00:00It's a drive on Derby Dosey! It is a slam!
00:08Joel Sherman from the General Manager's Meetings in Las Vegas.
00:12Brian Cashman spoke for about 90 minutes earlier Tuesday to a large contingent of reporters,
00:19pretty much covered every area of the team, and I thought maybe the best way to convey
00:24the major issues that he covered is almost to go position by position and tell you what stuck
00:31out to me. Brian Cashman said he's operating his business as normal as much as possible. He's not
00:35holding back from talking to free agents and talking, making trade discussions. He would not
00:42discuss, define what the budget is except for to say that Hal Steinberg gave him one and didn't give
00:48him two. In other words, one in case, like for now, and one in case there are more punitive
00:55measures for large payrolls, including a salary cap. He says he's operating under one.
01:00While he didn't, the sense I've gotten from executives and agents I've talked to about it
01:05is the Yankees are not moving in the upper regions, but that they might have some money to spend. I
01:11think obviously more could be spent if, say, David Bednar turns down the qualifying offer or they're
01:17able to trade a player eventually, like, say, Luis Garcia or Clark Schmidt and open up some more
01:22finances. Catcher, Cashman made clear Austin Wells is his catcher and that the Yankees right now are
01:32looking for a right-hand hitting complement, but that was, he pointed out, that was true last season
01:39also. They were trying to improve on Ali Sanchez and they never could match up with someone.
01:44Obviously, they got close on Adley Rutschman at the trade deadline, but the Red Sox came in with
01:50a powerhouse offer and were able to get him away from the Orioles. So I think they're looking for
01:55right-hand hitting catcher. I will say this, as of early Tuesday, I got a very strong feeling that
02:01the Yankees had not reached out in a couple of places I thought they definitely would for right-hand
02:06hitting catcher. If they're moving hard on that, they must have other players or they're not seeing it
02:12as a key issue. And again, Cashman would not give a priority list of what he thought was most
02:16important. First base and DH I should probably do together because it's complicated. One thing he
02:23made clear is Ben Rice is going to play every day. He said he's comfortable. He thought Rice was a
02:27better first baseman in 2026 than he was in 2025, but he used the scouting grade, which is 20 to
02:3470.
02:35And he said that whether Ben Rice is a 45 or a 55, he's going to play because of his
02:41bat. He said he
02:42spoke to the agent for Luis Garcia Jr. and that he said no third base, but first base and second
02:49base
02:50for sure are in play for Garcia. And Garcia is going to play winter ball and going to play some
02:55second
02:56base to try to open up some other stuff. I do wonder what defense looks like. If your first baseman
03:02is
03:02Ben Rice and your second baseman is Luis Garcia Jr. But this gets us to DH, which is Brian Cashman
03:09likes John Carlos Stanton a lot. He described him as a healthy player to end the season. And for anyone
03:14who's thinking that the Yankees are going to eat the 25-ish million they owe him for 2027 and just
03:20open up the DH for Rice and put Garcia at first and move on from there and keep DH more
03:26fertile for Aaron
03:28Judge to move in. They're bringing, he said, John Carlos Stanton will be in spring training for the
03:35Yankees. And so I think you have to think of the Yankees as it's an uncomfortable situation maybe.
03:41There's a lot of bats there. Maybe their offense, which was problematic too much of 2026 and certainly
03:48in getting eliminated by Tampa. You know, he made clear that the offense, one of the ways the offense
03:53gets better is a healthy season for Judge. You wonder, is Judge going to have healthy seasons
03:58moving forward in his mid-30s, as big and strong as he is? You know, Stanton, Garcia for a full
04:03season
04:04and Rice. It was so clear that he loved Rice. He thought Anthony Volpe would be part of a second
04:10base conversation as well. He thought he handled it well in a year where he admitted it didn't go well
04:15and Cashman continues to be a believer. The term he used is, I think Anthony Volpe can be at least
04:21an
04:21average and maybe a slightly above average player. And they're not ready to give up on that.
04:27Perhaps after Rice, when it came to position players, his best praise might have been for
04:31George Lombard Jr. So I think it's pretty clear George Lombard Jr. is going to be the shortstop
04:36to begin next year. And the belief that there will be steadiness and growth in a second year,
04:41we'll see. Did not sound, and again, understand that Brian Cashman has to play a little bit of
04:46liars poker here. You can't tell the universe, hey, I'm not bringing Ryan McMahon back. I'm sure
04:52they'll look for places maybe if they could offset some of McMahon's $16 million that he's owed in
04:572027. But he made it clear this was an area the Yankees were not as good last year and need
05:04to be
05:05better. He probably needs a right-hand caddy there. But it did not sound like definitively like
05:11they're moving on from Ryan McMahon. And by the way, to say this on the infield, he had nothing but
05:18praise for Jazz Chisholm. And I do think that that is not all bluff. I think that Brian Cashman
05:24actually likes Jazz Chisholm and thinks Jazz Chisholm was a good player for the Yankees for most of the
05:30two and a half years he was with the team and obviously didn't have as good a year in his
05:34walk
05:34year. And Cashman talked about the idea of, you know, Luis Severino, Gleyber Torres, and a few other
05:39guys who in their walk year did not perform as well with some of the pressure on him. But having
05:46said that, I don't see the Yankees bringing Jazz Chisholm back. But Cashman is one of those people
05:52who always tries to separate the noise. And it doesn't matter if Joel Sherman thinks that Jazz
05:57Chisholm is somewhat problematic because he's in the wrong place a lot on the field and some of the
06:01fundamental stuff goes out of the way. The Yankees look at the overall value of a player, like think of
06:07war and think of Jazz Chisholm as a good player. Having said that, I don't think he'll be back.
