Sal has long called for the Yankees to move on from Brian Cashman, and he is still holding to that. But that doesn’t mean he thinks Cashman is a bad GM.
In fact, quite the opposite.
“Brian Cashman has been the GM for a very long time, and the Yankees have been successful for a very long time,” Sal said. “I would be curious to see how Cashman does elsewhere, without the benefits of the Yankees payroll. You want to flex your GM muscle? Go somewhere else and show what you can do without the payroll. But the payroll argument is silly sometimes, because you make it like you can just got buy a World Series. That’s not true. It hasn’t happened that way. Whether it’s the Dodgers, Padres, Mets, Yankees, most money doesn’t mean most World Series wins.
“Let’s not make it like Cashman is a bad general manager. But if we focus on recent years, lack of development, holding onto prospects that didn’t pan out, bad trades, not wanting to part with certain prospects to get top talent, settling for lesser talent, not shopping in the big end of the free agent pool when there was an obvious need and obvious players out there. The Yankees have just not been willing to overextend.”
Cashman has seemingly made his mistakes in recent years, even in moves where he seemingly didn’t give up much (look no further than the trade for Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Josh Donaldson, and Ben Rortvedt). Now, the Yankees have a flawed roster decimated by injuries, several of them that could have at least been anticipated given the players’ injury histories. It is a knock on Cashman’s recent job trying to build a champion, though Sal still respects the full body of work. The Yanks just need a new voice.
“Bottom line with the Yankees and Cashman: he has been good, great,” Sal said. “It’s been sustained success with this Yankees team…but it’s not like it’s been great success for this run.”
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