Red Sox fans will be glad to hear about the Yankees’ latest boneheaded decision
MLB’s longest-tenured general manager is here to stay, which is great news for the Boston Red Sox.
No, Dan Duquette isn’t replacing Brian O’Halloran, and Joe Cronin isn’t back from the dead.
According to Sportico (subscription required), Brian Cashman will return to the New York Yankees in 2023, though a contract extension likely won’t be announced in-season.
Hilarious.
For Sox fans who’ve watched half a dozen GMs and two presidents of baseball operations get hired and fired (Bloom is safe for now) at the storied edifice between Lansdowne and Jersey, the concept of a GM who’s been around since the late 90s is astounding. That’s a pre-iPod GM, a VHS GM, a pre-Big Papi GM, a Curse of the Bambino GM.
Hilariously, the chaos of constant front office upheaval has somehow turned out better for the Sox than Cashman’s eternal seat on the throne. In the 15-year span in which the Sox won their four championships after an 86-year drought caused by a deal made with the Yankees, Cashman’s club only has one.
Why are the Yankees extending Brian Cashman’s contract?
Cashman’s reign in the Bronx has been a mixed bag of inherited wealth and bad decisions. He lucked into an incredible situation when he took over in 1998, so it’s not exactly fair to attribute the Yankees’ late 90s success to his leadership. Gene Michael and Bob Watson set him up for immense success by discovering the players who would later be known as the Core Four: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera.
But in later years, Cashman has come under fire almost every season. The Yankees are regularly one of the biggest payrolls in the game but remain stuck at 27 championships (26 rings and a pocket watch, to be specific). Acquiring Alex Rodriguez turned out to be a huge mistake. He gave Gerrit Cole an enormous contract but hasn’t really built out a pitching staff around him; with his team struggling in July and August, he gift-wrapped Jordan Montgomery and handed him to the St. Louis Cardinals on a silver platter at the trade deadline.
And Cashman was at the helm when they made MLB history by blowing a 3-0 lead in the 2004 ALCS to their greatest rivals, leading to their first of four championships. The Sox bested them again in the 2018 ALDS after Cashman boasted that his Bronx Bombers were the only ones who ever ‘did damage’ against their rivals. Most recently, the Sox tormented his team in last October’s Wild Card, and got all the way to Game 6 of the ALCS in a season in which they were projected to win around 79 games.
Meanwhile, and most importantly, the Yankees haven’t won World Series since 2009.
If the Yankees collapse in September or October, that could change, so it’s wise of the Yanks to hold off on an announcement. But no matter how or when Cashman’s Yankees tenure ends, he’s done so much for the Sox. From signing Rafael Devers’ son Gerrit Cole, to creating the ‘Do Damage’ tagline for the 2018 championship run, to not protecting Garrett Whitlock from the Rule 5 Draft, he’s really helped Boston out.
So here’s to many more years of that.
