Yankees GM Brian Cashman showed up to make a statement about his team’s dismal opening this season. But who shows up on the field tonight?
Yankees GM Brian Cashman welcomes the Atlanta Braves, a team having problems of its own with a 7-9 record in the National League East, to Yankee Stadium, where if you dare to look you’ll see the Yankees flag flying last above the facade in the AL East standings.
Appearing before the media, Cashman offered up a buckle your seat belts to a Yankees team (5-10) that has gotten off to its worst start since 1997, if that matters to anyone.
The Yankees GM said that he expects to see the Bombers right the ship but said he’ll have a better idea of what this team is capable of being by the end of the month. (New York Daily News)
Here’s the problem with that rationale, though, because I can say I expect to receive a 10% raise in the next month – but if I don’t take proactive steps to make it happen – it ain’t gonna happen. There are no fairy-godmothers in baseball.
Cashman has probably done the same thing I did, glancing at the upcoming Yankees schedule to see Cleveland, Baltimore, and Detroit following the two-game set with the Atlanta Braves.
Thinking, maybe we can weather the storm, and some of these guys I’m paying a zillion dollars to will wake up and answer the bell that rang three weeks ago.
Yankees: A Long Long Time Ago…
There was a time when the Yankees had the best GM in baseball. His name was Gene Michael and he is the man who assembled the Core Five of Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada, passing on an inheritance to Brian Cashman.
Back then, right or wrong, Cashman seemed to set a goal for himself that the time is now and there is no excuse for not bringing the best player available home to the fans of the Yankees.
Occasionally, Cashman succeeded in landing a Sonny Gray or an A. J. Burnett, who was the hottest of the hot and most sought-after players at the time, but who ultimately did not mix with the recipe needed to play in New York City.
But he was in the game, as opposed to now when he feels comfortable kicking the can down the road to this year’s trade deadline, rather than tackling the problems that await him now.
Wouldn’t we all be delirious though if Gleyber Torres proved at least adequate at shortstop, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton appeared on the field together for 150+ games this year, and Gary Sanchez became the player the Yankees have always hyped him up to be?
Brian Cashman did the Yankees and their fans no favor by depicting the cup as half full when it clearly is not, as you’ll see in this video.
Yankees: When Does The Truth Set In
Take a look at the Yankees 1997 roster, the team that rebounded after a start similar to the Yankees this season, and ask Brian Cashman (again) if he is willing to roll the dice on this Yankee’s team.
He says yes and he’s the boss.
We’ll know more after the Braves leave Yankee Stadium in two days, but meanwhile, Yankees manager Aaron Boone will continue to roll out the same lineup he had last year, acceding only to finally admitting to the $70 million mistakes Cashman made on Aaron Hicks, and therefore, removing him from the lineup.
Later perhaps, Gary Sanchez will finally work his way from the Yankees lineup as well, but none of the changes will be pro-active before they become necessary.
Yankees In A Quagmire
The sad truth, in case you are wondering, is if I would do anything different – if I could – and the answer is a resounding no as the Yankees have dug a payroll hole deeper than they can climb out from (thank you, Giancarlo Stanton).
Rebuilding is not and will never be found in the Yankee’s Dictionary (soon to be on sale at the Stadium kiosk), so what we have is what we’ve got.
A team that will once again make the playoffs, sell out all of their home games (COVID capacities allowing), but in the end, will fall flat on their face far from a World Series appearance – while the well-oiled “machine” the Yankees have created sends stockholders and TV networks, safely to their bank.
Tomorrow, Corey Kluber (0-1, 6.10) goes to the hill following Jameson Taillon (0-1, 7.56) against the Atlanta Braves.
The Yankees are counting on both to contribute more than they have given. So far, it’s been what you might have expected from two pitchers who lost most of two seasons due to injury.
But four innings, if it continues from each will not make the cut as the season swings into the dog days of July and August when the bullpen is gasping for breath.
The axiom in baseball has always been – what have you done for me lately?
Whether he likes it or not, Yankees GM Brian Cashman is held to that standard, and the bare fact points to that flag from 2009 hanging at Yankees Stadium as his last hurrah, twenty-some years ago.
I’ll keep watching and hoping – but I’ll never succumb to the BS coming from the Yankees and their GM Brian Cashman…
Here’s What Readers Are Saying…
Overrated with all the money at his disposal and no rings to show in the last decade
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