06:11Center field, he did not give definitively to anybody. He talked up Spencer Jones. He said Cody
06:18Bellinger could cover it. He did talk about the idea that maybe an outfielder could be added. But
06:23you know, I think that that's something they'll look at in the group. But you start to run out of
06:30position slots if Stanton is going to be on the team, if Elio Ramos is going to be on the
06:36team,
06:36if Jose Caballero, Anthony Volpe, etc. are going to be on the team, you're going to run out of 13
06:42position slots pretty quickly. So either the Yankees have to move some people, be willing to
06:46move somebody to the minor leagues like Volpe or Spencer Jones, or believe it, Caballero still has
06:52a minor league option that can be used. So you know, my sense talking again to people outside the
06:59Yankees is guys like Jose Caballero, Jason Dominguez, they're more available. The Yankees would like to
07:05trade those kind of guys as part of something than say Volpe or Jones. Having said that, those guys
07:11might not be the easiest sales. And again, right now, I sense that with the lockout looming, teams
07:18are finding trade partners hard to find because we don't know what the rules are going to be for
07:21service time. You know, like what do you do with a player who's close to free agency? Is he going
07:26to
07:26get free, you know, get there a lot quicker? Are we not playing? And you acquired a guy in his
07:31walk
07:31year and he plays 50 games instead of 162. So I think trades are tough. I think free agency is
07:37the
07:37way. I think trades are much more likely whenever the lockout ends. Pitching wise, he made clear he
07:43likes David Bednar a lot. I think the Yankees are very curious next Tuesday, by next Tuesday's
07:49deadline, will Bednar take the qualifying offer or not? I think, you know, Cashman would not say it out
07:55loud. But I think there are people in the industry who look at this as a maybe not 50-50
08:01thing, but
08:02that there is some chance that Bednar takes the 23.15 million. The Yankees would love that. Yes,
08:08it's a lot for one year, but they'd rather have Bednar locked up for one than locked up for say
08:12three to try to keep him. He said, insisted that the Yankees do not have a policy that they won't
08:18give
08:18a long multi-year contract to a relief pitcher, though they haven't since Rodgers Chapman and
08:26Zach Britton went badly. But yeah, I think that they'd love for the Bednar thing to be done.
08:33He admitted that multiple relievers probably have to be acquired. If I was thinking about something
08:38the Yankees might do in free agency, aside from perhaps getting Bednar done short term,
08:44is maybe get another reliever before the lockout deadline. Again, December 1st. Starting pitching,
08:54he announced Max Fried had surgery to remove a bone chip from his left elbow. He said that he'll
09:01start throwing again in December is the plan and would be a fully functional player if spring training
09:07opened normally in mid-February. Again, let's all cross our fingers if you're a baseball fan that
09:12that's actually the case. And it does open in mid-February. When asked if he would use the
09:19pitching depth that the team currently has, starting pitching depth, to trade for other items
09:27that are needed, the third baseman, a center fielder, relief help, etc. Cashman said it's definitely
09:35in play. He wishes he could just buy it and keep all the depth. And if there are overflow, use
09:42some
09:42of that in the bullpen. But a name I would look for, because I have a feel for, I believe,
09:49how the
09:50Yankees think about each of their guys. Clark Schmidt would be a free agent at the end of the 2027
09:56season. Can they match up with a team that maybe has a player also that would be in that situation
10:02and
10:02make it an easier one? Or does that have to wait again until after a lockout? I would think Schmidt
10:09is more likely than, say, a Ryan Weathers or a Will Warren, though I think the Yankees will listen
10:14on everything. Elmer Rodriguez, Carlos LeGrande. He did say that he still sees Carlos LeGrande as a
10:23starting pitcher and not a relief pitcher. And that's how he'll come to camp and be stretched out
10:28for that way to provide depth as the season goes along. Those were the main points that Brian spoke
10:36about. He did mention that the hitting coach, James Rousen, is a free agent. I think there's going
10:41to be a real shakeup in their hitting group before it's all said and done. They're waiting to hear if
10:48Brad Asmus is getting the job as Houston manager before deciding what to do with a bench coach situation.
10:54But personnel-wise, I think that's where the Yankees are as we're kind of about midway through the
10:59general manager's meetings.
