Sorry, folks, but I am not buying Brian Cashman’s claim that he was against trading for Alfonso Soriano, and I think he has an agenda behind his claims to be against the trade.
Here’s the story: Joel Sherman wrote in Saturday’s New York Post that Cashman opposed the trade:
Alfonso became the second straight Soriano that Brian Cashman advised Yankees ownership not to acquire — and was overruled on nevertheless.
Just as with the signing of free agent Rafael Soriano, the general manager believed Yankees assets could be spent better than on Alfonso Soriano, two executives not affiliated with the Yankees told The Post.
And Sherman was treated to an on-the-record interview from Cashman himself, with these quotes:
Cashman would not directly confirm what he advised Hal Steinbrenner, but told The Post: “I would say we are in a desperate time. Ownership wants to go for it. I didn’t want to give up a young arm [Corey Black]. But I understand the desperate need we have for offense. And Soriano will help us. The bottom line is this guy makes us better. Did ownership want him? Absolutely, yes. Does he make us better? Absolutely, yes. This is what Hal wants, and this is why we are doing it.”
In addition, Sherman writes some revisionist history about how Cashman really wanted to sign Russell Martin, even though he said at the time he was too busy taking care of signing starting pitchers to worry about the catching situation.
Sherman also claims this:
According to multiple executives, [Nate] Schierholtz’s agents were seriously weighing signing with the Yankees, but wanted playing-time assurances and guarantees the Yankees would not sign fellow lefty swingers Josh Hamilton or Suzuki.
Except for the fact that 1) Hamilton signed with the Angels a week before Schierholtz went elsewhere, 2) the Yankees never negotiated with Hamilton, and 3) I guess I missed when Schierholtz was so A-list that his agents could dictate such demands to the Yankees.
In addition, I have a few other thoughts: First of all, why do executives “not affiliated with the Yankees” know the Yankees’ business on the latest Soriano trade? Cashman is a bit of a blabbermouth, isn’t he? How is this not insubordinate?
Second, Corey Black was a 2012 fourth-round draft pick. I have never heard of the pitcher before this week. Maybe he will be a good pitcher, but given Cashman’s shoddy track record on drafting pitchers, I wouldn’t polish the Cy Young trophy just yet.
Third, no GM in baseball has 100% autonomy. All of them have to deal with ownership, and get overruled on things. But Brian Cashman is the only one who spreads the Yankees’ business, and talks about internal issues, to other executives and newspaper reporters. I think it’s insubordination, and he gets away with it again and again.
Fourth, the bottom line is this: Brian Cashman is a bad general manager who should lose his job for assembling this bad team. And he is still playing the Steinbrenner card, three years after George’s death, and a decade after The Boss was a force to be reckoned with.
Why would Cashman be against this trade? It is a quintessential Cashman deal — trading for an aging player past his prime who makes a lot of money! That’s pretty much all he does these days!
I think Cashman’s opposition to this trade is his way of trying to save his job through the media. He has ginned up the whole “the Steinbrenners are taking away Brian’s autonomy again” nonsense, and is trying to get the fans to feel sympathy for poor Brian. The implication, of course, is that if only that meanie Hal Steinbrenner let Brian do his thing, this team would be good.
Never mind that Steinbrenner was right, and Cashman was wrong, on the first Soriano deal — without that pitcher, the Yankees would not have made the playoffs last season after Mariano Rivera got hurt. Having Rafael Soriano was a great contingency plan, something Cashman has shown zero interest in. It’s why there is no successor for Jeter and A-Rod.
And never mind that no GM in baseball has 100% autonomy — they all have bosses who overrule them. But we never hear about when they are overruled. That is because they aren’t insubordinate to their bosses, the way Cashman is here.
Incidentally, you know how we know that the Steinbrenner kids are not acting like their father? Because Brian Cashman still has a job, after second-guessing his bosses in the media. In fact, they are the opposite of their father. They don’t have the appetite to fire anybody!
Agiain, Cashman is a terrible general manager. He needs to go. And Hal Steinbrenner is not a good owner — the fact that he has kept Cashman on after his employee publicly second-guessed him in the media shows that.
This team needs to clean house — now — starting with their idiot GM.
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