TUESDAY: The Yankees officially announced Cashman's new three-year deal, tweets Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.
FRIDAY: Theo Epstein is gone, Andy MacPhail isn't coming back, and Andrew Friedman appeared to entertain the idea of leaving. But the longest-tenured general manager in the American League East is staying put. The Yankees have agreed to an extension with GM Brian Cashman, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). The sides agreed to a three-year deal, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on Twitter) and they are waiting for the World Series to end before making any announcements.
The Yankees have won four championships under Cashman, who took over New York's baseball operations department before the 1998 season. The 44-year-old has built playoff teams in 13 out of a possible 14 seasons. MLBTR's Transaction Tracker offers a look back at his many moves. I looked ahead to the Yankees' offseason earlier in the week. Cashman's primary offseason goal will be acquiring starting pitching.
I’m sure his deal will be befitting, given his surname.
I wonder how he manages to keep going in that pressure cooker in the Bronx. I guess rings help with that.
Well that and him being able to feel comfortable enough to deal with the media and the players day in, day out. I didn’t see him leaving the Yanks.
Brining back Cash, great move complementing CC’s signing.
Seriously, give me an unlimited payroll to overpay pretty much every FA on the market, and I too could score you playoff teams 13 out of 14 seasons.
I sincerely doubt that .
I don’t
you have that much faith in GREGM?
Don’t you? That dude could get AA to take on Barry Zito’s contract without having to kick in a cent. He’s that good.
You’re a Red Sox fan right?
Since you and GREG claim you can put any team together and make it to the playoffs, I’m sure you agreed with this:
That’s the Herald for you. Makes the Daily News look like the NYT in comparison.
lol
When you have the luxury of guys like Lance Berkman as backups, you generally have a better chance of making it to the playoffs, yes.
Your “argument” is veteran players being a backup? Berkman was injured and had a sub par year in 2010, of course he’s going to be a backup to Mark Texiera
Just because I’m a Sox fan doesn’t mean that I’m a Theo fanboi. I think both Theo and Cashman are REALLY over rated. Theo doesn’t deserve a lot of the credit he gets for 2004 as a lot of that team predates him and he was only partially responsible for signing Schilling and he was parading around in a gorilla suit when Beckett and Lowell were acquired. I won’t even get into all of the horrible FA signings Theo made. Horrible.
That having been said, Cashman and all of the Yankee money he has had to spend can’t get NY more than 1 WS in 10+ years? I still can’t believe that Yankee fans love the guy. They must be getting sentimental in their old ages or something.
Just like every single GM, he’s made good moves and bad moves. Therefore I can see reasons to like them and not to like them. “Only” 1 WS in 10 years, wow. How about you just say 5 titles in 16 years? Know how many fan bases would kill to just even see 1 WS in their lifetime. You and many others should be thankful to see your team have 2, some fans can’t even see 1.
The New York Yankees aren’t just any other team. If they were, I could see you being happy with only winning 1 WS in the last 11 years but you have spent truckloads after truckloads of cash and all you have to show for it is ONE stinkin’ trophy. Cashman inherited a championship caliber team and rode it for all it was worth. You really give Cashman credit for putting together the teams that won the ’98, ’99, ’00 teams? How many of those players were drafted and signed by G. M. Cashman?
I never said that I wasn’t happy to have seen the Sox win 2 championships. I am. I am also critic enough to see that they didn’t win them because of Julio Lugo. In my opinion, GMs that have a ton of resources and don’t have great success year in and year out are pretty mediocre. Glad you are happy with a GM that wins you ONE championship every 10+ years.
Sure, just like the Cubs had done every year in the last 14 seasons… right?
huh?
Sarcasm dude. He’s saying not all high payroll teams such as the Cubs (and if I may add on to it, Mets, Dodgers, Angels) are not year by year playoff teams anymore.
if you doubled the salary of any of those teams (ie – put A-Rod, Tex, and Granderson on the Dodgers) they would be a playoff team every year.
Granderson and Arod were both traded to the yankees..So are you complimenting their ability to draft and develop prospects and then flip them for premium talent?
yes – i am complementing their ability to draft and develop prospects and then flip them for premium talent while simultaneously paying that premium talent a premium salary and also paying 10 other premium salaries.
You can’t guarantee that at all.
Sol, basically, what you are arguing is that Cashman’s work should be used by other teams? Then, he IS a good GM after all.
yes – logically – if every other GM had a $200 million budget, then they would be right in following in Cashman’s footsteps to create a good team.
