees in a full rebuild (Abbie Parr/Getty)

2. Would they have sold heavy in 2016-17 offseason?

During the subsequent offseason, the Yankees dealt Brian McCann to the Astros for Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman, two pitchers who still haven’t pitched above Single-A. That’s a move that likely happens regardless of the team tearing down or trying to compete: Sanchez had forced the issue and deserved the starting job.

Beyond the McCann deal, the Yankees didn’t sell. In fact, they dished out the largest contract ever given to a relief pitcher, bringing Chapman back. They also got Chris Carter as a bargain-bin addition later in the winter. Carter was a useful (in theory) piece with Tyler Austin going down with an injury and Greg Bird’s injury history. However, Chapman would have been an unnecessary expense and probably ends up in Miami or elsewhere.

Chapman probably isn’t the only change in the bullpen equation. With the team’s ability to develop bullpen arms and a window of competition put further in the future, the Yankees likely sell high on Dellin Betances. He came with similar question marks to right now but was still coming off back-to-back All-Star appearances. You often can’t get as much for a reliever like that in the offseason as at the deadline, so the Yankees may have held onto him until July. Still, it’s hard to imagine Betances sticking in this hypothetical.

Beyond Betances, the team had a few expendable veterans, namely Starlin Castro, Chase Headley and Brett Gardner. Each was coming off a down season at the plate and would improve in 2017, so that would have harmed their trade value. Still, Gardner was bandied about in trade rumors that offseason (or seemingly every offseason) and had just won a Gold Glove, so he’s likely shipped out. Of course, Castro and Headley ended up being traded in the 2017-18 offseason. However, eventually trading Castro and stuff for Giancarlo Stanton doesn’t happen.

3. Let the kids play (even more)

There’s a reason why the Yankees were projected to end up well below their 91-win finish in 2017 and it’s primarily because of the team’s reliance on unproven youth. Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks and Judge hadn’t been very effective in the majors in 2016. Sanchez had been great for two months, but a full season is another animal. We hadn’t even seen Jordan Montgomery and Chad Green was an afterthought.

All six of those aforementioned players played a big role in the 2017 team. In a full rebuild, those roles could have been even larger. If Gardner is traded, that opens up a full-time outfield spot for Hicks, who lost out on the right field job that spring to Judge. Handing two rotation spots to rookies or near rookies would have been even more obvious than it already was. Instead of spending most of the year in Triple-A, Tyler Wade and Miguel Andujar get more of a chance to learn on the job in the majors.

The Yankees might have considered jettisoning Sabathia in favor of allowing Green or Cessa to get regular starts. This wouldn’t have been all that necessary — Sabathia, Michael Pineda and just about every starter went on the DL in 2017 — but it’s at least a thought. CC’s presence would have been important with few veterans as Gardner would likely be gone and David Robertson wouldn’t be a trade target.

The funny thing is: This team is probably pretty darn good. Remember the weaknesses to last year’s team of Clippard alongside Betances and Chapman’s struggles. I don’t particularly want to fathom of Jonathan Holder getting 7th/8th inning opportunities consistently, but some combo of Warren, Betances and a veteran stopgap the team signs could have held down the fort. If Judge, Sanchez and co. actually hit like they did, the team might have jumped into the Wild Card Game despite trying to tear down. However, I’d bet that the veteran intangibles of Gardner and others — not to mention their production — would have been missed and led to a few more losses.

Just as in our timeline, the 2017 Yankees’ success would have been anomalous with the team pointing to 2018 or beyond as when to expect real contention. The team may not have been in position to practically steal Giancarlo Stanton, but they would have been set up for a strong 2018. If they saw their window moving up, they could have further taken advantage of a slow free agent market to bolster that optimism. Therefore, a full teardown may not have been all that different from the actual outcome.

