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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.”

Saturday Links: Gurriel, Beltran, A-Rod, Forbes, Watson

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Lourdes Jr. (Getty)
Lourdes Jr. (Getty)

The Yankees and Angels continue their weekend series later today, but not until 9:35pm ET. Blah. I hate Saturday night games, especially when they’re on the West Coast. Oh well. What can you do? Here are some links to help you pass the time.

MLB declares Gurriel a free agent

MLB has declared Lourdes Gurriel Jr. a free agent, reports Eric Longenhagen. He is the younger brother of Yulieski Gurriel, who signed a five-year contract worth $47.5M with the Astros a few weeks ago. Lourdes is a free agent but he’s not going to sign right away. Once he turns 23 in October, he will no longer be eligible for the international spending restrictions. He’s going to wait until then to sign to max out his earning potential.

Longenhagen and Ben Badler (subs. req’d) say reports on Lourdes are mixed. He’s a good athlete capable of playing an up-the-middle position, and while he has speed and power, his swing can get long. Gurriel has a lot of upside, but is also a bit of a project for a kid who will soon turn 23. He’s probably not someone who will zoom through the minors and be in the big leagues within a year. That’s fine. Talent is talent, and Lourdes has a lot of it.

Red Sox tried hard to land Beltran

According to Nick Cafardo, the Red Sox “tried very hard” to acquire Carlos Beltran at the trade deadline, though the Rangers swooped in with a better offer. I assume Boston would have played Beltran in left field, where they’ve had a revolving door pretty much all season. Or maybe Beltran plays right and Mookie Betts moves to left. I dunno. Who cares. Whatever.

The real question is whether the Yankees (and Red Sox, for that matter) would have actually gone through with the trade if the Red Sox had indeed made the best offer. Potentially losing a trade to your biggest rival is enough to make anyone squeamish. My guess is Brian Cashman and David Dombrowski would have been willing to go through with a trade, but the two ownership groups would not have signed off. This is much different than a Stephen Drew-for-Kelly Johnson swap.

Hal not ruling out a spot for A-Rod in Monument Park

During a radio interview last week, Hal Steinbrenner did not rule out the possibility of Alex Rodriguez one day winding up in Monument Park. He didn’t exactly endorse it, but he didn’t shoot it down entirely either. Here’s what Hal said, via Brendan Kuty:

“It’s a bridge to cross when we come to it, but he has done a lot for this organization, on and off the field,” Steinbrenner said. “And I’m talking about players way back, even (Mariners second baseman Robinson) Cano, who he was a mentor to. He’s done a lot for this organization on the field though the years, but also off the field that people don’t know about. He’s been a great mentor.”

A-Rod is, unquestionably, one of the greatest players in Yankees history, especially recent history. He’s among the all-time franchise leaders in a ton of categories, including homers (6th), OPS (7th), WAR (8th), OPS+ (10th), runs (10th), and total bases (10th). Alex also won two MVPs in pinstripes and was a major factor in the team’s most recent World Series title. If that’s not Monument Park plaque worthy, I don’t know what is.

(Christopher Pasatieri/Getty)
(Christopher Pasatieri/Getty)

Yankees among most valuable sports franchises

A few weeks back Forbes posted their annual look at the most valuable sports franchises in the world. The Yankees placed fourth, with an estimated value of $3.4 billion. That’s up 6% from last year. The Yankees are behind only the Dallas Cowboys ($4 billion), Real Madrid ($3.65 billion), and Barcelona ($3.55 billion). The Dodgers are the second most valuable MLB franchise at $2.5 billion, so the gap between the Yankees and everyone else is significant.

Attendance dropped from 41,995 fans per game in 2014 to 39,430 last year, and again to 38,967 so far this year. That’s roughly 3,000 fewer fans per game since two seasons ago. The attendance decline was at least somewhat expected after Derek Jeter retired, though obviously the team’s less than inspiring play for much of this season has played a role too. That said, the Yankees are still raking in money through other avenues (YES, Legends Hospitality, etc.), and there’s no real end in sight. The team prints money.

Watson battling kidney failure

Going to close with some sad news: Bob Watson, former GM of the Yankees, is currently battling kidney failure, he told Chuck Modiano. He is on nocturnal dialysis and doctors told him he only has a few years to live. “I really wanted to be (at the 1996 World Series reunion last weekend), but my health won’t allow it. I am battling Stage 4 kidney failure. Not too many people know about it,” said Watson, who beat prostate cancer in the mid-1990s.

Watson, 70, had an incredibly productive playing career — he hit .295/.364/.447 from 1966-84, mostly with the Astros, but also with the Braves, Yankees, and Red Sox — and he became the first African American GM in baseball history to win a World Series in 1996. Watson served as Yankees GM from October 1995 to February 1998, when he stepped down and took a position in the commissioner’s office. He bridged the Gene Michael and Brian Cashman eras. I’m sad to hear he isn’t doing well. Keep fighting, Bob.