For the 2021 Yankees, there were some deficiencies that were easier to see coming, like the team’s lack of speed and high strikeout numbers (they struck out the sixth most in all of baseball). Both of those areas are part of what Cashman says will be looked into this winter.
“Clearly, we’re not as athletic as we’d like to be or as contact oriented as we’d like to be, I tried to address some of that with Anthony Rizzo for instance, was important in season as a high contact guy,” Brian Cashman told reporters on Monday.. “Joey Gallo is very athletic, and we got some balance in the lineup, but we will continue to evaluate all of the available choices in the marketplace to us. We’ll continue to try and evaluate what’s available and how those pieces may fit.”
But there were also numerous areas of struggle that were shocking to watch unfold, like the team’s lack of offensive firepower that ranked just 19th in the league in runs scored, after being near the top in recent seasons. The Yanks were expected to be an offensive juggernaut again in 2021, but instead, runs were hard to come by, and Cashman intends to take a look at that aspect this winter.
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“As you go into being a leader of operations…you always wants your strengths to remain your strengths and attack your areas of weakness,” Cashman said. “As the season played out, our strengths were no longer our strengths. Those were the areas that were a surprise, but in terms of personnel, I’m in charge of personnel and bringing in the best talent I can. This was a tough team for some reason to figure out. This was a season I’d say might be my toughest.”
A tough year means tough decisions for Cashman, but one of them has already been made with the return of Aaron Boone. Now, the focus shifts to the roster, which expects to see some changes after another year of disappointment. The only question will be how seismic those changes are.
“We will be open minded to anything and everything on this roster, as we should be,” Cashman said. “I don’t know what our budget is going to be yet, I haven’t gotten that from ownership…but there were certainly things that were head-scratching and frustrating, and all of that falls on my responsibility.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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