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CHICAGO — While 2022 may be a walk year for Brian Cashman, it isn’t a watershed one, according to his boss.
Hal Steinbrenner said he wasn’t approaching the next season as one that would determine the future of Cashman, who is working on his 25th season as the Yankees’ general manager.
“I think Cashman’s one of the best general managers in the game,” Steinbrenner said Wednesday at the Major League Baseball owners meetings. “He’s obviously been here a long time. I’ve known him for 25 years. (I have a) lot of respect for him. His people who work for him have a lot of respect for him. Despite certain narratives, we very much value pro scouting. There are major-league clubs that are more analytical than us, without naming names. Every decision that they make on the field is purely analytics, some of these teams.
“He understands it’s very important to me to be well-balanced, pro scouting and analytics. We just had all of our pro scouting meetings. They were in New York. We went through every free agent like we always do this time of year. It’s very much a part of what we do. So he gets a bad rap for being too analytical. It’s not the case.”
The Yankees last advanced to (and won) the World Series in 2009, although they have qualified for the postseason in nine of the ensuing 12 years. A notable percentage of Yankees fans have turned their anger primarily toward Cashman.
Asked if he viewed next season as a watershed campaign for Cashman, Steinbrenner said, “No. I’m not even thinking that way. We’re going to do everything we can, like we do every year, to field a championship-caliber team. I certainly thought I had one coming out of spring training. I definitely thought I had one rolling into August after the trade deadline. And yet it didn’t happen.”
That said, the Yankees’ managing general partner appears likely to continue his tradition of letting his management folks run out the duration of their deals, as just occurred with Aaron Boone before he re-signed.
“When a contract’s up, a contract’s up. If I made a decision now, I’d have less information, less data,” Steinbrenner said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about. One less year of performance to analyze when I’m trying to make a decision. It’s just illogical to me. But that’s the way I am.”
Asked about the Yankees fans frustrated by the team’s failure to go all the way for 12 years running, Steinbrenner said, “I totally understand that. I totally understand that. But I am involved intimately on a daily basis. If it was a situation where we’re just stagnant in our thinking and stagnant in the way we approach problems and solutions and make decisions, then that would be of grave concern to me. But the reality is, Brian’s been great about going with the flow, what’s going on in the industry, what other teams are doing. What different things we’re doing internally.
“It’s stagnation that would bother me. Not so much that someone has been here for 20-plus years.”
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