By Paul Semendinger
July 29, 2023
***
It Is The Process... and The Process Is BAD
The recent talk around the Yankees is that they still don't know if they'll be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. (Newsflash - The Trade Deadline is on Tuesday.)
This from MLBTR:
"The Yankees are stuck in a tricky spot and still haven’t decided how to approach next week’s trade deadline, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He says that the club’s decision makers are staying “in trade limbo” until the next few days play out..."
***
I had always been a supporter of Brian Cashman. I didn't like all his moves, but I believed, on the whole, that he had been a very good general manager for the Yankees.
(Yes, I have also always felt that his decision to hire Aaron Boone as the manager was a poor one. It's also a decision that will be part of his legacy. It was one of the worst decisions he made and it's one that it doesn't seem he'll ever be able to recover from. I don't see the Yankees winning a World Series (which was the goal when Boone was hired, no matter what the revisionist history says now) under Boone and I don't see Brian Cashman's tenure lasting past Boone. He gambled on an unknown manager, a person with no leadership experience in any capacity and stuck with him when it was clear that he wasn't up to the job. That decision will end up costing Brian Cashman his job and much of his legacy.)
But, on the whole, I always felt that Brian Cashman did a good job... The Yankees were always in the hunt. They reached the playoffs many times...
With that being said, much of my respect for the job Brian Cashman has done changed last year after the Yankees (once again) lost in the playoffs, and then, rather than stating that the team had failed, Brian Cashman announced that the results didn't matter. He said that the process itself is what matters. Worse, he said (as the Yankees have not been to a World Series since 2009) that the process he uses is a good one.
On its face, that was a poorly worded statement. Of course results matter. Results matter especially in a business that is based, almost exclusively, on winning. Worse, it might have been more than just a bad excuse, it many regards it was a lie. Again, of course results matter. If the process doesn't lead to good results, the process is flawed.
I felt, and still do, that Brian Cashman's answer was disingenuous and flat out insulting to the fans of the Yankees. Does he think us that stupid that we would believe this? "I know we didn't win, and haven't won, but our process is really good." We saw clearly, last year, as the Yankees traded for injured players, lost game after game, built a flawed roster, and didn't give their young talent a chance, and more, that the process was bad.
When leaders say that results don't matter, they are making excuses for the bad job they themselves did. This is obvious on it face. When you get the results, you speak to them directly. When you don't, you make excuses.
Brian Cashman made a lame excuse. It was insulting to the franchise and the team and the fans.
It was and is the Yankees' approach, more specifically Brian Cashman's approach, his process, that has led to the current state of the Yankees - one that has been going in the wrong direction for a long time.
If Brian Cashman wanted to talk about the process, he should have admitted that the process was a bad one. But, in that press conference, he had the audacity to say that the process was sound and good.
It wasn't.
It isn't.
We see this on almost a daily basis with the Yankees. They make decisions that make no sense. We just saw this yet again yesterday. The Yankees' process yesterday included bringing back an injured player (Aaron Judge) because they have no one else. The process also included sending one of the team's supposed bright young stars to the minor leagues (Oswald Peraza) for the third time without giving him a legitimate shot to show his big league value.
And as part of this process, as the team has walked a slow death march through the league, especially over the last month, the Yankees still do not know if the team should be a buyer or a seller. How can they not know? How can there be any confusion? How can there be any debate?
This isn't just a bad process.
This is incompetence.
If the general manager of the team does not see how badly they are, that's a problem. It's a huge problem.
What does Brian Cashman have to see to determine if the Yankees should be sellers? They should have been selling for weeks.
The Yankees are 54-49 on the season. But in this, they are 8-1 against the A's and the Royals, two of the worst teams in recent baseball history. This means, against the rest of baseball in 2023, the Yankees are 46-48.
Add to this the fact that the Yankees had a bad second half last year. This isn't a recent development, the bad baseball has been going on for a long time now.
A long time.
The Yankees are 9-13 in July. (Take away the three wins against the Royals and they're 6-13.)
The Yankees have two starting position players who are league average or better on offense (OPS+ at 100 or better.) Two.
The Yankees have one starting pitcher who is league average or better (ERA+ at 100 or better).
The Yankees are in last place in the American League East.
The Yankees are 3.5 games out of the watered down final Wild Card spot.
There are 14 teams in the Major Leagues who have a better record than the 2023 Yankees.
This isn't difficult to see. This has been clear for a long long long time.
And yet Brian Cashman isn't sure if the Yankees are a playoff team or not? This is his process?
This is clearly a bad process. Brian Cashman's process is terrible. The process is beyond flawed. If Brian Cashman can't see this, he is saying that he is a big part of the problem and maybe the biggest part of the problem, and he is the reason why the Yankees are where they are.
It would have been better last year if Mr. Cashman had said, "We did a bad job, and he have to be better." That would have been leadership. Leaders take responsibility. But when leaders fail and then they make excuses (and lame ones at that), it's a problem.
If the leader of the organization can't see that the ship is sinking, and has been for quite some time, that's a big concern That's more than bad process. It's a disaster.
It's time for a change.
The Mets are selling.
What are the Yankees waiting for?
Do they really think they're in the race?
A smart team, a realistic team, would sell off the assets and build for a better 2024 or 2025.... The Yankees are running out of time to do the one last good thing they can do with the 2023 season.
Anyone know what's up with Fuster? Have not seen him post in a long while.
Paul There are many problems with the Yankees ownership, management, and players. Hal has the final say as owner and the Buck stops there. Cashman repots to Hal and we are not privy to what is discussed and approved concerning free agents, trades etc. In recent years the signing of a lot of players past their prime or to put it more openly past their prime have kept this team from winning the World Series. Hal‘s biggest fault is concerning himself with the luxury tax and the bottom line thereby reducing the financial might of the richest team in baseball. Cashman’s biggest fault is relying way to much on analytics, thinking his prospects are better. then what they really are…
Paul:
I agree with everything except your belief that Cashman was a good GM, at some point. I knew Cashman's process was deeply flawed when he signed Jacoby Ellsbury for $155 million dollars and Cashman could not foresee that a player like Ellsbury who relied on speed would be washed up at age 31 in 2015. His slash line in 2015 was .257/.318/.345/.663. Not the kind of numbers to pay $155 million. In my mind that kind of money should be for impact players entering their prime. Ellsbury's prime was with the Red Sox before he went brittle with the Yankees. Then there was the Stanton signing. No need to harp on that bonehead move. I can name other exampl…
Great insight. We’ve seen bad Yankee teams years ago. But there was always a HOPE that things would get better. What is so depressing about this team isn’t the players as much as the management. Until management recognizes their “process” is not good, nothing will change. And to this point, there is nothing to indicate management really comprehends this.