The seven reinforcements they have coming over the hill aren’t the best news for Yankee supporters. The better news, however, is that it is official that the owners and general managers are paying attention to them.
Brian Cashman went all crazy on us a year after the Yankees didn’t do nearly enough at the trade deadline. He provided himself choices at shortstop in case Anthony Volpe’s defense doesn’t get better, reduced the length of games the rest of the way, and increased his team’s depth.
Despite how badly the new men performed on Friday night in Miami, Cashman accomplished a lot. David Stearns, who is still essentially Steve Cohen’s new employee, accomplished a lot. We may soon learn whether Stearns will receive anything like the legendary runway and freedom that Cashman has received, initially from Steinbrenner the Father and now from Steinbrenner the Son. However, Cashman and Stearns both worked hard this week, as is expected of people with their kind of employment in this city. And that’s what the fans desire to witness.
Stearns is discovering that they are in a hardball league and must wear helmets, and Cashman is already well aware of this. Stearns will never be as much of a lightning rod as Cashman is. However, when you have worked for the most renowned sports team in our nation and one that is well-known worldwide for as long as he has, it is simply the way things work.
Does Cashman hear it on social media and read it? He does, indeed. His manager agrees. Before Jimmy Dolan became weary of him, Tom Thibodeau did the same. Does anyone believe that mean tweets from one end of X to the other haven’t been directed at Joe Schoen, Brian Daboll, and John Mara in particular? Be honest. It’s all part of the deal. This region. Wellington, John Mara’s father, was well-known for responding to real letters from Giants supporters. In your opinion, how has his son fared in the years since the Giants’ last Super Bowl victory?
However, John is not a victim and must not be regarded as such. Furthermore, Cashman’s trade deadline was superior to some of the erratic ones in recent years, when better moves at the deadline could have made all the difference.
Again and again: The shaky narrative that Yankees supporters aren’t appreciative enough of their team’s consecutive winning seasons persists. We are expected to think that Yankee supporters are a group of George Steinbrenners and that their only hope is to win the World Series.
Where in the world? Not the real one, of course. There are many Yankee fans that I know. There are plenty of Yankee supporters that everyone knows. And this is their fundamental stance:
They don’t believe it’s irrational to believe that a club with this kind of reputation and these kinds of resources should have won multiple World Series in the past 25 years. Are some of the attacks on social media personal? Indeed, they are. It’s shocking. However, when the fervent Yankee supporters stop tweeting, it’s not personal between them and Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner. They have a very intimate relationship with their team. They also have the right to anticipate winning many World Series every 25 years.
Without a doubt, Stearns and Cashman were quite busy on Thursday. The Yankees would have essentially rotated a third of their roster over the previous week if they had added one more player before six o’clock on Thursday. For this reason, they ought to come up with a new moniker for the trade deadline:
It’s Makeover Day.
No joke, Cashman now uses five closers if you’re keeping score at home:
His closer last year and on occasion this year was Luke Weaver.
Devin Williams shouldn’t turn around because a number of men may be catching up to him.
Bednar, David.
Doval Camilo.
Bird, Jake.
Additionally, the Mets acquired Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley, two formidable bullpen pitchers. Cedric Mullins was an exciting center fielder that they needed. In his first week in town, Ryan McMahon has done about as well as anyone could at presenting himself to Yankee fans, giving the Yankees the dependable third baseman they sorely needed.
The media was almost breathless with excitement over the Yankees’ maneuvers, as usual, as if the rest of the league and the rest of the sport should now be afraid to leave the clubhouse.
Of course, Brian Cashman still wants to stay here. Some Yankees in their twenties have only ever heard of him as the Yankee general manager. And it’s clear that Hal wants him here. If Cashman ever left the Yankees, we hear how many teams would be vying for his services. He isn’t leaving, though. If David Stearns doesn’t finally bring his owner a World Series, you wonder how long he will be employed at Citi Field.
Or, to put it another way:
Fifteen years have passed since the Yankees took home the championship. In your opinion, will Stearns have fifteen years to arrange for Steve Cohen to visit the Canyon of Heroes?
On Thursday, Stearns and Cashman took a swing. They weren’t alone, either. It’s also the reason they became so successful. The same was done in San Diego by A.J. Preller. In addition to the Blue Jays and the Dodgers, the Astros were also players. Dustin May from the Dodgers and Steven Matz, an old Met, from the Cardinals were acquired by the Red Sox, who have been closing in on the Yankees lately. And you know what? When Red Sox fans didn t think Craig Breslow, their general manager, did enough, he caught a beating on social media, too. Comes with the job, comes with the territory.
So Breslow hears it in Boston. So does John Henry, the Red Sox owner. He hears it bigtime even though his team has won four World Series to the Yankees one over the past two decades. Surely it feels personal to him, just because the relationship between Red Sox fans and their team is deeply personal.
Neither Cashman nor Stearns get a parade because of their Thursday makeovers. There is no way of knowing how the makeovers will work out. This is a results business for them the same as it is for everybody else. On Thursday at least they did more than spend money.
Seriously? Don t you think it s at least a little funny that Hal Steinbrenner and Uncle Steve spent more than $600 million on what turned out to be first drafts?
I kind of do.
It used to be that you never had enough pitching in baseball.
Now you have to qualify it this way:
You can never have enough RELIEF pitching.
The Yankees having five closers that is a world s record, right?
I kept waiting to hear that they were bringing Mo back.
The Ballard TV series, from the great Michael Connelly, has turned out to be a worthy successor to all those years of Harry Bosch.
And it was a very cool thing to see Titus Welliver popping up as Bosch in a few of the Ballard episodes.
Oh, I was all over Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun this weekend.
Totally knew how great Neeson would be as Frank Drebin Jr.
At a time when newspapers in particular and the media business in general is under almost constant siege, I watched All the President s Men this week just to remind myself of something:
That the ideals of this business are still worth fighting for, same as they were back when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein took on and ultimately took down Richard Nixon, the criminal inhabiting the Oval Office at that time.
Woodward and Bernstein wrote the book, of course.
William Goldman wrote a brilliant screenplay, one for which he won his second Academy Award.
For my money, it is still the best newspaper movie of all time.
I don t think there s anybody in town rooting against Anthony Volpe.
Nor should they be.
If the Knicks are paying Mikal Bridges that kind of money, you can bet your own money that Mike Brown s offense isn t going to have Bridges standing in the corner.
Whoever ends up being QB1 for the Giants, that guy just needs to throw Malik Nabers the damn ball.
It really was destiny that brought Stephen A. and my friend Christopher Russo together, wasn t it?
As dazzling a hitter as Juan Soto is, the Mets can only be great if Francisco Lindor is great.
So to speak.
Marcus Stroman, we hardly knew ye.
That was certainly money well spent.
In what is more and more a 5-inning sport for starting pitchers, guys like Tarik Skubal and Garrett Cochet tower over everything because of the way they want to stay out there, right?
By the way?
If Craig Breslow, the Boston GM, is suddenly such a dope, how did he add Crochet and Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman to his team this year?
Nice to see that Luka Doncic is keeping himself up.
If you gave LeBron truth serum he d probably tell you he d rather be playing at the Garden.
Just because of the way Jerry Jones always folds his hand in these contract negotiations with star players, we need to start calling him JACO Jones.
As in: Jerry Always Chickens Out.
James Patterson and Mike Lupica s new Jane Smith thriller, The Hamptons Lawyer, made its debut at No. 1 this week on the New York Times Best Seller List.
