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Cashman has been a key ingredient By Derek Zumsteg Special to ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||
In 1986, while still a teenager, Brian Cashman started working as an intern for the Yankees. After the 1997 season, Bob Watson, the 15th general manager to work for George Steinbrenner, resigned after two turbulent years. Cashman, then 30 and the assistant GM, stepped in to become the 16th. No general manager had ever lasted more than five years under Steinbrenner. The two who went that long, Gabe Paul (1972-1977) and Gene Michael (1990-1995), both saw Steinbrenner serve long suspensions during their tenures.
The Yankees have won their division and a World Series title every year since Cashman took the reins. He's played an effective game of office politics, insulating players and staff from their mercurial owner, taking on blame he might not deserve, all the while deferring credit to the people around him. It is certain that Cashman is all too modest, though, because his abilities have been a great contributor to the Yankees success, especially in his trades.
Cashman's tenure has not been easy. He has worked in a unique environment, with a famously active boss who intervenes in day-to-day affairs -- to the point where Steinbrenner will sometimes answer the phones in their Tampa complex -- and has set up a power-sharing arrangement under him. While ultimate authority rests with Steinbrenner, Cashman operates alongside Mark Newman, the Director of Baseball Operations, and Gene Michael, head of Major Leauge Scouting. All four, along with well-regarded assistant GM Kim Ng, come together to discuss players, free agents, trades, and roster management before and during the season. The question Steinbrenner always asks his staff during these meetings is "Is this team good enough to win the World Series?" Presumably, there's only one correct answer to that question.
Almost as a reward for the position into which he's been put, Cashman has virtually unlimited resources to do things like sign draft picks, Cuban refugees and free agents; fund a well-built and well-managed farm system, hire and retain a smart supporting cast; and, at the boss's demand, haul all his young players into arbitration every year rather than sign them to long-term contracts. He's also handled the complex situations that he's come across during his time in office:
The Chuck Knoblauch DealWhen Bob Watson resigned, he left Cashman the negotiations with the Twins for second baseman Chuck Knoblauch. Cashman said at his first press conference that it was time the organization came to a decision. Three days later, the deal was done: Eric Milton, Danny Mota, Brian Buchanan, Cristian Guzman and cash for Knoblauch. That's a young starting shortstop, a left-handed No. 2 starter, a flame-throwing reliever who may yet turn into something shiny and a reserve outfielder. It seems a high price to pay, but consider that in the winter of 1998 the Yankees already had Derek Jeter and were fielding a rotation of Andy Pettitte, David Cone, David Wells, Hideki Irabu and Orlando Hernandez, while playing Luis Sojo and Homer Bush at second base. Knoblauch was a huge contributor in 1998 and 1999, even if we can't think of him today without recalling his throwing problems. There was a need to be filled, other teams were reportedly in the running, and there was significant internal pressure to make the deal happen. While Cashman ended up dealing two top prospects to do it, they were prospects he could afford to lose. It was a big trade he had to make, and he found a way to deal from his surpluses to fill a hole. A good measure of a GM is his ability to handle a deal forced upon him. Under pressure from his manager to get a proven closer, former Mariners GM Woody Woodward once traded Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe to the Red Sox for Heathcliff Slocumb, who was about to be chased out of Boston by a pitchfork-and-torch wielding crowd. Woodward overpaid because he panicked. Cashman has demonstrated that he doesn't make those kinds of mistakes. The Hideki Irabu Mess Hideki Irabu raised the ire of his teammates and owner when he failed to cover first base on two plays in a week during spring training. Those transgressions, along with his generally poor work habits, led Steinbrenner to famously call Irabu a "fat toad." Cashman publicly said that Irabu was worth the trouble, but worked to make a deal. But he didn't make a bad deal in haste -- he stuck with Irabu and waited until December, long after the 1999 season had ended. And what a deal he made. Expos owner Jeffrey Loria said at the time, "Hideki is a tremendous addition to our rotation and will be one of our top starters." The Expos gave up pitcher Jake Westbrook -- later traded to the Indians in the David Justice deal -- and Ted Lilly, now the Yankees fifth starter, as well as pitching prospect Cristian Parker. Irabu's weight problems led to knee problems and he was terrible on those occasions when he was able to wobble to the mound last season. That's one of the things you don't really see about Cashman: he's reluctant to make trades, willing to be talked out of them. Even under that kind of pressure to deal Irabu, he waited it out. Getting Lucky Before the 1999 season, Toronto GM Gord Ash called Cashman with an offer that Cashman said "made my knees buckle." Looking to get rid of discontented Roger Clemens and acquire an infielder, the Blue Jays offered Clemens to the Yankees for David Wells, second baseman Homer Bush and left-handed reliever Graeme Lloyd. Cashman seized the opportunity, convincing Steinbrenner, who loved Wells, to make the deal. It's easy to forget now, with Wells having run himself out of Toronto and now nearly