Carle Place, NY–
In what was a packed house at the beautiful Chateau Briand, New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman spoke candidly with Ed Randall, host of the popular radio show, “Talking Baseball”. There was over 400 guests in attendance and they were treated to an informative discussion between a veteran talk show host and the current GM of the most successful franchise in the history of North American sports.
Cashman, a native of Rockville Center, came on at about 9:15pm which was directly after the news broke about the Yankees releasing Jacoby Ellsbury and designating Greg Bird for assignment.
Here’s a few highlights from the discussion. Again, this wasn’t a motivational speech, this was a pretty in-depth conversation on a myriad of issues both past & present. Cashman, a graduate of Catholic University, and the GM of the Yankees since 1998. He began with the organization as an intern in 1987.
Early Years
- He grew up a die-hard Dodgers fan and admitted he hated the Yankees during his youth.
- He grew up in Kentucky but moved to Washington, D.C. to attend high school
- His dream was to play Major League Baseball not run an organization.
- Played second base for Catholic University and was a very solid player
New York Yankees
- “Avoid George Steinbrenner at all costs” he said half jokingly. He told a story that, as an intern, he was tasked with driving George Steinbrenner to get a haircut. He tried to take the Willis Ave bridge but it was closed which infuriated Mr. Steinbrenner. He called it the “worst drive ever”, and Steinbrenner was throwing a temper tantrum, screaming for him to go back to Yankee Stadium. He said he wound up going back, but not before hitting several pot holes which resulted in Steinbrenner saying “this isn’t a (expletive) tank!” He wound up being fired from the job of driving him again.
- Two different GMs during his time as a lower-level employee resigned due to health-related reasons, which he joked made it easier for him to move up in the system.
- One Gm, Bob Quinn, went into Steinbrenner’s office and stated that he had a revelation from his priest who told him he must resign due to concerns over his health and his family. Steinbrenner ripped up his letter of resignation in which he replied, “I had a feeling you’d do that so I brought a copy of another one”.
- Gene Michaels told him “George gets the wins and you get the losses” as GM.
- The Yankees traded Joe Niekro to Minnesota in the late 1980s, in a deal that Steinbrenner initiated. When he returned to face the Yankees they were getting shut out by him. Steinbrenner told the GM at the time that after they lose to face the media and take the blame for the loss. The Yankeees wound up tying the game and winning in extra innings.
- Bob Watson, who led the Yankees to a playoff appearance and a World Series title in 1996, resigned following the 1997 season which resulted in Cashman being named the youngest GM in baseball history at the time.
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- Gene Michaels is his biggest mentor. He, along with San Francisco Giants GM Brian Sabean helped sign many of the players that built the Yankees dynasty such as Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, etc. They also made shrewd deals such as acquiring Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson and more.
- The Yankees had an issue with their brass in Tampa not being on the same page in terms of scouting. He told Steinbrenner there was “too many cooks in the kitchen” and that they needed to make changes to they systemically changed how things were run so that everything flowed from the top down.
- Derek Jeter deserves to be unanimously elected into the Hall of Fame, but “we’ve been surprised in the past from Hall of Fame voters looking for their 15 minutes of fame’.
- The Yankees players are schooled on how to handle the media. They are taught not to force their political or religious beliefs, as well as their opinions on public figures “unless they are ready to withstand the national attention that comes along with it”. They are very careful not to give strong opinions on hot topic issues. They train their athletes on how to handle the media with role play.
- “I am smart enough to know to hire people smarter than me. And to listen to them”.
The ESPYs Night
- In 1998 the Yankees were named The Team of the Year, beating out the best teams in the NFL, NBA and everyone else. He noted George Steinbrenner was thrilled. After the awards, he told Joe Torre and him that they could bypass flying commercial and fly on his private jet. Torre accepted the offer while he declined, and chose to fly commercial to avoid sitting with Steinbrenner.
Current Day
- Aaron Boone was not the favorite heading into the managerial search. “If you look at it like the Kentucky Derby, he was not the favorite” but they were blown away with his intelligence and how he can communicate and his willingness to learn about the front office because his experiences were only as a player and announcer.
- The Steinbrenners put a lot of money into the team and they have an inflated payroll so they don’t have much wiggle room.
- D.J. LeMahieu was a surprise acquisition for the fans because he wasn’t initially intending to pursue him. He was comfortable with Gleybar Torres at second, but at the request of his staff he felt comfortable acquiring him to play multiple positions. One of their front office employees drafted him out of LSU and knew he could play first, second or third.
- “We are proud that we can shop from the top shelf or the bottom shelf and find value”.
- We didn’t lose because of our pitching, we lost because we our lack of hitting with runners in scoring position.”
- They felt very confident in the rotation of Severino, Paxton, Tanaka and German. There’s been no update on German’s situation.
- He discussed releasing Ellsbury and Bird, but declined to comment on why.
- It was not a lost season. We reached our goal of winning the AL East and winning 100 games, we just didn’t reach our goal of winning the American League.
- “We were one at bat away from going home up 2-0.”
- “We are always looking to solidify to our pitching.”
- They chose not to pursue Manny Machado to diversify that money into other players and improve the bullpen such as Adam Ottavino.
Astros Situation
- He stated he must not comment because it is an ongoing investigation with Major League Baseball, but when Randall mentioned they lost to them two of three years he said, “did we really though?”
