This will probably come as quite a surprise to his many critics (of which I have been one), but whether the Yankees are able to get back to the World Series or not this year, Brian Cashman deserves to be voted major league executive of the year by his peers — and it shouldn’t be close.
I know how the heavy analytic-based approach to putting the team together has resulted in one dimensional, fundamentally-challenged Yankee teams in recent years, raising the cries of frustrated Yankee legions calling for Cashman’s head. And while there’s still a lot of that in this present Yankee bunch, they are where they are — heading comfortably into the postseason — on the strength of 8-9 highly successful trades and signings as well as the continued development of “system” players like Ben Rice, Jasson Dominguez, Austin Wells and starting pitchers Cam Schlittler and Will Warren.
You’d have to agree Cashman pivoted brilliantly after losing Juan Soto to the Mets last winter, signing Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt as free agents and trading retread starter Cody Poteet to the Cubs for Cody Bellinger and faded catcher Jose Trevino to the Reds for sinker-balling reliever Fernando Cruz. The only big expense in all those transactions was the $218 million he gave Fried, who was supposed to slide in as No. 2 in the rotation behind Gerrit Cole. Instead, Fried has had to be the ace and leader of the staff, and worth every penny of the first year of the contract.
When things began going off the rails during the season — between Devin Williams’ failure as a closer, third base becoming a daily liability on both sides of the ball after Oswaldo Cabrera went down for the year in the spring, and Anthony Volpe struggling mightily at shortstop, Cashman again moved decisively as the trade deadline approached, acquiring Gold Glove caliber third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Rockies, Jose Caballero from the Rays for a No. 4 outfielder in Everson Pereira, Amed Rosario from the Nationals and closer David Bednar from the Pirates. Again, the return for all of them was minimal. And while Cashman’s other deadline deal for reliever Camilo Doval has so far looked like a bust, Bednar has literally been a savior in the back end of the bullpen.
The acquisition of McMahon, despite his high rate of strikeouts, enabled the Yankees to tighten up the infield defense, moving Jazz Chisholm back to second base, and Rosario has provided more consistent offense as a fill-in at third. Caballero, meanwhile, has become an instant Yankee favorite with his burst of energy, speed on the base paths and decent bat. I wonder, though, if even Cashman could have envisioned Chisholm turning in a 30-30 season after he acquired him at last year’s trade deadline from Miami for power-hitting but weak defensive catcher Agustin Ramirez.
And then of course there’s Trent Grisham, the “extra” outfielder Cashman got from Padres in the December 2023 trade for Soto. His 33 homers having already doubled his previous career high while continuing to provide superb defense in center field, Grisham suddenly poses a huge dilemma for the Yankees as a pending free agent due for a huge payday at the same time as the team needs to make room for Spencer Jones — who’s leading all the minor leagues with 35 homers. But do they gamble by letting Grisham go and turning center over to the power hitting Jones — who also has 177 strikeouts to just 56 walks in the minors this year? If so, be prepared for even more of the one dimensional home run or bust, high strikeout Yankee offense next year.
As alluded to earlier, Cashman can also take a deserved bow for his player development system in which on any given day there are at least five homegrown players — Aaron Judge, Wells, Dominguez, Rice and Volpe — in the starting lineup as well as, right now, three starting pitchers in Schlittler, Warren and Luis Gil. This probably explains Cashman’s fierce (but potentially fatal) loyalty to the struggling Volpe in the waning days of the season.
But it is the development of so many starting pitchers that has undoubtedly been most gratifying for Cashman. Until Clarke Schmidt’s breakthrough, the Yankees had not drafted and developed a quality frontline starting pitcher since Andy Pettitte. And now, behind Schlittler, Warren and Gil, they have two of the top pitching prospects in all of the minors ready for delivery at some point next year, in 6-7 Carlos Lagrange (168 strikeouts in 120 innings at AAA and AA), and Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, whom Cashman got from the Red Sox as the return for catcher Carlos Narvaez last year and has a 2.42 ERA and 173K in 145 innings in 25 starts at AAA and AA.
The Yankees are still a flawed team and they may not make it back to the World Series this year, but it won’t be because Cashman didn’t do everything he could to address those flaws, and the future remains bright in the Bronx.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
It appears the reported $1.7 billion sale of the Tampa Bay Rays by New York/Wall Street securities financier Stu Sternberg to a group headed by Jacksonville real estate developer Patrick Zalupski will be finalized any day now, which will be a welcome development for Rays fans who have long yearned for an owner that will spend money on the team — instead of being content to merely making a profit from revenue sharing every year. Sternberg originally bought control of the Rays for $200 million in 2004, meaning he stands to bag a tidy profit of nearly $1.5 billion for his 21 years of ownership. Although the Rays did make the playoffs in nine of those seasons, including the World Series twice, they’ve consistently ranked near the bottom of the major leagues in both attendance and payroll. As for the latter, however, Sternberg reaped about $60 million annually in revenue sharing and another $50 million in the Rays’ share of the central fund — which more than covered his $75-$90 million average payroll every year. The attendance problem has long been blamed on the Rays playing on the wrong side of Tampa Bay in one of the worst venues — Tropicana Field — in baseball. Though no one from the Zalupski group has had any comment on the pending sale, one thing is certain: They are not paying $1.7 billion for the Rays to keep them in St. Petersburg when the vast population is in Tampa where the NFL’s Bucs and NHL’s Lightning regularly play to sellout crowds. With an eye on the 2028 expiration of their lease at Tropicana Field, the Rays in recent years explored a number of new stadium options, including the 2019 “Sister City” plan with Montreal and most recently a $1.3 billion deal in the Gaslight District of St. Pete next to Tropicana Field, but all of them fell through because Sternberg was unwilling to contribute the necessary share of his own money toward the projects. The Zalupski group is reported to be exploring a number of sites in Hillsborough County (Tampa) including a tract of land near historic Ybor City which was first proposed to Sternberg in July 2018 but later rejected as too expensive.
