River Avenue Blues

  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Features
    • Yankees Top 30 Prospects
    • Prospect Profiles
    • Fan Confidence
  • Resources
    • 2019 Draft Order
    • Depth Chart
    • Bullpen Workload
    • Guide to Stats
  • Shop and Tickets
    • RAB Tickets
    • MLB Shop
    • Fanatics
    • Amazon
    • Steiner Sports Memorabilia
River Ave. Blues » Kevin Reese

Brian Cashman and the Front Office [2017 Season Review]

December 21, 2017 by Mike Leave a Comment

(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.

Filed Under: Front Office Tagged With: 2017 Season Review, Brian Cashman, Dan Giese, Kevin Reese

Update: Yankees name Kevin Reese new farm system head

November 3, 2017 by Mike Leave a Comment

Reese during his playing days. (Getty)
Reese during his playing days. (Getty)

Friday: The Yankees announced Reese’s move this morning. His official title is senior director of player development. There’s no word yet on who will replace him as the head of the pro scouting department.

Thursday: According to George King, the Yankees will name Kevin Reese their new farm system head, replacing the departed Gary Denbo. Denbo ran the farm system from 2015-17 before leaving to join Derek Jeter and the Marlins last month. The Yankees have not yet officially announced Reese as the player development chief. I imagine it’ll happen soon.

Reese, 39, spent the 2002-07 seasons as a depth outfielder in the farm system, and he did manage to appear in 12 games with the Yankees from 2005-06. He joined the club as a scout in 2008 and has gradually worked his way up the ladder. Most recently, Reese was the director of pro scouting. He took over the department when Billy Eppler left to join the Angels.

Over the last three years Denbo turned the farm system into a player development machine after it’d been unproductive for years under Mark Newman. It’s not just the Aaron Judges and Gary Sanchezes and Luis Severinos. Others like Jordan Montgomery are quite valuable too. Now Reese will be in charge of making sure the pipeline remains productive. If nothing else, he still has a lot of talent to work with.

The Yankees reportedly interviewed four candidates to replace Denbo, all internal: Reese, director of minor league operations Eric Schmitt, director of performance science John Kremer, and field coordinator Carlos Mendoza. The Yankees tend to promote from within for these jobs. Now they have to replace Reese as the pro scouting department head, though I’m sure they have someone lined up.

Filed Under: Front Office Tagged With: Kevin Reese

DotF: Austin heads to winter ball, Abreu dominates in AzFL

October 29, 2017 by Mike Leave a Comment

Last week SS Thairo Estrada finished third in the annual Arizona Fall League Hitting Challenge behind Twins 3B Chris Paul and Mets C Tomas Nido. During the Hitting Challenge players aim for targets on the field to accumulate points. It’s pretty neat. The video is above. Here are some minor league notes:

  • SS Gleyber Torres has started hitting off a tee as he continues his rehab from Tommy John surgery, according to his Instagram feed. Good news. Seems everything is going well. Torres blew out his non-throwing elbow sliding into home plate in June and is expected to be ready in time for Spring Training.
  • Both 3B Miguel Andujar and 1B Tyler Austin will play winter ball in the Dominican Republic this winter, according to MLB Pipeline. Austin missed a bunch of time with injuries this past season, and could be a 40-man roster casualty this winter. Andujar needs to work on his defense. The more reps, the better.
  • LHP Justus Sheffield (No. 1) topped last week’s Prospect Hot Sheet following his dominant Arizona Fall League debut, then both RHP Albert Abreu (No. 2 ) and OF Estevan Florial (No. 7 ) made this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet. I can’t remember the last time the Yankees had this strong a group of prospects in the AzFL.
  • Player development analyst Dan Greenlee has left the Yankees to join Gary Denbo with the Marlins, reports Joel Sherman. Greenlee will be Miami’s director of player personnel, which is quite the promotion. He’d been doing minor league analytical work for the Yankees.
  • The Yankees have started interviewing internal candidates to replace Denbo, reports George King. Pro scouting director Kevin Reese, director of minor league operations Eric Schmitt, director of performance science John Kremer, and field coordinator Carlos Mendoza have interviewed so far.
  • So long, 1B Ji-Man Choi. He elected free agency, reports Matt Eddy. We’ll always have those dingers. Also, the Yankees re-signed C Sharif Othman. The organizational depth catcher hit .223/.265/.345 (74 wRC+) in 72 games at three levels in 2017.