Yeah, and fill them with Alfonso Soriano, Jason Bay, Carl Crawford, Vernon Wells, John Lackey, Kevin Brown, Brad Lidge, Oliver Perez… Cashman isn’t good just because he has money, he has dodged many mistakes and kept the Albatross-contract factor as low as he could (with the meddling of the Steinbrenner family).
Plus, with the exception of A-Rod’s second contract (again, not Cashman’s fault), the Yankees have NEVER set the market for players. They didn’t give 25 millions to A-Rod in the first place (thanks Rangers), they didn’t give the first 100 million contract to a player (Dodgers with Kevin Brown), they didn’t give the first 200 million contract (it was either Rangers or Red Sox), the Sabathia deal (the first one) was conditioned by what the Mets and Giants paid for Johan Santana and Barry Zito. The second one was conditioned by Cliff Lee’s contract. When they won the Teixeira bid no one thought they had overpaid (the Nats and Orioles made similar offers if I remember correctly) and even if they did, That’s nothing compared to what the Phillies did with Ryan Howard’s extension, which has affected the Red Sox with Adrian Gonzalez and will affect any negotiations with Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols.
So, if you are looking for those who overpay, look another way. The Yankees have more money than anyone else, and they use it to remain competitive, but they have almost never gone out of their way overpaying. They just play in the market that others set.
Well said
i don’t care if they overpay one person – that’s not the point i’m trying to make at all. it’s about the combination of a bunch of high paid salaries.
the dodgers got screwed on schmidt and lost out on a lot of other opportunities. the Yankees got screwed on pavano but it didn’t matter because of the extra $80 million they had laying around.
The Dodgers could be a Top 3 spending organization if it wasn’t for that beast McCourt and the (assume I said something awful, I don’t want to have this post deleted) that he married. But see the FA signings of Uribe, Schmidt, Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre; the re-signing of Manny and the trades of Dotel, Blake and Tim Fedorowicz (adressing a need he created by letting Russell Martin walk) and then tell me that the only problem with Colletti is that he doesn’t have as much money as Cashman does.
Uhhhh the Red Sox didn’t give the first 200 million contract. In fact, they still haven’t. Biggest contract is still Manny’s $160M deal signed in 2000. The Rangers gave the first 200M contract to A-Rod.
The Yankees certainty did set the market for second-tier pitchers like Lackey and Burnett though. Burnett’s contract set the market for Beckett and Lackey.
Sorry, I got confused over Manny’s contract. He was the first one to get 20 millions… at least for a few weeks, right?
And yeah, the Yankees made the Burnett mistake, but I seem to recall that the market was moving towards that type of deal anyway. The fact is that they didn’t outbid themselves on Burnett, as the Dodgers did with Kevin Brown, the Rangers did with A-Rod or the Phillies did with Ryan Howard.
You conveniently left out the Red Sox and Phills. But they never have a winning record so…
You obviously did not read what I wrote, did you?
“not all high payroll teams”
Not all is not the same as None
Fine, field this team together and tell me how many playoff appearances you think you’d get
1B- Carlos Pena
2B- Dan Uggla
3B- Alex Rodriguez
SS- Derek Jeter
OF- Jason Bay
OF- Vernon Wells
OF- Torri Hunter
DH- Adam Dunn
C- Kenji Johjima
SP- Derek Lowe
SP- Barry Zito
SP- AJ Burnett
SP- John Lackey
SP- Carlos Zambrano
RP- Rafael Soriano
RP- Joe Nathan
RP- Jonathan Broxton
With the exception of Johjima ($8 million) and some of the relievers, all of those players make minimum $12 million per year
It’s easy to say that now. If you had said that before the 2011 season, people would feel differently, including myself.
With the exception of A-Rod, which of these players before they signed their current deals were the best at their position as a FA? Zito maybe? But he, if I’m not mistaken, only signed the 3rd $100 million pitcher contract ever with Mike Hampton and Kevin Brown being the others, do correct me if I am wrong on that.
Remember Soriano signed as a setup man, not a closer, and A-Rod who will be making $20-$30 million the next 6 years you knew eventually had to break down at least in the past 5 years of that contract so despite him arguably being teh best in baseball (after the 2007 season), his contract from the age of 32-42 everyone knew was ridiculous.
Did Johjima really make that much last year in Japan?
Mistake on Johjima, but that’s what he was projected to make with the Mariners before he opted out.
