LAS VEGAS — Brian Cashman met with reporters at MLB’s general managers meetings Tuesday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, Cashman was one of the most popular interview subjects in Las Vegas given the amount of intrigue that surrounds the Yankees’ offseason.
He answered a variety of questions for over 40 minutes, so as we did for his end-of-season news conference last week, we’ll break this down into the most important highlights of what Cashman had to say about the state of the Yankees, beginning with Aaron Judge.
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Let’s get to it.
The latest with the Yankees and Aaron Judge
The Yankees have been as clear as possible that their No. 1 priority this offseason is to re-sign AL MVP finalist Aaron Judge to an extension that ties him to the franchise for the rest of his career. It just might take some time for that to resolve itself.
Cashman said he’s not planning on having any talks with Judge’s representatives while in Las Vegas. He stated he did not know if Judge’s agents, Page Odle and David Matranga, were in Vegas to begin with. The Athletic learned that they are, indeed, in Las Vegas.
If the Yankees got their way, they’d re-sign Judge to a new deal immediately, but Cashman is unsure of when a deal might unfold. The Mets locked in their closer, Edwin Diáz, before he officially hit free agency, but that’s not expected to be the case with Judge. And the Yankees GM doesn’t have a great sense of what might happen with their superstar.
“I have no confidence either way,” Cashman said. “You enter this process not assuming anything. The one thing I do know is I think he really enjoys the experience here. Those are his words. I know we certainly enjoyed the experience of having him and we’re proud of his career thus far and we hope to be a part of his career the rest of the way. We have to have some serious conversations, and we will. Hopefully, we can retain him. I have no feel how we sit compared to curiosities he has elsewhere and if he has any. We’ll have to stay tuned to find out. We’ll certainly make it tough on him, and I’m sure he’ll make it tough on us. That’s the nature of the beast.”
Cashman said the only thing the Yankees can’t do in the meantime without knowing Judge’s status is sign another right fielder. He’s expecting to operate without any limitations no matter how long it might take for Judge to make his decision.
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The Yankees’ plans in the middle infield
Cashman didn’t rule out the possibility of the Yankees being in the mix for any of the big free-agent shortstops on the market like Carlos Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts or Dansby Swanson, calling the team’s official stance “open-minded.”
“There could be conversations that lead us down paths that we wouldn’t have expected, so I’m not saying we would trade any of our kids but I’m not saying — it just depends on how things play out,” Cashman said.
When specifically asked if the Yankees needed to upgrade Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s position, Cashman said he believes the team has several players who are ready for an opportunity to prove themselves. One of those players is the team’s No. 1 prospect, Anthony Volpe, who finished the season with Triple-A Scranton.
The organization continues to rave about Volpe’s potential, and Cashman believes he’s close to making the MLB roster. The plan for Volpe is to compete for the starting shortstop job in spring training, along with Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera, who Cashman said are close to competing for an everyday position. Cashman didn’t rule out the potential of any of their young players moving positions to make room for all of them, if the club deems they’re all ready to play beginning next season. Cabrera has already played numerous positions since getting called up, while Peraza and Volpe have possible versatility in the infield.
If the Yankees choose not to pursue one of the big shortstops in free agency, there’s expected to be internal competition for the starting shortstop job. The Yankees aren’t ruling anyone out, including Kiner-Falefa, who’s under team control for one more season and is not expected to be non-tendered. Showing faith in one of the prospects like Volpe, Peraza or Cabrera from Opening Day hasn’t been the usual path the Yankees have taken, but other organizations have shown it’s possible to have success with a rookie at such an important position. Houston shortstop Jeremy Peña was the ALCS and World Series MVP as a rookie. The Braves had several rookies in their starting lineup and rotation. The Mariners were led by rookie outfielder Julio Rodriguez. Each young player is different, though, and other teams’ success deploying rookies doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work out for everyone.
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“I think the game will tell you who is and isn’t ready over the course of time,” Cashman said. “I think they’ve done a really good job on the developmental side, and then in terms of Kiner-Falefa, he had his first year of experience here in New York, which is a big market, and as he moves forward going into next year, he’ll take a lot of the experiences to build on as he moves forward. We all start anew next year, and we’ll see how it shakes out.”
As for second base, Gleyber Torres is coming off his best offensive season since 2019. After the Yankees were eliminated in the ALCS, Torres told reporters he was unsure of his future with the team. New York had conversations with Miami about a possible deal centered around Marlins starter Pablo Lopez. Moving Torres would also allow the Yankees to make room for a potential middle infield combo of Volpe and Peraza. Here’s how Cashman responded when asked if he views Torres as the Yankees’ long-term starting second baseman:
“We view him as our second baseman,” Cashman said. “He’s under control for this year. I think two more years? I don’t know if there’s any such thing as long term in our marketplace unless you’re sitting on a Gerrit Cole contract or (Giancarlo) Stanton contract.”
