The Dodgers Play Chess, the Yankees Checkers

by EJ Fagan

August 14, 2024

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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission. This was published a few days ago so the stats don't include the last few games.

Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.

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I started writing this post during the 4th inning of Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees are down 4-1. Maybe they stage a comeback in this game, but it wouldn’t change my take. The Yankees might end up winning this series, but the difference in quality between the two teams is glaring.

The Dodgers and Yankees have all the same advantages. They are both historic baseball franchises in baseball’s biggest markets. Neither team has had a high draft pick in a generation. Both can attract talent on prestige, salary and reputation that others can’t.

And it has never been clearer that Andrew Friedman is on another level from Brian Cashman.

Injuries often derail teams. The 2024 Dodgers have no business being good given how many pitchers they have on the injured list. They got this far because the almost all of the big decisions that the team made worked out.

Andrew Friedman’s big signing or trade hit rate is just way higher than Cashman’s. The last decade of Yankees baseball has been filled with disappointing failures.

Just off the top of my head over the last decade: Donaldson, Hicks, Kiner-Falefa, Stanton, Rizzo, Paxton, Rodon, Verdugo, Gallo, LeMahieu (second contract), Bader, Taillon, Gray, Headley, Happ.

The hits? By my count: Judge, Soto, Cole, Tanaka, Chisholm (tbd), Torres, Chapman, LeMahieu (first contract), Kuroda.

That’s a really bad ratio. The typical Brian Cashman big move doesn’t work out.

What about smaller moves? The Yankees have a terribly unproductive farm system. Cashman has a solid record of finding success at the bargain bin, but even that has faded in recent years. Other teams figured out how to scout exit velocity.

Let’s compare that with Friedman. I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of Dodgers moves, but my rough count over the last few years.

Misses: Glasnow, Bauer, Rollins

Hits: Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, T. Hernandez, Flaherty, Muncy, Yamamoto, Treinan, T. Turner, Scherzer, J. Turner, Machado, Pollock, Maeda.

That’s a pretty stark difference, especially when you add in a much more productive Dodgers farm system.

Cashman has survived as GM because he’s had three very big hits recently: Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Juan Soto. I’m not sure how much credit he should get for any of them. Judge was a miracle. Cole was the best free agent pitcher in memory. Soto was a no-brainer trade that everyone predicted as soon as the Padres ran out of money.

I’m finishing this post in the 7th inning. Yamamoto cruised through the Yankees lineup, because the Yankees lineup after Torres, Soto, Judge and Stanton isn’t any good. It isn’t any good because Brian Cashman made the wrong move time after time. He then made more wrong moves to put a bandaid on his previous wrong moves. Without Judge playing like the literal best player ever, this isn’t close to a World Series caliber team.