Maybe he should of said give him the Yankees team and he may win with them. What he doesn’t state though is that there’s alot more to do than just throwing money around in Yankee land. Granted, alot of their team is overpaid but they do have homegrowns too. Nova, Cano, Gardner, David Robertson. Can’t forget about the old guard Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. It’s easy to pick out their high priced players because some were once low salary, young ballplayers too.
This is true about the home-grows, but most teams whom grow talent cant afford to pay 10 of them at once when they become outstanding ball players and / or all stars. Irregardless of what you say, take away the financial freedom, and it becomes a whole different ballgame…literally.
If you took that, every single team would be different. The FA market
would be way different. Look at the Dodgers. They have a Top 3 MLB
pitcher and a Top 3 MLB batter in their team. Both are perennial MVP/Cy
Young material. Both will command at very least 22 millions each in Free
Agency. If the Dodgers retain both of them they will have a base payroll of at least 50 million dollars. And even so, they won’t even fight for the Wild Card in their weak division.
Sustained success needs strong economic backing, at least to hold your
internally developed stars and to find complementary pieces for them. If
anything, I’m willing to concede that the Yankees need an improvement
at their scouting/farm system, but still the need is not desperate
enough to make Cashman a defective GM.
I think that I would make the playoffs with:
1B- Prince Fielder
2B- Kelly Johnson
3B- Albert Pujols
SS- Jose Reyes
OF- Josh Willingham
OF- Carlos Beltran
OF- Michael Cuddyer
DH- David Ortiz
C- Ramon Hernandez
SP- CC Sabathia
SP- CJ Wilson
SP- Roy Oswalt
SP- Mark Buehrle
SP- Eric Bedard
RP- Heath Bell
RP- Joe Nathan
RP- J Papelbon
RP- KRod
RP- Ryan Madsen
and that is just cherrypicking one years free agents to overpay…
Bedard would be lucky to throw 1 pitch, and X out Sabathia the ace and Nathan since they are on my team (or GREG’s team because he can make the playoffs with anybody)
Congrats, you just did 50% of Cashman’s job. Now try and trade all the aged bad contracts you already have, and you can do rinse and repeat in 5 years.
lineup wise, those guys all give each other protection and probably end up a top 10 offensive team- especially if you put them in a launchpad like yankee stadium.
pitching wise you’ll be awfu.
So in other words, my team is basically the 2011 Red Sox. All offense, no pitching, in the most important month of the season for playoff/playoff contending teams.
Ok Greg, You must another fan of a losing team who complains about the salary cap every chance you get. The Ca$hman deserves it after what he accomplished last year with all the small signings. The Yankees were picked 2nd or 3rd to the rays and the sox all year with “that” rotation but ended up in 1st with a great over all ERA.
And what would you say if tomorrow the Yanks had to cut their payroll by 100m if their was a cap? Would it be the same team? Probably not. I appreciate the Yanks and what they do for baseball…but to me its like playing on the XBOX, forcing trades, overpaying everyone to build the team you want, and then win 110 games, usually by 10-15 runs per game. Sorry, their is no skill to 75% of that. I applaud the signings to help the pitching, but the reality is that this year was a rare and unforseen circumstance. Generaly speaking, the Yanks, like with the new Sabathia contract, have a financial advantage to keep proven performers where other teams have to cut and trim fat away to keep winning teams. 25 million dollars to a guy betting he will play to that caliber 5-6-7 years from now…come on. You can add him to that list above of overpaid guys whom under perform in a couple of years.
“And what would you say if tomorrow the Yanks had to cut their payroll by 100m if their was a cap? ”
A-Rod $33 million
Burnett $16 million
Soriano $13 million
Jorge Posada (well now gone but still) $13 million
Pedro Feliciano $4 million
Kei Igawa $5 million (although he will be gone too)
Rivera, Jeter and Texeira’s salary all shoudl be cut (Rivera and Jeter each to about $10 million and Tex to about $15 million, that’s another $17 million cut)
You are talking like in all those cases the Yankees were the only ones willing to offer that much money (besides A-Rod or Soriano, who were moves of the Steins).
Nobody would give A-Rod 10 years and $275 million at the age of 32 with incentives but the Yankees, and no team would sign Soriano to be their setupman for $13 million.
With the exception of Feliciano and maybe Burnett (considering the Braves offered about the same amount) I can’t see any other team but the Yankees giving out those contracts.
I think Posada would have found similar money… Igawa was also a bust, and that you can chalk up to Cashman (every GM has mistakes… remember that CarGo is in the Rockies thanks to Beane), and the other two moves were direct influence of the Steinbrenner family.
