The Yankees rolled into Fenway this weekend with the best record and largest run differential in the majors and with the real look of a World Series team. It’s been quite an amazing turnaround from the desultory 82-80 Yankee team of a year ago — for which a bulk of the credit must go to… Brian Cashman.
Say what? The same Brian Cashman whose head Yankee legions have been calling for the last few years; who was universally pilloried (yes, even here!) for his over-reliance on analytics and, especially, for putting together last year’s boring, too-right-handed, un-athletic mess of a team that even he called a “disaster”?
But if we were going to blame Cashman for all that has ailed the Yankees in recent years as a non-World Series team since 2009, it is only fair to give him full credit for the 2024 Yankees who are on pace for a plus 290 run differential which would be their largest since 1998. Because this team is all Cashman — and goes a lot deeper than just Juan Soto.
OK, the Soto deal was transformational and together with Aaron Judge he has formed one of the most productive lefty-righty power combos in history. The Yankees desperately needed a left-handed power hitter and Soto was the best in baseball. The only question was whether Cashman gave up too much pitching for a player, great as he is, who is still a one-year rental, likely commanding the biggest contract in baseball history to retain. But while Michael King is having a decent season in San Diego, and Drew Thorpe, the top pitching prospect in the deal, has just been promoted by the White Sox, the Yankee starting rotation has been superb all season long — and without Gerrit Cole.
Replacing Cole and King at the top of the rotation have been Luis Gil, the Dominican prodigy who Cashman stole from Twins back in 2018 for minor league outfielder Jake Cave, and Marcus Stroman, who he signed for a fairly reasonable two-years, $37 million last winter. Obviously, high as the Yankees may have been on him, not even Cashman could have foreseen the 26-year-old Gil emerging as a bona fide Cy Young candidate in his rookie season. But he has, improving his record to 9-1 with the lowest ERA (2.03) in the AL with five more strong innings against the Red Sox Friday night.
Meanwhile, again to Cashman’s credit, in restoring conventional left-handed hitting to the Yankee lineup, he didn’t stop with Soto but instead shipped a trio of minor league pitchers (Greg Weissert, Nicholas Judice and Richard Fitts) to the Red Sox for Alex Verdugo — a curious deal at first since Verdugo came with serious character issues after being benched a couple of times by Red Sox manager Alex Cora last year. Whether it’s coming under the influence of the Yankees strong clubhouse leadership from Judge, Verdugo has been a model citizen who clearly loves playing in the Bronx, and whose 13.9 strikeout rate is the lowest on the team (Gene Michael would love him) and his seven Defensive Runs Saved is tops among all MLB left fielders.
If there’s any minus to Verdugo it’s that his continued inspired all-around play is forcing the Yankees to keep No. 1 prospect Jasson Dominguez cooling his heels in Triple-A.
We should also not forget Jose Trevino, the Yankees’ first-string catcher, was obtained by Cashman from Texas in April 2022 for the immortal Albert Abreu. This year Cashman made three significant additions to the bullpen in Luke Weaver ($2 million free agent), lefty Victor Gonzalez (trade from the Dodgers for former No. 1 draft pick shortstop bust Trey Sweeney) and Michael Tonkin (waiver claim from the Mets), all of whom have helped solidify the middle relief corps. And so far Cody Poteet (signed as a free agent in January after being released by the Royals) has done an excellent job as a fill-in starter.
Other than Clarke Schmidt and Ron Marinaccio, the entire Yankee pitching staff was obtained by Cashman either by trades or free agency from other teams.
As well fortified as this Yankee team may be, however, I’m sure Cashman is not deluded about more work needed to be done before October. In particular, there are legitimate concerns about closer Clay Holmes, whose 19 saves have too often been adventures. The Orioles have the same concerns about their closer, Craig Kimbrel — which is why the trade deadline could result in a fierce bidding war between the Yankees and Orioles for Miami’s closer Tanner Scott, who had his first real blip Thursday when he gave up the game-winning homer to the Mets’ J.D. Martinez. Come the deadline, the Orioles, with a wealth of top prospects who are blocked at the major league level, most notably third baseman Coby Mayo, have the advantage to get whoever they want.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
How about David Robertson in his latest reincarnation with Texas, striking out Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the ninth inning in back-to-back games last week?… Baseball finally got rid of its worst umpire, Angel Hernandez, a couple of weeks ago but they’ve got a few more they need to put out to pasture who continually embarrass the game, starting with C.B. Bucknor. Last Tuesday, Bucknor rang up Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki on a pitch that was 5.04 inches off the plate, the second largest missed strike of any umpire this year according to Umpire Auditor. In all, Bucknor missed 14 calls in the game and with Hernandez now gone he is lowest rated umpire in the majors. For years Bucknor has been notoriously bad and consistently rated at the bottom, yet he goes on. Why is it that MLB umpires are never held to account for incompetence and are instead treated like Supreme Court justices, never demoted or fired? And speaking of umpires, now it’s an umpire, in this case Pat Hoberg, who has been disciplined by MLB for violating the league’s gambling rules. Once again, I’m shocked, absolutely shocked, there’s gambling going on in baseball!