A Thought after the Yu Darvish Non-Signing

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Darvish (Harry How/Getty)

Nothing ever happens in a vacuum. When decisions are made–or not made–there is always some context to consider. We make our choices to do or do not, be or not be based on the circumstances that surround whatever situation we’re in. Then, those choices have consequences, which lead to new contexts, which lead to new choices, which lead to…you get where this goes. Yesterday, a choice the Cubs made got me thinking about a choice the Yankees didn’t and the possible consequences of that non-choice.

The Cubs signed free agent pitcher Yu Darvish, someone to whom the Yankees were linked for much of the offseason. The deal has a $126M base salary, with incentives to bring it up to $150M, over six years. As Mike said in the post, seems about right. Maybe it’s a little less inflated than recent pitcher contracts have been, especially given Darvish’s track record and reputation, but underwhelming contract returns seems to be a theme of the 2017-2018 Hot Stove. Despite that, and the aforementioned connection between the Bombers and Yu, Ken Rosenthal revealed that the team never even made an offer to sign Darvish. Why not? Say it with me, folks: the luxury tax.

By now, with Darvish off the table, Spring Training days away, and no other salary-related trades made since the Chase Headley one, I’m resigned to the fact that the Yankees are, very clearly, going to stay under the tax threshold. And I get it, when thinking from their point of view. It gives them savings shortly down the road that they’ll use to invest back into the team. On top of that, the team, as presently constructed, is good enough to win without adding a big piece. ZiPS and PECOTA have them at 93 and 96 wins respectively, both marks projected to win the division, the latter quite comfortably. And as counter intuitive as it may be, that rosy projection has me worried about the Yankees’ plans to spend going forward.

(Presswire)

For a few years now, both Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman have beat a similar drum, one whose tune says “you don’t have to spend $200M to be a winner.”  There’s truth to that statement and the Yankees are finally in a position to make it true. Between Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery in the rotation, along with Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Greg Bird in the lineup, as well as Chad Green in the bullpen, the Yankees have plenty of impact players making dirt cheap salaries. That’s to say nothing of both the depth and high-end potential of their minor league players–spearheaded by Gleyber Torres and Justus Sheffield–and their apparent starting third baseman, Miguel Andujar. This team is set up to win in the short term and the long term, just what everyone wants. And the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that the Yankees will not reinvest their luxury tax savings if they win this year.

Eight months from now, it’ll be November. The Yankees will almost certainly have made the playoffs. They’ll probably have one at least one round. They may have even gotten to and/or won the World Series. And those things, no matter how minimal, are going to influence the Yankees. With last year’s performance, the Yankees arrived ahead of schedule. They were able to win without a huge splash in the free agent market, and are poised to do so this year. The trade for Giancarlo Stanton makes them less likely to go after Bryce Harper, who’d really have no room to play in the Yankees’ outfield in 2019 and beyond. If the team wins with Miguel Andujar at third base all year, and he comports himself as well as he can and is able to, the Yankees could reasonably pass on Manny Machado, too. If Machado is set on playing shotstop, the Yankees can always point to Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres as reasons not to sign him to a big money deal.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Yankees to sit out the free agent market next year if they show great success this year. Winning is winning, after all, regardless of how much you spend. But the Yankees’ actions this year, especially on the pitching market, and their team construction make me think they’re going to skip reinvesting the potential and probable luxury tax savings from 2018. That’s their prerogative since it’s their team, their money, etc. And if you can win and spend less doing it? Great! But we’ve been told for years that this plan was to get them reset to spend big when the time came. I can’t help but feel we’re in for a bait and switch.

Taking A Chance On A Rookie General Manager

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Watson and Cashman. (NY Daily News)

Less than a month before the start of Spring Training, the Yankees suddenly found themselves without a general manager in 1998.

Bob Watson, who became the first African-American general manager in baseball history with the Astros in 1993, resigned from his post with the Yankees in early February because he felt his role had been diminished within the organization. He joined the Yankees in October 1995 and was at the helm for the 1996 World Series title.

“Everybody knows Mr. Steinbrenner is a hands-on guy,” said Watson to reporters after his resignation was announced. “I know that. It’s his club and it’s his prerogative. We’ll just leave it at that.”

