Yankees GM Brian Cashman's message: 'Don't give up on us. Don't count us out.'
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman speaks during a news conference before a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Wednesday, May 3, 2023, in New York. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
The Yankees went into Wednesday night’s game against Cleveland in last place in the AL East at 16-15, 8½ games behind the first-place Rays. They have 10 key players on the injured list, including captain Aaron Judge.
General manager Brian Cashman said he felt a responsibility to take questions from the media because so many reporters were reaching out to him for his take on the state of his banged-up squad.
“I had a number of different people who were texting who wanted to talk,” Cashman said. “I was like, “Let’s just talk together.’ ”
Cashman was surrounded by the assembled media in the Yankees dugout. But he was really talking to Yankees fans.
His main message:
“Don't give up on us. That's all I can tell you. Don’t count us out. Don’t give up on us.”
That Cashman felt the need to reassure the Yankees’ finnicky fan base is a reflection of how bad the first month-plus of the season has gone. The injured Yankees including three-fifths of their starting rotation, four key relievers, and Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson from the beleaguered offense.
Judge should be back next week from his right hip strain. The rest? Two of the relievers are not coming back this season. None of the other injured players are close to returning.
Cashman said it’s too early in the baseball calendar to pull off any trades.
“Myself and our staff are constantly looking to see what's available,” he said. “Time of year is tough. If you asked me a question in the wintertime or even March, like ‘Hey, what's your biggest fear coming out the early portion of season?’ On behalf of all general managers, I would say you don't want to get wrecked with injuries early because trying to go outside the organization to deal with that (is) pretty difficult.”
The Yankees’ internal options to replace their injured hitters have not done well. Willie Calhoun had a big home run in Tuesday’s 4-2 win over the Guardians, but in general the production from the fill-ins has been subpar.
“Obviously, it's not the team that we've put together. We've had a lot of injuries,” Cashman said. “So then we had to turn our attention to some alternative choices and we're not playing our best baseball with what we currently have as healthy players, and we're certainly missing the guys that we typically are used to seeing out there.”
Still, Cashman said, “I believe we have a championship-caliber team. I do. And I also know it's a long season. In the position we're in, we're going to be thankful that it's a long season because we're banged up so bad right now. If it was a short season, we’d been taken out. But we have time to make up ground and we're going to compete with who we have here and we look forward to getting who we need back at a later date.
“We’ve got a good group of people, player wise, staff wise, support staff wise. It's a championship-caliber operation from that perspective. But we're not currently flying at the level that we would have expected because we're missing some really important pieces, which I think anybody would acknowledge. But in the meantime, it's also part of it. You’ve got to withstand it. You're going to find a way to continue to tread some water at the very least and not slide too far out of it while we’re waiting on some very important pieces to come back.”
Cashman, who overhauled the team’s strength and conditioning department a few years ago, added: "I just think we're getting hit with injuries. I'm not blaming any individual for that. It's not our strength and conditioning department. It's not how we train our players . . . Injuries happen and ultimately we're getting a lot of injuries right now and that’s certainly killing us. But I have nothing I can convict others (on) . . . if you want to convict somebody, convict me. It's my responsibility.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
