The legend goes in baseball that the first 60 games show you what you have, and then you have 50 or so to make adjustments before riding out the final two months with what you end up with.
And, if you remember back to 2016, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that it took getting swept at the Trop in the final series of July to fully convince ownership that the Yankees were trade deadline sellers, him saying that the team declared itself in that series so his recommendation to ownership was to reload.
Well, if this past weekend in the Bronx didn’t finally declare that it might be time for a house cleaning, perhaps nothing will convince ownership of such.
Say all you want about ‘Hal’s checkbook,’ or ‘if the Boss were still alive,’ or how coaches can teach but can’t go out and play for their players – the whole ‘lead a horse to water’ idea. But here’s the problem with the 2021 Yankees, who, at 31-29, are two games worse than they were in last season’s 60-game sprint: it starts at the top, and the state of the team falls on Brian Cashman.
Even Alex Rodriguez, whose broadcasting acumen has been oft-criticized (including last night by our own Alex Reimer), made an incredibly salient point on ESPN’s Sunday telecast: it is “mind-boggling” that the Yankees, a team long based on left-handed pitching and left-handed power, entered Sunday’s game with just one lefty in the lineup: Brett Gardner, who hit ninth and has often looked this year as if he embodies another old adage – better to give up one year too soon than one too late.
The Yankees are only missing two position players due to injury, and while one of them is switch-hitter Aaron Hicks, the point remains that the Yankees are incredibly right-handed, with as many southpaw relievers in the bullpen as left-handed hitters on the roster – and the three that are there fit into one bucket: inexpensive.
That last part is on the Steinbrenners, who, to be fair, have the right to run their business however they see fit, especially coming off a year-plus pandemic. But so does every company, and when teams like the Dodgers win the World Series with similar payrolls, and teams like the Rays make the World Series with payrolls less than a third of what we have in the Bronx, it shines a light on the fact that cost is secondary if the move is correct.
Brian Cashman has, for two-plus decades, pulled a lot of the right strings in minor trades, found a lot of excellent pieces at the salvage yard, and even spent the cash/assets on some very good to great players. However, if familiarity breeds contempt, so, too, sometimes, does familiarity breed complacency, and right now, the Yankees look like a complacent team that won’t realize missing the playoffs for just the fourth time in the Cashman era, or even finishing below .500 for the first time since 1992, are possibilities until reality smacks them in the face.
Cashman takes the blame because he built this roster, and has long defended the team’s over-rightiness, saying the team had plenty of those sluggers who could utilize the whole field. It’s not his fault per se that they aren’t, but it is on him that Chris Gittens is the Yankees’ fifth full-time first baseman this year, that Rougned Odor is a square peg in a round hole as the Yankees’ fifth/sixth infielder, and that on Sunday night, two infielders by trade were in the outfield for the final inning.
It’s also on him, via the owners, for what he has done working with that payroll. Trading Adam Ottavino for salary relief and turning his spot into four players seemed like a master stroke…but while Ottavino has a 2.66 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings (a couple of which came against the Yankees this weekend), the Yankees have two injured relievers, an everyday outfielder hitting .190, and a guy who retired after hitting .110 in April to show for that salary. Not to mention that the pitcher who preceded Ottavino on Saturday, Garrett Whitlock, is a Red Sox pitcher while the Yankees cycle through the Mike Kings and Nestor Corteses of the world because four 40-man roster spots are occupied by players that had little to no experience at even High-A entering the season.
And, finally, it’s also on Cashman that this winter’s plan was “wait out DJ LeMahieu and then go from there,” meaning the Yankees missed out on a hefty starting pitching market and instead spent $11 million and four prospects on one year of Corey Kluber and two of Jameson Taillon (neither of which look like good moves right now) and why Jay Bruce and Rougned Odor were the two biggest “additions” to the position player side.
As for the coaches, well, when everyone is in the tank and the team leads the world in double plays and outs on the bases, the hitting coach(es) and the baserunning coach may just need to be the fall guys. And, when it comes to Boone…why is it that three coaches, including Nevin – who was away from the team for nearly a month with a life-threatening infection, and still has an IV line in his arm – are getting more fired up and/or ejected than the manager?
Detractors of the late-90s dynasty often say that Joe Torre wasn’t so much all of a sudden a good manager as he was in charge of a team anyone could’ve won with. Right now, though, the Yankees seem like a team that anyone but Aaron Boone can win with, which might be a bigger indictment.
Some may advocate for kicking Cashman up to a higher role (like president of baseball operations) and simply getting a new GM, but at this point, it may need to be a full clean sweep. In reality, it could start now, by making one or more of Marcus Thames, P.J. Pilittere, or Reggie Willits a fall guy for the team’s inability to hit or run the bases.
Something needs to be done, though, because if the first 60 games of this season, and even the 60 of last season, have shown one thing, it’s this: status quo is no longer viable in the Bronx.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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