Brian Cashman came out swinging during his 67-minute scrum with reporters this week in Arizona.
In a doozy of a day at the GM Meetings, following five weeks of the Yankees staying quiet coming off their brutal 82-80 season, Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner said plenty.
They spoke about the “hardcore” organizational meetings they held in Tampa last month, even if they refused to reveal what came out of it.
They vehemently defended their analytics department, player development group, and strength and conditioning staff.
They insisted that what happened this year was “completely unacceptable.”
Cashman, in particular, had some bones to pick about what he believed were false narratives that had gained steam with regards to why the Yankees were in the position they were.
He posed it as separating “what was real versus what was bulls–t.”
Much of what Cashman said could be debated or picked apart.
One part, however, could not.
“I want to tell you there’s nothing I can say that’s going to change anybody’s position because the New York Yankees are used to winning, which I’m proud to say,” Cashman said early on in his sparring session. “The New York Yankees expect to win, which I’m proud to say and be a part of an organization that’s that way. And our fan base not only deserves that type of winning, but our fan base expects that type of winning, and so they’re understandably pissed off when we don’t punch a ticket to get into the postseason and take a shot at a World Series title.
“So whatever I say or whatever we say as a franchise right now is not going to appease anybody. It’s about what we’re going to do to improve the roster and our situation going into the ’24 season. It’s all about ’24 now.”
As Cashman later said, he was not interested in “publicly gutting ourselves and telling you everything we’re doing internally as we assess what we’ve got going on.”
Something like that may have satisfied the angry fan base at least a little more than how things actually played out Tuesday.
But Cashman has been around long enough to know that his actions will carry more weight than his words.
“The bottom line is it just comes down to winning and losing,” said Cashman, coming off his 26th year as GM. “That’s what this is all about. We lost way too many games that we should have lost last year. That’s my fault. I’m responsible for the baseball operations as GM. If the owner wants to tag me out anytime, he clearly can do that. He demanded us to do self-reflection. My job in a leadership position is always to determine — and I think the good leaders separate — what’s real versus not real.”
What is real is that the Yankees won 99 games and the AL East in 2022.
What is also real is that they are 120-120 over their past 240 games, with a combination of injuries, underperformance, poor trades and lack of depth all factoring into their slide into mediocrity.
In this case, though, the Yankees appear set to trust the processes that mostly served the organization well until recently.
Aside from a new hitting coach (expected to be James Rowson), a new bench coach and at least a few new faces on the roster, they will try to prove that 2023 was just an aberration instead of anything more significant.
“I know people want change just for change’s sake,” Cashman said. “I remember seeing great people walk in and out of this place like Pat Gillick before I got here, a Dick Howser or Lou Piniella, all these guys, because of impatience or we’re not tolerating the ebbs and flow of what the game brings sometimes.
“This winter, we go back at the wheel and it’s now about ’24,” Cashman added. “We look to be a phoenix rising out of the ashes to find a way.”
