Yankees GM Brian Cashman isn’t ready to throw in the towel on the 2014 season, reports Jake Kring-Schreifels of MLB.com. While nobody should be surprised by the comments, the Yankees do face an uphill battle. They currently trail the second Wild Card by 4.5 games with 15 left to play. More daunting than the deficit in the standings is the sheer number of teams in the race – the Yankees will have to leapfrog four teams to reach the Wild Card game. As Cashman says, “we’ve just got to win games.”
- Of course, with a need to win every game possible, many will be watching the progress of pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, writes Kring-Schreifels. Tanaka is currently rehabbing from a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament – an injury that often requires Tommy John surgery. According to Cashman, “we’re trying to finish off his rehab in a proper way, guided by the experts on the medical staff.” If the club isn’t able to get him back in time to help for the 2014 season, they’ll continue his rehab into the offseason. The goal is to determine if he can reach full health without the time intensive surgery.
- The retirement of Senior VP of Operations Mark Newman presents an opportunity to improve the farm system, according to Bill Madden of the New York Daily News. Under Newman, the Yankees failed to draft any star players since 1996. Madden notes that the Yankees could benefit from better scouting personnel while wondering if Cashman is the right man to oversee a pivot.
Of course Cashman is going to say that. No one is ever going to say, “We’re out of it. I know we’re not mathematically out of it but realistically, we’re out of it.” No one, on any team or who works for the front office of any team, would say something like that publicly. Privately, I think Cashman and Girardi all know they really don’t have a shot but if you got the games to play anyway, might as well send out a representable team and try to win the game you’re playing that day. Hell, even after you’re eliminated, why not try to win a meaningless game? Better than losing a meaningless game. Tanaka coming back and showing he can rear back and throw it without fear of hurting that elbow would be big because it would be a vote of confidence, that he doesn’t need surgery.
Everyone knows that the Yankees have to win at least 15 straight of their 15 games just for the chance to at least get into the playoffs. I dislike this “homer” level of optimism that Cashman and everyone else in the Yankees organization have to front in front of the fans. I’d prefer the honest truth rather than leading the fans into a false sense of hope.
I think the fans are pretty realistic. They see what’s going on in the field, regardless of whatever Cashman says. The Yankees have had a tough year with a huge number of things go wrong. We want great, winning teams, but we aren’t impossible to please.
What is Cashman supposed to say? The Yankees are not completely out of it. He should be talking about winning. The fans know the odds but part of Cashman’s job is public relations.
I don’t think it’s just the Yankee way of doing things. I think if the Giants or the Royals or the Rays were in this place, their GM would be saying, “We’re going to fight for that spot until it’s completely mathematically impossible”. Because otherwise, you’re telling your fans, “Hey, thanks for coming out this year. No reason to come to the ball park for the last 8 home games” or however many they have to play. That last whistle is going to blow soon enough. Might as well play hard right up until it does.
There is no “meaningless” game in MLB. A win roughly makes or breaks close to $2 MM for a team. For that much money involved, I would not call a game meaningless even if it decides your post-season or not
I don’t see the need to separate position players that were drafted from those that were IFA signings. It’s not like Newman is a strong part of either process. Either way change can be be good.
Right, but his job is about putting the right people in the right positions. I would think Oppenheimer has a bigger role in selecting the right players. Maybe they like Oppenheimer, but think that the problem lies more in developing the players. That would make me think that entirely up the line the problem is with the coaches, or maybe that players are moving a bit aggressively. Seems Newman is more the fall guy for not having the right people in charge.
The coaches change pretty frequently. Patterson, and rowson are rather new. I don’t think they have a big problem with newman, he’s still there at instructs apparently.
> Under Newman, the Yankees failed to draft any star players since 1996.
That’s certainly debatable. The term “star” is ambiguous in itself but Brett Gardner, David Robertson, Ian Kennedy, Dellin Betances, and maybe Tyler Clippard could all qualify.
If anything, Newman might be a victim of the Yankees’ success. It’s hard to generate homegrown superstars when you make the playoffs every year for a decade and a half and lose what early picks you do get to free agency. And they’ve wasted 1st round picks when Gerrit Cole and Mark Prior refused to sign.
Gardner is the best everyday player on that current team. He’s a borderline All Star. He’s not Mike Trout but only one guy in the world is.