Yankees' Cashman On Better Understanding the CBA
The GM of the Yankees says that he and his staff need to get a full read on the potential ramifications of the new CBA before firing up the hot stove.
For those Yankees fans freaking out that the team has yet to make a move on a single free agent (notably Aroldis Chapman) since the collective bargaining agreement was finalized, take a moment and breath — because that’s exactly what Brian Cashman is doing.
“Honestly, I don’t know the impact (of the new CBA) just yet — we’re still waiting for (MLB) to get their memo of understanding complete, so anything I have currently right now is based on media reports,” Cashman said while readying to rappel in Stamford, Conn, as part of the “Heights and Lights” program on Friday morning.
“The most important thing, though, is the impact of the new luxury tax and the penalties associated with it — we’re already in the penalty, so if media reports are accurate, we’re already at that 50 percent overage threshold. We know that’s coming down the pike, but what are the other penalties on top of that? How does this compound going forward? That’s what we need to know.”
Reportedly, Cashman has already reached out to a number of players and their agents, asking that they give he and the organization a day or two so that they can better understand the finer points of the CBA, and how inking a high-priced free agent or two will inevitably affect the Yankees’ long-term plans.
“I think, that from the early returns, based on some of the stuff we’re reading, the decisions we made in the summer were even that much more important, and us speeding up the process of the youth movement is probably going to play an even more important role now given some of the restrictions that may be in the marketplace,” the Yankees GM said. “But, until we get a better feel for it, we can’t really strategize well enough until we understand the impact of every decision. The devil is always in the details, and there are surely some hooks we have to be aware of before we take plunges.”
Cashman seemed cautiously optimistic that his delayed approach wouldn’t hurt his club’s chances of signing the offseason’s most desired free agents, though.
“I don’t feel this is costing us at this point in time — with the direction we’ve plotted, we still have more work to be done, but I don’t feel like we’ve missed out on any opportunities that were realistic.
For those reading this and thinking ‘well that’s great and all, but who will the Yankees sign, and when?’ Cashman pulled back the veil a bit, saying, “I’d like to add bullpen help, starting pitching, and a bat. This market is saturated with bats, so if certain bats that may be of interest come off the board, there are still other bats that may not have a chair to sit in later on — the starting pitching market is thin, so that’s not something that moves quick anyway, and if it does it’s very expensive, and the bullpen market has a lot of different choices, so I think we still have time on that.”
But being the man of mystery he usually is, Cashman dropped a truth bomb at the end of speaking with the media that will leave many Yankees fans shaking their heads with skepticism.
“There’s no guarantees at the end of the day, we just have to understand what the new world order is going to be, and do our best to adjust accordingly.”
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