Next move will be his biggest in Bronx
opts out) will be free agents. But now Cashman is banking on finding a better alternative to Joe Girardi, one of the highest-paid managers in baseball. And it will be this hire that will define his next term as Yankee GM.
Because despite his contract expiring, Cashman will run the show for years to come. Hal Steinbrenner signing off on the GM’s recommendation to change managers seals that. And his biggest task will be finding a replacement that can have as much success as Girardi and Joe Torre before him.
That is certainly no gimme, because of the massive expectations of this job. And Girardi, for all his flaws, made it work in this city for a decade, delivering an average of 91 wins and the team’s 27th World Series championship in 2009 — matching the old jersey number on his back.
Ultimately, the relationship between Cashman and Girardi deteriorated, as relationships in professional sports tend to between coaches and executives not named Gregg Popovich.
This season, it played out publicly when Chris Carter was performing horribly as the team’s everyday first baseman. Girardi wanted to go in a different direction, which he made known to the front office, but said it was an “organizational decision” to stick with Carter. Cashman, at the time, cited that there were no better alternatives.
Eventually, the Bombers did move on from Carter, and the 24-year-old first baseman Cashman never wavered on despite all his injury woes, Greg Bird, came back and produced at a high level in the postseason.
Cashman has been right a lot more than he’s been wrong. Didi Gregorius, Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks cost Shane Greene, Adam Warren (for the time being) and John Ryan Murphy. And his deals at the trade deadline over the past two seasons have given the team an upgrade both now and in the future.
There’s no way the Yankees would’ve advanced as far as they did in the playoffs if not for Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, Todd Frazier and Sonny Gray (though they gave up a lot for him). It was an elite bullpen that helped carry the Bombers through some difficult stretches in important games — most notably the AL wild-card matchup victory over Minnesota.
The next manager may not be a “name.” But he will be both analytically-and-clubhouse-savvy, and willing to take input and new ideas from the front office. That’s the way things are going to be in the Bronx without Girardi. Because this is Cashman’s team. And only time will tell whether he gets his biggest hire right.