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Yankees Organizational Priorities, 2025

Cary Greene

Yankees Organizational Priorities, 2025

Early February Thoughts by Cary Greene

***

We all know about the moves Brian Cashman made this offseason. Barring a trade of Marcus Stroman, which would free up $18.3 million in payroll space that could be used creatively by Cashman to continue improving the roster as he tries to operate under Hal Steinbrenner’s annual “Stienbrenneromics” philosophy, it seems that the Yankees are basically done making moves. We see this situation yearly whereby Steinbrenner imposes a budget that allows a certain amount of spending but ultimately fails spend what is required to win a championship. Over the past 15 seasons, Steinbrenner’s Yankees have become mired in the deep, dry sands of an ongoing championship drought.


Spending at an annual rate commensurate or even exceeding most large market teams, Steinbrenner’s Yankees have been good enough to make the playoffs but they’ve fallen short consistently. Steinbrenner obviously believes that making the playoffs is the main goal and as he’s stated to the media many times, “Anything can happen in the playoffs.”


With such vast amounts of money invested in the likes of Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodon, and Max Fried - wouldn’t it be wise to spend just a little bit more in order to strengthen the Yankees chances of being able to finally break through and take the championship hill? One would think Steinbrenner would recognize that the return on his investment, as his Yankees rosters are annually constructed,  aren’t likely to get the job done.


Why won’t Hal just stack the deck? Well my dear readers, that’s a rhetorical question if I’ve ever asked one, because the obvious answer involves Hal spending more than he’s comfortable with.


All baseball teams are businesses and the last thing Hal wants to do is cut into his profits.


Haven’t most Yankees fans accepted the reality that the Yankees have become under Steinbrenner? Each offseason, Cashman does an admirable.yet unenviable, job of scouring MLB’s scrap heap, attempting to catch lightning in a bottle and most years, he continues his obsessive quest even as the first few months of the season rolls along.


Today I’ll pose a question for our readers - Is the Yankees approach the right one?


We know Cashman is proud as a peacock at what he believes is the Yankees approach. Steinbrenner too is pleased as punch with the way the franchise is operating and performing, despite many rumblings circulating in the media that the Yankees have numerous player development issues while also having a very poor track record of injuries vs league average.


A few years ago I wrote a piece detailing the Yankees injuries compared to other teams and I concluded that there was zero doubt that the Yankees were doing a very poor job in that department.


Regarding the Yankees problems with injuries, some credit is due to Cashman as he embarked on a concerted effort focusing on acquiring more durable players without concerning injury histories. Last season’s tranche of players brought in raised only minimal injury concerns. Alex Verdugo hadn’t missed a game due to injury since 2019 and neither Trent Grisham nor Juan Soto had missed any since 2021. Marcus Stroman on the other hand was more of a concern, but he did actually remain healthy in 2023 and that, coupled with his makeup and his affordability, may have been why Cashman decided to sign him. This offseason’s newly acquired marquee players are by and large another solid cast of characters so it appears Cashman has remained focused on making better player acquisition decisions.


According to ESPN.com, the Yankees farm system has dropped all the way from 6th best to 21st. With only two top prospects in the cupboard this year, the once proud Yankees system is presently a bit wilted and depleted, but painting a doom and gloom picture isn’t really a fair assessment of the value that has been produced in recent years. Sure, a number of prospects like Spencer Jones, Oswald Peraza, Everson Pereira haven't yet panned out and Cashman has traded away some good ones like Drew Thorpe, Trey Sweeney and Josh Smith.


On the other hand, the Yankees farm system produced last season’s MLB Rookie of the Year, Luis Gil so some credit is certainly due to the Yankees and pitching coach Matt Blake for being able to help Gil with his erratic control issues that plagued him as a pinstriped prospect. The Yankees also graduated Austin Wells who is now a valuable starting catcher with a sweet left-handed swing and a promising future in the Bronx.