So you admit that Cashman overpaid all those guys for what was “a good idea” at the time? Fits right into the Yankees business model methinks.
Cashman did not re-sign A-Rod or sign Soriano.
Oh I and wasn’t aware only the Yankees overpay players.
And while you’re right they will have performers, you have to know that in the later years they are going to be under-performers (except Mo who at 41 is as every bit as good as he was when he was 31)
It’s amazing for me how a man with 13 post-seasons, 5 World Series appearances and 4 titles is still in doubt about his talent while Billy Beane, whose team hasn’t played post season baseball for five straight seasons is still regarded as the biggest genius in the sport.
Don’t get me wrong, Beane’s contribution to the game is historically far more important than Cashman’s, but Cashman was able to adapt to Beane’s ideas, while Beane hasn’t managed to find a new winning formula (or a manager for that matter) for many seasons… and don’t give me the lack of funds argument, Andrew Friedman has less money than Beane yet somehow he manages to field competitive teams.
I have to agree. But besides the 04 Red Sox (and probably 07 but I can’t bank on that because Epstein did not fully put that team together such as acquiring Beckett and Lowell who were the ALCS and WS MVP’s if I’m not mistaken) did any other recent WS champion use that technique?
Not that I have a problem with it, I like Beane’s ideas and all, but his team has yet to appear in a WS since he becamse GM of the A’s in 98 (Although I doubt he started using a Moneyball technique back then)
Although if you have to ask who would I take of the 2 if my payroll was “unlimited”, it would probably be Beane, but he has not dealt with a high payroll team so we don’t know how good/bad as a GM he would be with it.
Exactly. Who is to say that given a large payroll Beane wouldn’t make the same mistakes others such as Cashman or Epstein have made? Granted, I don’t think he would be as bad as Jim Hendry, Tony Reagins, Dave Littlefield, Ned Colletti or Bill Bavasi; but still I can’t help but remember the somewhat disastrous tenures that two of his former assistants (J.P. Ricciardi and Paul DePodersta) had with teams with better financial situations.
I’ve gone back and forth on Cashman over the years, but I appreciate his efforts now more than ever. He guides us into the postseason like EVERY year. That has to count for something. Yes, I know the payroll is what it is, but just look at the Cubs, Mets, Boston and other teams who spend money. You still have to make sound decisions. And, to be fair, a bunch of the terrible deals the Yanks have made were not Cashman’s call. A-Rod, Soriano, Giambi, etc… Cashman has brought us Robertson, Russell Martin and kept the likes of Gardner, Nova, Cano, etc… I’m happy he’s still with us, as long as the Stein’s don’t push any trades and FA signings on him!!!!!
I thought Giambi was Cashman’s idea as well (I knew it was George’s but I thought they both wanted him). Soriano and re-signing A-Rod I know were not Cashman’s idea.
I know payrolls are adjusted every year, and the rankings (Except #1) fluctuate, but here were the top 8 payrolls in MLB last year
1- Yankees
2- Phillies
3- Red Sox
4- Angels
5- White Sox
6- Cubs
7- Mets
8- Giants
Although the odds of it happening are a probably a billion to one, there is a scenario where all 8 of these teams could make the playoffs in a given year (since there’s 4 teams in each league in the top 8, and all 6 divisions have at least 1 team in the top 8 which would leave the other 2 teams as a possible wild card)
Only 2 of these 8 teams made the playoffs (the same amount as the teams amongst the bottom 8 in payroll), 3 of them finished below .500, none of them made it to the LCS, and out of a possible 24 times for playoff appearances for these teams in the past 3 years (8 teams, 3 years), there have been only 9 by them.
Sorry dude i don’t buy your explainations. From 2000 on, they Yankess have had the #1 payroll in MLB, and generally, it was head and shoulders above the second place team on the list. Certain years, even close to 100 million more than the second place club. ADVANTAGE, no denying it, no matter how you cut it. If having twice the budget of your competition isn’t a advantage to 99% of people, i dont know what it.
ADVANTAGE in what? Making the playoffs? No sorry. Because that depends on how you play on the field, not how you write a check. If your theory is “high payroll teams have the advantage” all of these teams would be in the playoffs or in playoff contention every year in and year out.
There is no denying that money provides an advantage. And these teams ARE the ones that are in the playoffs year in and year out. Obviously not every year, but I bet if you look up the stats, the highest paid teams tend to be the ones in the playoffs more often.