Watson, like most people who worked for Steinbrenner, had a difficult relationship with The Boss — a few weeks before resigning, Watson joked “little people that run around (George’s) head are his baseball people” — but those close to him felt Watson was simply burnt out. He didn’t want to be a general manager anymore.

“He knows and I know I’m not an easy guy to work for,” said Steinbrenner to Buster Olney. “If he doesn’t want to work for me, he shouldn’t have to do that. I want to know that Bob is happy. I’m all for him, and I hope he has a great career in television. I don’t think this is as big a story as anybody is making it out to be.”

There were rumblings Watson would join ESPN to do broadcast work, though he instead landed in MLB’s executive offices as vice president in charge of discipline, rules, and on-field operations. Either way, Watson was gone, and the Yankees were without an experienced general manager.

* * *

“I want to introduce you to Brian Cashman … Someday you’ll all be fired and he’ll be the general manager of the Yankees,” said Steinbrenner, according to S.L. Price, when he first hired Cashman in 1989 and introduced him to his baseball operations brain trust, which included Gene Michael, Dallas Green, Syd Thrift, and others. The room laughed.

For a long time — a very long time — people tried to diminish Cashman’s role in the Yankees’ success by saying he inherited a great team from Watson and Michael. He inherited the (groan) Core Four. He inherited Bernie Williams. He inherited Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez and David Cone and lots of others who were key members of the late-1990s dynasty.

And you know what? It’s true. Cashman did inherit that team as general manager. He couldn’t have walked into a better situation. What gets overlooked (or ignored) is Cashman’s role in building the team he inherited. Cashman did not join the Yankees from outside the organization. He’d been with the team for a decade prior to becoming general manager.

Cashman started with the Yankees working in the scouting department during the day and security at night. He climbed the player development ladder under then farm system head Brian Sabean, when all those core players were minor leaguers, and he spent four years as an assistant general manager under Michael and Watson. To pretend he didn’t have a hand in building the roster he’d inherited as general manager is folly.

* * *

At the time he was hired, the 30-year-old Cashman was the second youngest general manager in baseball history. And he was about to walk into a situation that drove Watson, a grizzled old school baseball lifer, away from the Yankees and into a cushy job with MLB. Cashman knew what he was getting into though, because he’d worked for Steinbrenner for a decade.

“I’m working on it. We’re in talks and we have a lot of things going on. I’m not going to guarantee it’s going to happen,” said Steinbrenner to Buster Olney when asked about the Chuck Knoblauch trade talks. That was the day Watson’s resignation was announced and Cashman took over. George made it clear who was running the show.

The Knoblauch trade was completed three days after Cashman officially took over as general manager. A month later Cashman helped push the Orlando Hernandez signing to the finish line. And that was pretty much it as far as big moves for the 1998 Yankees. The team Cashman inherited — the team he helped build under Sabean, Michael, and Watson — was incredible and they didn’t need help. Cashman passed on Randy Johnson at the trade deadline and the Yankees won the World Series anyway, with him watching from the stands in San Diego.

In a weird way, Cashman’s first season as general manager was pretty uneventful. There were no roster crises, no rumblings of a managerial change, and the team won so much that Steinbrenner had nothing to get angry about. Couldn’t have asked for a better situation. Things could’ve gone haywire though. The general manager resigned right before Spring Training and a 30-year-old rookie replaced him? Steinbrenner took a chance, and that chance continues to reward the Yankees to this day.

“The Boss said to me, ‘I have talked to enough people that tell me you can do this. I can go outside the franchise and recycle somebody who’s done this job before, bring them in and plug and play. But I have talked to enough people that I respect and they said you can do this,'” Cashman said last month, after introducing Aaron Boone as the next Yankees manager. “He took a chance on me in 1998.”

