Brian Cashman agrees to new contract as Yankees GM
The longest-tenured general manager in the sport is staying in the Bronx on a new deal, with manager Aaron Boone also set to return for a 10th season.
Why Cashman's name is trending
Brian Cashman is trending because the Yankees general manager has agreed to a new contract to keep running the front office. Cashman told reporters the deal is in place, even though the final details still need to be ironed out. "We're locked and loaded," he said. The news lands just days after the Yankees reached an agreement for manager Aaron Boone to return for a 10th season, so the organization is keeping both its dugout leader and its front office leader in place heading into the offseason.
Cashman's run in the Bronx
Cashman has held the Yankees GM job since 1998, making him the longest-tenured general manager in the game. The Yankees have posted a winning record in every one of his 29 seasons. Under his watch, the team has won four World Series titles and 15 American League East titles, with the most recent championship coming in 2009 against the Philadelphia Phillies. The other side of that run is a stretch of 13 straight playoff appearances without a title, which ties for the fourth-longest such streak in MLB postseason history.
How this season actually ended
New York went 93-68 this year, its third straight season with 90 or more wins, and grabbed the top AL Wild Card spot. The Yankees swept the Red Sox in the Wild Card round, scoring nine runs in each game, then ran into the Rays in the ALDS and were swept in three. Tampa Bay shut New York out in Game 1, with Drew Rasmussen carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and the Yankees had more errors (4) than hits (3) in a sloppy Game 2 loss. The Rays went on to win the AL pennant.
The bigger problem was the offense, and it showed up well before October. After Aaron Judge got hurt at the end of May, the Yankees ranked 25th in the league in scoring over the next three months and tied the Angels for the worst wRC+ in baseball from June through August. Judge came back, though it didn't last, and the lineup did climb to middle of the pack by September. Owner Hal Steinbrenner said he wasn't pinning the disappointing finish on Boone or on Cashman, pointing instead to the lack of offense, according to the New York Post.
What Cashman is working with this offseason
Cashman has real decisions ahead now that his own job is settled. Closer David Bednar and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. are both free agents and candidates for a qualifying offer, though that same move cost the Yankees with Trent Grisham this year. The pitching staff is aging and dealt with a string of injuries this past season, giving Cashman another area to address before next spring. None of that offseason work happens without a GM in the building, and by Cashman's own account, that part is done in everything but the paperwork.
Facts per ESPN, MLB Trade Rumors. Opinion is the taproom's.