Playoff teams the past few years prove you’re wrong. The only team who has Not missed the playoffs in the last 4 years is the Phillies. Red Sox have not made the playoffs since 09 and have not won a playoff game since 08. The Cubs, Mets and Dodgers have a grand total of 1 LCS apperance each the past 10 years. The White Sox did win the WS in 05 but have not won a single playoff series since then. The Angels haven’t won since 02. The Yankees have won 1 WS since 2001.
We shall see what happens if a 2nd WC team is added.
I’m not talking about winning. Once a team reaches the playoffs, anything can happen. However, I’m willing to bet that throughout time, highly paid teams have made the playoffs more consistently than lower payroll teams.
Playoff Year – Team – Payroll rank that year. The team in caps won the WS
2005 – Yankees 1, Red Sox 2, Angels 5, Cards 6, Braves 10, Astros 12, WHITE SOX 13, Padres 17
2006 – Yankees 1, Mets 5, Dodgers 6, CARDINALS 11, Tigers 14, Padres 17, Twins 19, A’s 21
2007- Yankees 1, RED SOX 2, Angels 4, Cubs 8, Phillies 13, Indians 23, Rockies 25, Diamondbacks 26
2008- Red Sox 4, White Sox 5, Angels 6, Dodgers 7, Cubs 8, PHILLIES 12, Brewers 15, Rays 29
2009- YANKEES 1, Red Sox 4, Angels 6, Phillies 7, Dodgers 9, Cards 13, Rockies 18, Twins 24
2010- Yankees 1, Phillies 3, GIANTS 10, Twins 11, Braves 15, Reds 19, Rays 21, Rangers 27
2011 – Yankees 1, Phillies 2, Tigers 10, CARDINALS 11, Rangers 13, Brewers 17, Diamondbacks 25, Rays 29
The only lopsided year seems to be 2005 (in which the team with the 2nd lowest payroll among the playoff teams won it all). Possibly 2009 also.
Do keep in mind of course that in both cases, high payroll temas and low payroll teams can squeak in there by 1 game. Example 2010 Giants, won the division due to the Padres (29th in payroll) choking.
2010 and 2011 certainly have been changes. Red Sox miss the playoffs back to back years, Rays make it back to back years. And the last 2 years only 2 of the top 9 teams have made it.
In the stats you’ve provided, 28 of the 42 teams were top 10 in payroll, and only 10 teams were in the bottom 10. No matter how you put it, it is just undeniable that payroll plays a part in a teams success. Having said that, low payroll teams CAN win and high payrolls teams CAN suck. But money definitely gives you flexibility, and allows you to find external solutions to gaps in your roster.
I feel that large market teams are sometimes likely to fall into the hole of having tons of bad contracts (e.g. Cubs) because as a large market team, they are expected to fill gaps anyway they can to field a competitive team every year, even if it means to overspend for big name free agents. Free agency is definitely not where you want to build a team, and this is how big market teams get into trouble. On the other hand, small market teams tend to have less expectations and resources, such that they can’t even go after free agents. They must solve problems through trades or internally through player development. The trap that large market GMs fall into is overpaying free agents to fill the holes.
That also could all depend on how those players perform at the end. Some stay consistent, but most fall apart. While it’s true they can go out and spend more on other FA’s, in all likelihood it won’t happen like that considering they will be paying these wearing out guys tons of money in the end, have no wear to put them unless traded, and can’t afford to spend another high contract on another FA when you’re paying Player A and Player B millions and millions of dollars still in the end (such as A-Rod, and in the future I see this happening to Werth and Crawford).
And that is precisely where large market teams’ advantage comes in. Teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies CAN afford to sign another expensive free agent with waiting for a previous contract to end. Teams like the Rays would not have that option. If they have A-Rod, they’re stuck until A-Rod’s contract expires. The problem for big market teams arise when you have too many of these contracts. So there must be a good balance of incoming young talent and expensive free agents.
For small market teams, they can only rely on young talent, since they can’t afford established veterans on the FA market. I guess all I’m saying is that with money, you have another alternative to consider, and that definitely gives you an advantage.
It’s true, but we were discussing Cashman’s ability, not his advantages. Cashman has been intelligent in investing his money wisely without having to field almost any zero-value players, or at least to field them for many years.
I don’t disagree with that. Cashman has done a nice job. It’s not an
easy task to bring your team to the playoffs for 13 of 14 years,
regardless of payroll.
The point I’m disputing is the fact that high payroll doesn’t give you an advantage, which I don’t believe is true.
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