Torres is under team control for two more seasons and is projected to land at just under $10 million in arbitration. If the Yankees want to make room for their young prospects immediately, Torres getting dealt would make the most sense.
The Yankees’ plans with their other free agents
Cashman, once again, explicitly stated he wants to re-sign Anthony Rizzo, who opted out of his $16 million player option. They will explore other first base options on the market to do their due diligence, but the team’s No. 1 priority at the position is to re-sign Rizzo.
Rizzo is the only free agent the Yankees have (other than Judge, obviously) that Cashman was as forthcoming on wanting to bring back. He mentioned how Andrew Benintendi was one of the Yankees’ main targets at the trade deadline because they needed to improve their contact rate and have higher on-base percentage players at the top of their lineup. Benintendi missed the playoffs while recovering from hamate surgery. Cashman said he plans on having conversations with Benintendi’s representation on a potential return, as the team has a clear need in left field.
Some of the main reasons the Yankees lost against the Astros were the team’s poor contact rate and high strikeouts. Cashman said one of the team’s priorities this offseason is improving with better contact hitters, of which Benintendi is one of the better ones in the league.
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Jameson Taillon could be in the mix for the Yankees as a fifth starter option, but Cashman said he hasn’t decided if he’ll be retained. He did say that he feels comfortable with Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas as the top four of the rotation with Domingo German “obviously in that fifth spot.” Reading between the lines, betting on Taillon not returning may be the right play.
Confidence in Josh Donaldson
The Yankees’ starting third baseman regressed in nearly every important offensive category from 2021 to 2022. His 2022 percentile rankings were down in average exit velocity, max exit velocity, hard hit percentage, xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, Barrel %, K%, BB%, Whiff % and Chase Rate, but the Yankees, at least publicly, believe this was just a down year for their second-highest paid position player.
“I don’t think it goes away that quickly,” Cashman said regarding Donaldson’s bat. “That’s basically it. I think he still has game left. I think he has a chance to impact that win column. He did it for us in a different way, more so on the defensive side, but he’s certainly capable of a lot.”
When directly asked if Donaldson will be the team’s starting third baseman for 2023, here’s what he said:
“He’s our third baseman right now,” Cashman said. “He’s signed for next year so he’s our third baseman. If there’s something different there, I’ll let you know. I thought he played excellent defense. He’s a better hitter than what he showed. He struggled there in the end, like a lot of our guys. He wasn’t the only one. I think the reality is he is more of the player before this year than this year’s offensive side. He should’ve been the Gold Glove. I don’t know why he wasn’t even in the finalists. That was a mistake. The bat is better than what he showed. We believe that. I can easily say he’s a two-way force in this game, in my opinion.”
Understandably, the public comments will not inspire many warm feelings from those in Yankeeland, but it would be surprising if Cashman spoke negatively about a player under contract because there’s no benefit to the organization. Granted, 29 other teams will have their own data points and may view Donaldson’s offensive future differently, but that’s for them to decide — not for Cashman to decide for them.
Donaldson was an excellent defender and should have been a Gold Glove finalist, but the Yankees need to consider better options. There’s no guarantee that this was just a blip in production. He’ll be 37 next season and players tend to not drastically improve at his age.
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Other Yankees notes
• There’s still no update on DJ LeMahieu’s foot injury. Surgery still has not been ruled out, and it’s possible the Yankees re-evaluate his status in a month. The initial sense is LeMahieu will opt for a conservative approach with rest and treatment to see how the foot responds before deciding if surgery is necessary.
• Cashman said he has “a lot of faith in Clay Holmes” as the team’s closer and expects him to hold that spot going into next season.
• Montas was a disappointment for the Yankees after being acquired from Oakland. Cashman was asked if he has any concerns with him: “We have to wait and see him healthy. I think his Yankee experience goes into the bucket of, ‘Was he really healthy to be the best version of himself like we had seen when he was flying high in Oakland?’ Right now, he’ll go in that category. He’ll have a good winter of rest and prep, and we look forward to deploying him in the spring to see what we got.”
When the Yankees traded for Montas, Cashman said he viewed him as a No. 2 starter behind Cole. Has that changed? “We felt like he was the second-best starter on the market that was available. He has a lot of characteristics that we like in pitchers. He’s got the ground-ball ability, the strikeout ability and it would’ve been nice to have him fully healthy.”
• While he didn’t explicitly say Luis Castillo by name, the Yankees likely viewed him as the No. 1 starter available. They ultimately viewed the Reds’ asking price too high, and the Mariners landed him instead.
(Top photo of Brian Cashman: Lucas Peltier / USA Today)