Jasson Dominguez also looks primed to become an everyday left fielder for the Yankees and if he’s able to make the adjustments to MLB pitching that were exposed last season in his brief cameo with the team, then the Yankees system will have produced three very valuable pieces on this upcoming season’s team. Not to mention, the prospect clock has not yet run out on Spencer Jones, Roderick Arias, Ben Rice and others. There are a few Yankees pitching prospects that also might provide some value this season, but it’s very unlikely that another Gil or Mike King is poised to burst onto the scene.


Another thing the Yankees system has done pretty well in recent times is furnishing other teams with viable Major League talent. From Trevor Stephan and Garrett Whitlock to Miguel Andujar and Mike King, other teams have pilfered the Yankees surplus of prospects and Brian Cashman has elected to trade many away as well, in search of Eldorado.


One thing seems certain though - Brian Cashman needs to engage in a genuine attempt to improve the way the organization develops and scouts prospects. Due to various reasons, the Yankees haven’t had much success in the draft and they also haven’t signed any impact players from the Pacific rim since Masahiro Tanaka and Hideki Matsui before him and how times have changed. The Dodgers have become Asia’s team and they also feature ESPN.com’s number one rated farm system to boot.


Surely the Yankees process isn’t as great as Brian Cashman purports it to be. Cashman has done less with more than just about every GM in baseball over the past 15 seasons and counting. Will the Yankees fortunes improve this season and beyond, or are Yankees fans going to have to endure a full rebuild in the coming seasons? Also, how valuable is a strong Minor League system for a team like the Yankees, who seem to only give prospects a chance when a veteran player gets injured?

8 comments

8 comentarios


Alan B.
Alan B.
2 hours ago

Tim Hill apparently has been re-signed to one year plus an option. Reported price is $2.85M

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jjw49
13 minutes ago
Contestando a

This could be the last signing going into ST!

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jjw49
3 hours ago

You know it's been baked.... Cashman just signed Carlos Carrasco yesterday!!!! So if he cannot unload Stroman..... the Yankees are rolling with what they have! Blame whoever you want but to the casual Yankee fan.... we're GOOD!

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Alan B.
Alan B.
6 hours ago

The problem really doesn't lie with Hal's budget, it really relies on Cashman's choices. Bad deals - Hicks, Stanton, Rodon, Donaldson. Severino was a bad deal for a whole other reason, so  I'll talk about that one separately. Hal just doesn't spend to cover up those mistakes.


How the medical team and the non medical professional evaluate rehabbing players is atrocious. They couldn't get Severino healthy for the entirety of his 5 year deal. Stanton, with his already track record of having durability issues, you trade for him with 9 or 10 years left on a deal that also has a NTC? How many players have lied about being injured simply because they don't trust the Yankees medical team? …


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etbkarate
7 hours ago

When you consider that they drafted and/or developed Gil, Wells, Dominguez, Schmidt and Volpe, and have others (Rice and Jones) knocking at the door plus the players mentioned, along with a few others not mentioned, to go along with Judge, the system seems to be producing. It appears that the problem lies in the acquisition of players outside the organization. They continue to try to fit round pegs into sqaure holes. Look to deals like Gallo, Voit, Stanton, Rodon, Odor, Stroman, Montas as examples. All of that and yet they still do not have a real leadoff hitter and bat guys (IMO) in slots that do not benefit the line-up as well as they can, suggests to me tha…

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Alan B.
Alan B.
2 hours ago
Contestando a

Not having reliable prospects sitting at AAA every year at most positions is a result of the choices they've made. Ways too many veterans, who get signed to minor league deals with the guarantee of playing time. This is not a mistake, it is a choice!

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fuster
8 hours ago

seems as though an organizational priority is to maintain the most expensive player payroll of all American league teams.

the team's spending on player salaries has sharply increased in recent seasons.

and it's only because we've seen even sharper increases for the payrolls for the Dodgers and Mets that the Yankees' payroll seems less extreme.

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