Chris likens Yanks to L.A. in interview
THE LIST has been expanded to five now of those who have interviewed with GM Brian Cashman for the Yankees’ managerial opening since Joe Girardi was let go at the conclusion of the season.
Dodgers third-base coach Chris Woodward met with Cashman on Saturday, one day after former Yankee and current ESPN analyst Aaron Boone also interviewed to replace Girardi, whose contract was not renewed despite the Bombers reaching the seventh game of the ALCS in October.
Woodward, who never had interviewed previously for any big-league managerial opening, instantly drew comparisons between his 2017 team in Los Angeles and the one he hopes to manage next season in the Bronx.
“It’s very similar to L.A. actually,” Woodward said Saturday on a conference call. “There’s a lot of parallel, bigmarket team, a lot of expectations, young. You have a bunch of ingrown guys coming up through the minor leagues that are making impacts. You have (Aaron) Judge, and in L.A. you’ve got (Cody) Bellinger.
“I was really proud of our guys in L.A., and this New York team, they play with a ton of energy. I love that they have fun on the field. They seem to really kind of ignite a passion in the Stadium, and obviously I would feed off of that. I love that about the game. I love the diversity of the team. The group is from all over the place and I think that’s something that’s pretty special about this.”
Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson, former Indians and Mariners manager Eric Wedge and Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens previously had undergone the interview process with Cashman, with Jerry Hairston Jr. considered another potential candidate likely to interview for the vacancy.
Cashman said earlier this week that he still hadn’t reached out to every prospective candidate expected to be granted an initial interview. In 2007, Cashman met with just three possibilities to replace Joe Torre: Girardi, Tony Pena and Don Mattingly. The Yanks ultimately chose Girardi, who won the World Series in 2009.
That was his second of 10 seasons at the helm before Cashman decided to make a change this fall, largely due to perceived communication issues involving Girardi with both players and the front office.
“I think the biggest thing with communication is to not be afraid to have tough conversations…and not being afraid of the backlash,” Woodward said. “I know when I was a player, I really admired and respected guys that were honest. I think that communication has to be consistent and it has to be constant. It can’t be just a one time thing where you tell a guy one thing and it’s a negative conversation.
“The human side of this is extremely important. I think that makes those tough conversations a lot easier to have. They’re not always going to be happy conversations, but in the end, they can respect the decision.” The 41-year-old Woodward, who attended spring training with the Yanks in 2008 but didn’t make the big-league roster, played 11 seasons in the majors with Toronto, the Mets (2005-06), Seattle, Atlanta and Boston. He also managed New Zealand’s entry in the World Baseball Classic in 2016.
And he claims to be another strong proponent of the analytics wave Cashman and the Yankees want to continue riding with this hire and into the future.
“I think you’re a fool if you don’t understand the i mportance of them,” Woodward said. “I think it’s the next wave in baseball obviously taking hold. I think players are starting to understand that it is taking over the game, but it’s there to benefit them. It’s not there as an insult or something to take their place.
“Obviously, the players always are going to be No.1 in any organization. I think my message to them would be this is a way to gain an advantage. It’s going to make them more successful, which in turn, is going to make our team more successful.”
MINOR MOVE: The Yanks traded pitcher Nick Rumbelow to Seattle for 21-year-old Single-A lefty JP Sears and 17-year-old righty Juan Then, who pitched in the Dominican summer league last year.
Unless the Mets surprise us all and spend at the high end of the free-agent market, their most important addition this winter just might be the hiring of what they’re calling a “Director of High Performance.” The title certainly has a hopeful ring to it, considering the level of performance at Citi Field last season, but jokes aside, the creation of such a position is an indication the Mets are finally taking serious steps toward doing a better job of preventing injuries. They’ve talked a lot about that over the years, especially the last couple as injuries have crippled them, yet in some ways it seems now the Mets were somehow still stuck in the dark ages. At least that’s the impression I got after interviewing new manager Mickey Callaway last week and hearing him talk about all the injurypre- vention methods the Indians employed during his time there as pitching coach. From monitoring hydration levels of players via daily urine samples, to having pitchers wear high-tech Motus sleeves during workouts to measure elbow stress, to players filling out daily logs on iPads in regard to sleep and eating habits, etc., the Indians seemed to be miles ahead of the Mets with being proactive. Callaway said as much when I asked him if the Mets had been using those same techniques. “No, I don’t think they had been,” he said. “They’ve been doing some similar things, keeping track of how guys feel, but we’re going to try and step it up a notch. We talked about some of that stuff in my interview — how to keep these guys healthy. “But it’s not just getting them healthy. It’s a daily process for keeping them healthy.” If it sounds like interviewing and then hiring Callaway triggered a new era in injury prevention for the Mets, assistant GM John Ricco says that’s not the case. “This was in the works before we hired Mickey,’’ Ricco said by phone on Friday. “This is something that Sandy (Alderson) and I have talked about for awhile.” It’s easy to be skeptical about that, but you do have to believe last year was a tipping point in spurring significant change, when major injuries to Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes, to name two of the most significant losses, may have been preventable. Had the ballclub been measuring hydration levels, for example, they would have fou nd