Cashman tries to rally troops
BUFFALO — Brian Cashman was not here for the wings or nearby Niagara Falls. The Yankees GM came to see firsthand his floundering ballclub and deliver a message before it dropped over the edge of this 2020 coronavirus-pandemic shortened MLB season.
Cashman gathered the Yankees at Sahlen Field Tuesday afternoon and addressed them after a horrific collapse Monday night and three weeks of their seas spiraling downward. It was not the table-tossing, fire-and-brimstone speech that fans would like at this low point in the season, but it was a reminder of expectations.
“First and foremost, that I believe in them. I put this club together with my staff and everybody in that room is here for a reason,” Cashman told the media before Tuesday night’s game. “They came, whether it’s from the draft or international signings or trades or free-agent acquisition and they were all acquired for various reasons to come together as a group as a team for high expectations.”
Those expectations, back when the Yankees began the season 16-6, seemed reasonable. Having gone 5-14 over their last 19 games, however, the expectations for this club have been lowered by everyone who was outside the meeting Tuesday afternoon. The Bombers have dropped like a dead weight in the American League East standings until they are fighting just to claw their way back into a fight with the Blue Jays for second place and a playoff spot.
“The bottom line is we’re on our own,” Cashman said. “There’s no help coming from anywhere and the challenge is to find a way to get through this storm and batten down the hatches and come out on the other end with clear skies and sunny days ahead. But obviously the work’s got to be done now while the storm is upon us and clearly we all know the storm is upon us. We haven’t played well now for quite some time and we all know we’re capable of more, significantly more, both individually and collectively.
“That responsibility starts obviously with me and it filters all the way down through them and on our staff.”
He expressed confidence in Aaron Boone and his staff. He added he has done this from time to time over the years. Most notable was when he flew to Atlanta in 2009 to address a struggling Yankees team, which then went on to win a World Series. Those championship expectations were there in March when baseball shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, but now the hopes are that the Yankees can recover in time to make a playoff run. If the season ended after play Monday night, the Yankees would have the very last spot in the American League.
And time is running out, Cashman said. “We just have to navigate it ASAP. So we have 19 to go, so it’s time to go. Not that it wasn’t time to go before, but clearly we have to get back on track yesterday,” Cashman said “But I believe in these guys. They’re here for a reason and they’ve done it before many times for us and they’ve stepped up. They belong together as this unit, and they have big goals. Clearly, we have big goals and those goals are still in play. So despite how bad we played of recent, our goal is still the same.
“Obviously you’ve got to crawl before you walk and walk before you run and hopefully today we’ll start that crawl back to success and get out of the spot we’ve placed ourselves in.”