After a disaster of a season for the New York Yankees, fans are turning to their longtime GM to make a big splash to change this up for next season. It is clear that Cashman has his work cut out for him with free agents like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Cody Bellinger, to trade targets like Juan Soto and Brendan Donavan. With that, fans were looking to see a spark of fire in their GM come his press conference last week; what they got, however, was the complete opposite. Cashman was bitter, confrontational, and worst of all, proud of the job his front office and team put in last season: a season that saw the Yankees in a battle to finish with a winning percentage over .500.
How about a little context?
Throughout the season fans expressed their disappointment in the team in every way possible. “Fire Cashman” chants rained down in Yankee Stadium throughout the season, angry social media posts criticized Cashman for the bad season, and the media berated the GM with questions at pressures throughout the season.
Now let’s flash forward to the end of the season
It is November 7th and Brian Cashman is holding a press conference designed to express his goals for the offseason. Understandably, media officials questioned everything Cashman said, berating him with questions. Admittedly , it can get annoying, but as a GM of one of the biggest teams in the world you have to know better than to snap back at the media’s pressure.
Before the questions even started, Cashman showed his anger. How did he start the presser? With one of the worst opening quotes I have ever heard. “I think we’re pretty (expletive deleted) good personally…” After a terrible season, Cashman addressed the media by defending his team. He did not address the fact that they ranked almost last in every hitting category as a team, he did not address the fact that he made just one move at the trade deadline, and he did not address the fact that for the first time in years, the Yankees had missed the postseason.
Later on in the interview Cashman was asked about his recent trade failures. Did he explain why the team thought the trades were good at the time? Nope! He snapped back by saying that he “got a kick out of” the media criticizing trades like the Sonny Gray and Joey Gallo trades.
What happened after this blunder of a presser?
One of the Yankees biggest problems this season was decreased production from their DH Giancarlo Stanton. As he has missed a lot of time over his last few seasons due to injuries his production has dwindled.
It is understandable that Cashman would be disappointed in Stanton for this, but to let the media know it is just plain reckless. On November 14th, 7 days after that press conference, Cashman took a shot at his own player. He said, “I’m not gonna tell you he’s (Giancarlo Stanton) gonna play every game next year because he’s not. He’s going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game.”
After this quote, Stanton’s agent, Joel Wolfe, snapped back by “warning” players “both foreign and domestic” against coming to NY. Of course! Cashman pissed off agents across the league.
Many fans know that one of the Yankees biggest targets this year is Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Want to take a guess at who the agent is? That’s right! It’s Joel Wolfe, Stanton’s GM who is already pissed off with the Yankees. And that “working” to “foreign” players, oh yea, Yamamoto is a foreign pitcher looking to come over to the MLB this year.
What does BHS think?
With Cashman not only pissing off the media but pissing off big time agents—hurting their chances at big time free agents—it is clear why fans are frustrated with the longtime GM.
Spanish teacher Mr. Barden is angry with the GM. He said, “I think that he ruined his legacy, if he ever had one. Although he is right about Stanton you cannot make comments like that about your own players.”
Clearly he is angry with the comments, but is the anger enough to fire him. According to Mr. Barden it is. He said, “I think he needs to go. He didn’t create anything, he came into a dynasty of a team and since then they have had disappointing year after disappointing year.”
