SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Brian Cashman knows fully what no one outside his inner circle can know – which wings of his department (analytic vs. pro scouting) favored what, how much money he was allowed to apply by ownership to his roster and what the available choices were.
It gives him an insight the media and social media does not have in totality to understand his decision making.
Cashman’s blind spot, though, might be Cashman. I admire his feisty defense of his lieutenants and their process in a hour-long discussion/debate Tuesday with reporters. Hal Steinbrenner spoke earlier in the day and he actually should have delivered the passionate oratory his general manager did rather than the word salad about bunting and Nick Swisher.
Steinbrenner talked “big changes,” but isn’t actually making any, unless you think replacing coaches who left voluntarily or employing an outside analytic firm recommended by your own head of analytics represents big change. His truth is that he is comfortable with the people in charge of his baseball operations because they have mainly kept the Yankees high-level contenders and if, say, he owned a hedge fund and his top employees were successful for 24 straight years and failed in Year 25, he would not feel compelled to make sweeping changes.
The Yankee owner feels well served over the long haul by Cashman and his group. But what about the near future? I do wonder even as Cashman has brought in sage outside baseball voices such as Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean if the long-running main cohort has grown too insular, stale and in some ways cultish – as if they do not see their own faults and blame the outside world for not fully appreciating their ways.
Anthony Volpe won a Gold Glove but Cashman was the most defensive Yankee in 2023 as he went on the offensive against what he sees as the inaccuracies about the Yankees’ processes. The social media attacks, in particular, have been so relentless, I wonder if Cashman and his group have thickened their echo chamber against even legitimate outside criticism.
Cashman wisely noted that no amount of explanation would dissuade anyone who has made up their mind about his operation and that the only way to truly reverse this animus is to win in 2024. But I think that is because they have isolated 2023 as the bad season, when 2023 is a symptom of several years of particularly poor personnel decisions. It was not a one-year thing and to treat it as thus is to confirm the insularity.
So I wonder if I can offer a different way to process this – to project Cashman’s words outside on other New York sports teams and ask if Cashman heard them from his contemporaries if he would be critical:
– What if Jets GM Joe Douglas signed a bunch of players who got hurt all the time and then they all got hurt – would Cashman accept the alibi that injuries caused a bad season?
Cashman talked about injuries being at the core of the team’s 2023 failures. And Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo suffered freak injuries. But the group that should have helped the Yanks weather such injuries was composed of injury-prone players who – shock among shocks – keep getting hurt: trading for Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stantfon, picking up Luis Severino’s option and signing Carlos Rodon to name a few Cashman moves. Teams like the Astros, Dodgers, Rays and champion Rangers incurred devastating injuries this year and still thrived.
— What if Rangers GM Chris Drury assembled a slow-footed defensive unit and then had to overpay in desperation to diversify it.
Cashman said the Yankees traded for Joey Gallo to gain lefty lineup balance. But it was Cashman who created the imbalance. He kept layering unathletic righty hitter on top of righty hitter by in his view winning each individual move, clearly without enough attention to winning the overall roster.
— What if Leon Rose acquired someone for the Knicks because Donte DiVincenzo, who just joined the team, vouched that player could handle New York?
Cashman said one reason the Yankees obtained Gallo is that his former Rangers teammate Rougned Odor, who was four months into his Yankee tenure, said Gallo could handle New York. That felt like the Yankees had spent years trying to obtain Gallo and were going to listen to voices who backed him, for there were lots of folks in the game who believed Gallo would be a mess in New York.
It was fascinating that both Cashman and Steinbrenner cited the Gallo trade to explain the last few years. But over the last three seasons it is not just Gallo. It is removing Thairo Estrada to get Odor on the roster, Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader, prospect collateral for Frankie Montas, ignoring Donaldson’s injury/personality history, wasting time at key positions with Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez. If Cashman were watching, say, Joe Schoen make this level of macro mistakes with the Giants, would he be OK about hearing about bad injury luck and good process gone wrong?
— What if Cashman protege, Billy Eppler, had called the Mets’ minor league hitting program “indisputable” before Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos combined for a .612 OPS?
Cashman used that word to describe his minor league program. But he also said Volpe underperformed hitting expectations as a rookie and Oswaldo Cabrera regressed. Neither Oswald Peraza nor Everson Pereira hit enough to gain more regular playing time. Cashman argued there was nowhere to play Peraza to see if he could hit, but DJ LeMahieu played a lot of first base when Rizzo was injured, Donaldson was out at the same time, so if Peraza hit, he would have played third.
Cashman still believes in the process and no one would be surprised if Volpe and perhaps Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells grow. But this was about 2023 and if Nets GM Sean Marks talked about the future when the subject was why his team failed in real time due to youngsters not succeeding instantly, what would Cashman think?
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