out of Chicago by running his mouth, but for a time this looked like a blunder that might cost Cashman his job. Clemens fought a groin injury that affected his pitching early in 1999, while both Wells and Lloyd got off to good starts for the Blue Jays and Bush had a career season. Patience, again, is a trait that has served Cashman well. When Clemens finally came back from his groin injury in 2000, he was great again. Wells has struggled since last year's All-Star break. Bush has been terrible. You can see Cashman's strengths in these big trades: he's intelligent, he looks at all the information in front of him, he can think clearly under pressure, he listens to people who can help him, and most of all, he's willing to pass up a deal to wait for a better one. He's backed by an organization that plays to his strengths: well-informed and well-documented, in which people removed from their jobs by Steinbrenner in the '70s and '80s hang around in other capacities to contribute. He has a deep player-development program that provides him a seemingly endless supply of prospects to offer for premier talents like Knoblauch and Clemens; the Yankees also accurately assess the talent of their prospects, such that Cashman's willing to give up "Top 10" prospects while their perceived value is high. His time in New York hasn't been perfect, though. Cashman has at times waited too long to make hard decisions, possibly because of the Krelminesque nature of his job, fearing he'd be replaced with Sports Minister Anatol Micif if a deal goes wrong. We've seen it in the left-field issues over the last two years, where the organization hoped Shane Spencer, Ricky Ledee, Chad Curtis, and even Luis Polonia or Tony Tarasco might go on a tear and win the starting job outright. This, along with no bats to DH, forced the Yankees to make two deals last year: first, picking up David Justice from the Indians in June for Ricky Ledee and two PTBNLs, and then in July, trading for all-bat, no-glove Glenallen Hill, giving the Cubs a couple of prospects of little consequence. Both Hill and Justice were outstanding in their partial seasons, but if they'd been a little less effective, it might have cost the Yankees the division title and their playoff berth. This year, the Yankees seem to have settled on Ted Lilly as their fifth starter for now, but the back of the rotation has been a problem for a couple years. After Irabu was shipped out, the fifth starter job was Ed Yarnall's to win for the 2000 season. Yarnall was a promising young starter who had a terrible spring. The Yankees sent him to the minors, gave his starts to Ramiro Mendoza and Dwight Gooden, and later traded him, Drew Henson, Jackson Melian, and Brian Reith to the Reds for a half-season of Denny Neagle. This year, following Neagle's departure, the Yankees were indecisive, giving starts to Christian Parker out of spring training and then to Randy Keisler, and then Lilly, the shuffling of which didn't establish anything about any of them. It's as if in cases where Cashman and his braintrust can't find an ideal solution to a problem, like trading for the best player at that position, they find other things to do until the problem gets so bad that it demands a move, be it for a Justice or a Neagle. However, Cashman made a nice move last year in looking ahead and anticipating a problem. The Yankees picked up the option year of light-hitting first baseman Tino Martinez in exchange for Martinez dropping his no-trade clause. If Martinez had continued his multi-year slump and super prospect Nick Johnson hit well enough to take over the job, they'd be able to trade Martinez. At the same time, Cashman insured himself against a another Johnson setback. Remember that Johnson, Baseball Prospectus' No. 1 prospect a year ago, went down for all of 2000 with a wrist injury. Of course, Johnson is healthy and hitting in Triple-A, while Martinez is returning to form after a hot start, so we'll have to see if Cashman cashes his insurance policy and gets Johnson to the Bronx. Similarly, Chuck Knoblauch's throwing woes received a huge amount of publicity. While an improvement, Alfonso Soriano is not an above-average glove either. By waffling and finally settling on Soriano at second and Knoblauch in left, the Yankees created two below-average positions and denied themselves a spot to play a serviceable platoon. Will the Yankees wait until later in the season, when their lack of offense from those positions more obviously threatens their playoff chances, to make a deal? Almost certainly. The Yankees are frequently accused of buying their pennants. But in the last few years teams like the Orioles and Dodgers have spent nearly as much and have nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Cashman has taken his core of prime players -- Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera -- and surrounded them with good trades and the rare premier free-agent signing. His moves are well-considered at the time and age well. It would be interesting to see Cashman, who could be a free agent himself after this season, take over a team for which he's able to act on his own, so we can see him establish for certain his abilities and, possibly, pin the blame for the Yankees' indecision on the organization. But for now, when Steinbrenner asks the question "Is this team good enough to win the World Series?" the answer can come back yes, because Cashman has done a good job in his three seasons. The team of writers from the Baseball Prospectus (tm) will be writing twice a week for ESPN.com during the baseball season. You can check out more of their work at their web site at baseballprospectus.com. Derek Zumsteg can be reached at dzumsteg@baseballprospectus.com |
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