Brian Cashman and the Front Office [2017 Season Review]

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(Mike Stobe/Getty)
(Mike Stobe/Getty)

A little more than a year ago the Yankees were in the process of selling away veterans and selling their fans on the idea of a soft rebuild, or transition. They wouldn’t hard tank like the Astros or Braves, but if they had to take a step back in 2017 so they could be better in 2018 and beyond, so be it. Trying to get younger while staying competitive is much easier said than done.

Now the Yankees are coming off an ALCS Game Seven appearance and the on-the-fly rebuild went so well that Baseball America named Brian Cashman their Executive of the Year. Can you imagine? That’s usually reserved for the general manager of a small payroll team that overcame long odds to make the postseason. The Yankees went from seller to World Series contender in one season. It was incredible.

Clearly, Cashman and his front office did a pretty excellent job this year. Not just this year but over the last several years, putting the Yankees in position to have the season they just did. This post is not intended to evaluate the front office. Our entire Season Review series to date has been one big front office evaluation. We’re going to wrap the Season Review series up today with more of a state of the union look at the front office. Let’s get to it.

Cashman’s 20th Season

The 2017 season was Cashman’s 20th season as general manager, which is pretty crazy. General managers are not supposed to last that long. He is the longest tenured general manager in baseball and the third longest tenured baseball operations head behind Brian Sabean (Giants) and Billy Beane (Athletics). I’m sure if you asked Cashman, he’d tell you he never expected to be around this long.

For the first 17-18 years of his 20-year tenure, Cashman was dogged with “he inherited great teams” talk, which was true to some extent, but it was silly to pretend he had nothing to do with the sustained contention through the 2000s. Now though, these Yankees are Cashman’s team. There are no holdovers from Gene Michael or Bob Watson. And the roster is built around homegrown youth, not a bloated payroll.

More than anything, Cashman deserves credit for his (staff’s) success identifying buy low players and his patience. He acquired Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks on the cheap, and waited out the Giancarlo Stanton situation until the terms were favorable. The Yankees used to be a very aggressive team that blew everyone away with offers, either free agent offers or trade proposals. Now they tend to sit back and wait until the time is right to make an offer.

The club’s success this year landed Cashman yet another contract this offseason. It’s reportedly a five-year deal worth $25M that will ensure he gets to see this transition through. Is it unrealistic to say Cashman’s Yankees should win a World Series during that five-year contract? I mean, winning is hard, but no, that expectation is not unrealistic. Winning a championship is the goal now, and the Yankees have a roster capable of doing it soon.

The New Brain Trust

Like the roster, the front office is always changing. People come and go as opportunities arise. Surely Cashman and the Yankees would’ve loved for Billy Eppler to remain with them forever, but keeping smart people is not easy. The Angels offered Eppler a chance to be their general manager, a chance to run his own operation, and how could he say no to that?

Cashman has had to make changes to his support staff out of necessity in recent years, and I thought the people involved in the managerial search were pretty interesting. Cashman and four others were involved in the interview process. From Brendan Kuty:

Their first candidate, bench coach Rob Thomson, was asked after his interview who conducted his session. He said it was led by general manager Brian Cashman, with the four other people in the room: assistant GM Jean Afterman, assistant GM Michael Fishman, vice president of baseball operations Tim Naehring and assistant professional scouting director Dan Giese.

Afterman has been with the Yankees for 16 years now. Fishman hasn’t been with the Yankees that long, though it has been a while now, and he heads up the team’s analytics department, which is arguably the best and most sophisticated in baseball. Naehring replaced Eppler as Cashman’s right-hand man. Giese? He pitched for the Yankees in 2008 and was playing as recently as 2010. He’s since risen up the front office ranks quickly and is now sitting in on managerial interviews.

Front offices are always changing and evolving. They have to be. Smart people are hard to keep. They come and go and so do their ideas. The Yankees don’t hire many people from outside the organization — Jim Hendry, the former Cubs general manager, is the notable exception — but they do lose people. Eppler is gone. Gary Denbo is gone. Former pro scouting director Steve Martone is gone. (He is now Eppler’s assistant general manager.) The Yankees tend to develop their own front office talent and promote from within. I think that’s pretty impressive. At some time, bringing in some folks from outside the organization can be beneficial as well. It helps avoid groupthink.

