Here we stand on August 31st with the trade
deadline now past and the rumor mill has already begun for the 2018 offseason.
That’s typical in baseball but this story kind of hits close to home as some
publications are already speculating that the Yankees GM Brian Cashman may be
done in pinstripes after the season. Cashman, who is set to be a free agent at
the end of the year, is speculated to be joining the Miami Marlins who were
recently bought by a group headed by former Yankees legend Derek Jeter in case
you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months or so but this begs the
question, Cashman wouldn’t really leave New York for Miami…. Would he?
Honestly I can’t see Cashman bolting from the Yankees to go
anywhere, let alone the Miami Marlins. Why? Giancarlo Stanton. That contract is
moveable, sure, but that contract is going to hinder the Marlins ability to
spend for a long, long time. Cashman, in his own defense, has been great lately
with his handling of prospects and in trading for young, cheap and controllable
players but at the end of the day Cashman has always and will always look to
bail himself out with the big money grab of a veteran player or a key piece.
That just simply, and I am obviously speculating here, won’t be the case down
in Miami. The Miami Marlins will never have the payroll that the Los Angeles
Dodgers or the New York Yankees have. The market would never support it, the
attendance would never support it and I doubt the group headed by Jeter could
support it.
Cashman finally has the power and the ability to basically
make trades at will here in the Bronx. Sure, he has a spending limit but his
spending limit here is much higher than it would be anywhere else in the league
with the obvious exception of the Los Angeles Dodgers so why would he want to
go anywhere else? Cashman has a young team brewing here with plenty of star power
and has a Top 5 – Top 10 farm system to boot because of recent developmental
changes and philosophies in the system which begin and end with the man handing
out the checks and trading, or in this case not trading, the Yankees prospects.
Cashman has fought for a long time for this kind of team, this kind of farm
system and this kind of control over it and I simply can’t see Cashman moving
on from it now.
The only way I can see Cashman leaving is if he gets a huge
pay raise and promotion much like the Tampa Bay Rays executive Andrew Friedman
a few years back. If Jeter were to offer President of Baseball Operations to
Cashman and full control over the team… then maybe… but if it were just to be a
GM I think Cashman will be back in the Bronx for the 2018 season, and I’m okay
with that.