Arizona Fall League

  • SS Thairo Estrada: 10 G, 16-41, 9 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 9 K, 2 HBP, 2 SB (.390/.432/.512)
  • OF Estevan Florial: 10 G, 12-38, 9 R, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 6 BB, 18 K, 1 HBP, 1 SB, 1 CS (.316/.422/.447) — Josh Norris said Florial got chewed up by breaking balls in one of the games he saw, which included six swings and misses on breaking stuff
  • SS Kyle Holder: 6 G, 10-24, 3 R, 1 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 1 CS (.417/.444/.625) — he’s on the taxi squad, so he only plays Wednesdays and Saturdays
  • 1B/OF Billy McKinney: 9 G, 11-36, 5 R, 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 17 RBI, 4 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP (.306/.372/.528) — so far he’s played five games at first base, three in left field, and one at DH … some AzFL parks are equipped with Statcast, and among the games recorded, McKinney had one of the ten hardest hit balls
  • RHP Albert Abreu: 3 G, 3 GS, 15 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 1 HR (1.20 ERA and 0.80 WHIP)
  • RHP Cody Carroll: 5 G, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 11 K (0.00 ERA and 0.86 WHIP)
  • RHP Andrew Schwaab: 5 G, 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HB (8.31 ERA and 1.85 WHIP)
  • LHP Justus Sheffield: 4 G, 4 GS, 19 IP, 13 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 21 K, 1 WP (2.39 ERA and 0.79 WHIP) — Josh Norris has a write-up of Sheffield’s second AzFL start, and said his stuff was as good as his first start … “The 21-year-old sat between 94-97 mph with his fastball for most of his 4.1 inning out and touched 98 once. Just like he did on Tuesday, he also showed two potential plus offerings in his mid-80s slider and high-80s slider,” said the report.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Down on the Farm Tagged With: Carlos Mendoza, Dan Greenlee, Eric Schmitt, Gleyber Torres, John Kremer, Kevin Reese, Sharif Othman

Reports: Kevin Reese, Tim Naehring, Jay Darnell among candidates to replace Billy Eppler

October 16, 2015 by Mike Leave a Comment

Generic photo is generic. (Presswire)
Generic photo is generic. (Presswire)

Soon after the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason last week, assistant GM Billy Eppler headed back home to Southern California to take over as Angels GM, leaving a void in the front office. Eppler has been Cashman’s right hand man for a few years now. For a while it appeared he was being groomed to one take over as GM.

After Eppler took the job from the Angels, Cashman said he prefers to replace him from within, though an outside hire is always possible. “I will look outside, too. But you always want to promote from within if you can. I believe in our system and depth of our personnel,” he said to Joel Sherman.

According to George King and Nick Cafardo, among the internal candidates to replace Eppler are player personnel head Kevin Reese (the former outfielder!) and trusted scouts Tim Naehring and Jay Darnell. Naehring reportedly had a big hand in acquiring Didi Gregorius while Darnell was the scout who recommended Yangervis Solarte.

Cafardo says Naehring has turned down promotions in the past because he is based in Cincinnati and wants to remain close to his family. There was some talk Naehring and Darnell would join Eppler in Anaheim, but Cashman shot that down. “That’s not true. They’re under contract,” the GM said.

The Yankees still have two assistant GMs even with Eppler gone: Jean Afterman and Michael Fishman. Afterman is the contract and legal guru from what I understand. Fishman heads the team’s statistical analysis department. Jon Heyman says special advisor Jim Hendry now has a “big voice in the organization,” though apparently he isn’t a candidate to take over as assistant GM.

I don’t know anything about Reese, Naehring, and Darnell as far as their front office skills, but they’re reportedly candidates to replace Eppler, so they must be highly regarded within the organization. I have to think replacing Eppler is something the Yankees want to do soon, before the offseason really gets underway.

Filed Under: Front Office Tagged With: Jay Darnell, Jim Hendry, Kevin Reese, Tim Naehring

Kevin Reese is back with the Yanks

March 18, 2008 by Joe Pawlikowski 1 Comment

Last year, long-time Yankee farmhand Kevin Reese was released. Despite this, Mike still gave him the the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award. I thought I heard he caught on somewhere else, but apparently not. As Chad Jennings shares with us, Reese is now a minor league scout for the Yanks, covering the Sally and Carolina leagues. Welcome back, Kevin.

Filed Under: Asides Tagged With: Kevin Reese

RAB Thoughts on Patreon

Mike is running weekly thoughts-style posts at our "RAB Thoughts" Patreon. $3 per month gets you weekly Yankees analysis. Become a Patron!

Got A Question For The Mailbag?

Email us at RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com. The mailbag is posted Friday mornings.

RAB Features

  • 2019 Season Preview series
  • 2019 Top 30 Prospects
  • 'What If' series with OOTP
  • Yankees depth chart

Search RAB

Copyright © 2023 · River Avenue Blues