A New Farm Director

Denbo left to join his old buddy Derek Jeter with the Marlins a few weeks ago. He ran the Yankees’ player development system, and almost as soon as Denbo took over three years ago, the Yankees became a player development machine. After producing a Robinson Cano here and a Brett Gardner there, the system under Denbo pumped out Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, and others in a short period of time.

How much credit does Denbo deserve for the recent player development success? I have no idea, but I refuse to believe it is a coincidence the Yankees started producing players after he took over. Denbo is gone now, and a few weeks ago the Yankees tabbed Kevin Reese to replace him. Reese, like Giese, has risen up the front office ranks since his playing career ended, and now he’ll be tasked with continuing the player development success, because gosh, the Yankees still have a lot of prospects coming.

A case can be made that aside from Cashman, the overseer of all things Yankees, Reese may have the most important job in the front office. You can’t succeed in baseball without a productive farm system these days. You can’t buy a winning team though free agency. The farm system pipeline is crucial, and while Reese won’t be throwing pitches or swinging a bat, he is the man in charge. It’s his job to keep the pipeline flowing.

* * *

The only real complaint I have about the front office this season is that they didn’t add a bat at the trade deadline or in August. I thought it was an obvious need with Judge in his slump, Matt Holliday looking lost, and Bird’s status unknown. Guys like Jay Bruce and Neil Walker and Yonder Alonso were traded for basically nothing in August, and the Yankees wound up playing Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury at DH in the postseason. Blah.

Aside from that, I think Cashman and the Yankees did a phenomenal job this season, starting with committing to the youth movement and continuing with the shift at midseason that led to adding Sonny Gray, Todd Frazier, David Robertson, and all those guys. I’m always kinda interested to see how rebuilding teams react when they start to win, because deciding when to go for it isn’t always easy. Cashman and the Yankees acted decisively this year. It was time to go young. And when that worked as well as it did, it became time to move prospects for big league help, and that’s what they did.

Yankees, Cashman reportedly finalizing five-year contract

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(Presswire)
(Presswire)

According to Bob Nightengale, the Yankees and Brian Cashman and putting the finishing touches on a new five-year contract worth $25M. The team hasn’t confirmed anything, but that’ll happen soon enough. The contract puts Cashman’s salary at a notch below the Andrew Friedman ($7M annually) and Theo Epstein ($10M annually) pay grade, though he did get a five-year deal. Each of Cashman’s last four contracts were three-year pacts.

Cashman’s previous contract expired on October 31st, so he had been working without a contract for a while now. There were never any serious rumors or even much idle speculation Cashman and the Yankees would part ways. It was an open secret he would be coming back ever since ownership followed his recommendation to part ways with Joe Girardi, and that was only confirmed when he led the charge to hire Aaron Boone as the new skipper.

Cashman, now 50, has been with the Yankees basically his entire adult life. He started with the team as an intern in 1986 and gradually worked his way up through the player development and baseball operations departments. Cashman was an assistant general manager under Gene Michael and Bob Watson from 1992-98 before taking over as general manager when Watson resigned in February 1998.

Needless to say, sticking around as a general manager for two decades is quite an accomplishment, especially in New York. Cashman worked under George Steinbrenner for a long time before Hal took over. Only Brian Sabean (Giants) and Billy Beane (Athletics) have a longer active tenure running a baseball operations department. The Yankees haven’t yet jumped on board with the “president of baseball operations” trend, so Cashman remains general manager.

With Cashman re-signed, Boone taking over as manager, and Shohei Ohtani rejecting the Yankees, the next orders of business are finding another starting pitcher and building the coaching staff. The Yankees have an impressive young core at the big league level right now and more top prospects coming soon. Cashman’s goal now is to supplement that core.