Yankees Brian Cashman Says It Again: We're Staying Pat (For Now)
Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, in a far-ranging interview with Brian Hoch of MLB.com, indicated that the team will stay “engaged” with other teams, but that the Yankees are not necessarily looking to make any major changes in the structure of the 2017 team at this time.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman did not say anything new in this most recent interview, but that is significant in and of itself because it demonstrates that the Yankees feel like they have the makings of a team that not only be competitive but also has a good chance to qualify for a position in the 2017 playoffs.
And to put his position in practical terms, perhaps it can be likened to that of a recently married couple who but their first home. And they do all the landscaping, buy the furniture and appliances they need, and dress up the rooms to suit their tastes – until they finally reach a point where they say to each other, “Okay, mission accomplished.” But then they also say, “We’re happy here, but let’s keep an eye on the real estate market just in case something comes along that can be even better than this.”
Cashman summarized it this way when speaking to MLB Network:
“I think the most important currency to have nowadays is high-end prospects, and I think we — by everyone’s evaluation — have collected a number of those, so I think we can easily do that. It’s just, will we do that?
“I think we’ll stay engaged in the marketplace, and over time, if we do match up favorably with anybody where we can get what we want and they get what they want, then yes, we’ll try to pull something down.”
The Yankees Will Stay “Engaged”
The Yankees will always be a franchise that settles for nothing less than winning. There are no “rebuilding” years when the team asks its fans to give them a pass for a year or two with the promise that better things are on the way. And yet, no one connected to the Yankees can say with any veracity that 2017 is not filled with lots of ifs, and’s, and buts.
More from Yanks Go Yard
Yanks Go Yard writer Sammy Criscitello writes extensively about those issues in a piece titles the Five Biggest Questions Surrounding the 2017 Team.
So while the team is still engaged in talks with the White Sox about acquiring Jose Quintana, it sounds like Cashman has made it clear to them that prospects like Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, and probably a few others are off the table. And if they want to continue the talks with the Yankees, they need to get creative in another way.
His position may sound a bit arrogant, and it probably is. But at the same time, Cashman’s approach is exactly where the Yankees need to be at this stage of the team’s development because there are still too many questions and very few answers until the games begin to be played. To a less extent, Spring Training may reveal a lot too, but it’s still only “practice games” and not the real thing.
And it’s always fun to conjure up all types of scenarios that involve this trade or that trade, and I confess to participating myself with stories like with the much-maligned suggestion that the Yankees trade Masahiro Tanaka straight up for Felix Hernandez (I surrender to your comments on that one).
But Brian Cashman does it for real of course, and because of that any moves he makes, or in some cases doesn’t make, gets attached to the team’s fortunes and his own legacy with the Yankees.
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Everyone agrees that the future of the team is bright. But one or two false moves, together with a couple of injuries to the young talent they’ve assembled (think Greg Bird last year), and all the good can be easily washed away, sending the team almost back to square one.
Cashman is aware of that. Good for him. And good for all of us.
