A little over 24 hours ago, Brian Cashman delivered a rant that I can only assume was fueled by cocaine and a few lunchtime White Claws. Donning sunglasses to hide the black eye given to him by Jacoby Ellsbury’s fixer, Cashman delivered an almost hour-long gem that crossed the line into parody multiple times. Within the first few minutes of his…are we calling this a press conference? Within the first few minutes of his press conference, Cashman rattled off the list of excuses we’ve all heard. Judge injury, Severino injury, Stanton underperformance, Montas injury, Rodon injury.
There is nothing more comical than hearing an executive point out all the weaknesses in a roster they built. Rodon has been an injury concern his entire career. The same can be said for Montas and Severino, but that didn’t stop the Yankees from signing the latter to an extension in 2019. If you’re like me, you’re asking yourself, why didn’t they extend Judge in a similar fashion before he hit free agency? Or Gleyber Torres, who goes into this season in the final year of his contract? Those would be fantastic questions that Brian Cashman thinks you’re a fucking NERD for asking.
Game changing hitters are increasingly hard to find in free agency. All around the league we have seen teams lock up their younger stars, securing them through their prime years at a far more economical rate than what they’d get on the open market. The Atlanta Braves have taken that model to the max, but other teams around the league have followed suit. Corbin Carroll, the consensus NL Rookie of the Year, will first hit free agency when he’s 30. 30!
Yordan Alvarez is locked up through his 30th birthday. Fernando Tatis Jr., Julio Rodriguez, and half the Atlanta Braves lineup will be on the wrong side of 30 when they first hit the market. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates saw the sense in extending Ke’Bryan Hayes last year – he won’t be a free agent until he’s 33.
Yankee fans have every reason to be concerned. This team needs at least two impact bats. Brian Cashman said it himself once that sweet white gold started to wear off. “We need two outfielders,” Cashman said outright. That’s the very least they need. The Yankees could still use a high quality infield addition. DJ LeMahieu has too many injury concerns to be relied on as a consistent option throughout the season. In an ideal world, the Yankees have a starting third baseman they trust so LeMahieu can be the infield roamer he was always meant to be between corner infield and second base.
They’re also going to need another quality arm, something that seems to be the more likely reinforcement through free agency. Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been heavily scouted and linked to the Yankees. He has many suitors, but luckily for the Yankees starting pitching is one area where the free agent class can provide options with names like Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, and Eduardo Rodriguez.
But where are the bats coming from? Free agency won’t provide the answers. Of the two top bats, Ohtani will have far better suitors and Bellinger will get more years and more money than the Yankees should give. After that, you’re looking at a drop off to JD Martinez and Matt Chapman. One is an aging DH who can’t play the field – the Yankees already have one of those – and the other has Josh Donaldson 2.0 written all over him. The worst part of Cashman’s comments is in some small ways, he is right. This team doesn’t need to be ripped apart and rebuilt from a personnel standpoint, but it does need to be drastically rebuilt from a process standpoint.
Dismissiveness in his tone, hand waving away any concern at all, Brian Cashman solidified a terrifying truth for Yankee fans yesterday: he doesn’t think the process is broken. Last year was just a fluke. A few adjustments here and there, better luck with health, a bounce back year from X, Y, & Z, and we’ll be back in the playoffs in 2024. He might be right. We could be sitting here this time next year talking about what a great postseason run the Yankees made led by Gerritt Cole, Aaron Judge, and God please some left handed batter with power, like, seriously, just ONE. Do you think that’s likely the way this team has been trending the last few years?
The fact remains that Cashman seems unwilling to waver from practices that have left the Yankees with an old, boring, fundamentally broken team. They have some options this year, like trading Gleyber Torres for an outfielder or an arm, but in many ways that feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Torres was the Yankees second best hitter last year and this team desperately needs offense. They could tell the Padres to name their price for Juan Soto and make a huge step in the right direction, but Cashman doesn’t seem likely to give up a package of prospects for a player in the last year of his contract. These next few months will be make or break for Brian Cashman. His relationship with the fans has frayed year after year and, if you’re to believe his own comments, his relationship with those within the organization is not in a positive place. The tide is turning on Cashman and, if yesterday is any indication, the pressure is starting to get to him.
