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March 06, 2008

Cashman Talks About How The Yanks Roll These Days

Via the Pioneer Press:

And the irony of Cashman's position — that the Yankees, who could have afforded Santana's enormous contract, were better off keeping prospects Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera — is that he was following the example of another organization that tries to grow its own future stars.

The Twins.

"Absolutely. We've tried to learn a lot from the way the Twins operate; they've done an exceptional job for years," Cashman said. "They've kicked our (butt) in the amateur (scouting) department for a decade or more."

Adding Santana to the Yankees' roster would've made a great deal of sense, Cashman admitted. He just wishes they had done it eight years ago.

"My philosophy is, we should have been as smart as Minnesota and drafted him as a Rule 5 guy (in 2000)," said Cashman, the Yankees' general manager since 1998. "See, that's where we need to be better. That's the time we should have gotten him. Not now, not when the price is over $100 million and some of our best prospects."

The Twins under Andy MacPhail, Terry Ryan and now Smith always have done business like that. In their case, emphasizing scouting and development is an economic decision as much as a philosophical one, but Cashman says he has a new Twins-like appreciation for the value of drafting well. Cheap young talent is the most valuable commodity in the game, and it doesn't make sense not to pursue it, he said.

"There are a lot of things going on in New York that can make us lose sight of that. There's always the next big-ticket free agent coming on the market," said Cashman, who signed Alex Rodriguez to a contract worth $275 million in December. "For too long, we were using only one tool — writing a big check. We're going to be a lot better off in the long run if we are more successful on the front end — the draft, international players, the amateurs. And Minnesota is excellent at the front end, by necessity."

But Cashman cites several successes over the past few seasons — turning over second base to Robinson Cano, promoting Cabrera when Hideki Matsui was injured rather than making a trade, and passing up Eric Gagne at the trade deadline last season in favor of trying untested Joba Chamberlain — that strengthened his resolve to hang on to the team's top youngsters, and its draft picks.

"Everyone said, this guy (Cabrera) can't play defense. And now we have an everyday center fielder that our fan base has fallen in love with," Cashman said. "People said (of Chamberlain), 'What a joke. They're going to try this kid nobody's ever heard of. They don't know what they're doing.' And now Joba is a big name.

"It seems like Minnesota is forced to build from within like this, and you know what? Some guys really step up."

Terry Ryan, in his time with the Twins, set the gold-standard for what a baseball G.M. should be...in terms of success. Someone should write a book about what was going on in Minnesota from 2001 through 2006 (and what led up to that). If Cashman wants to model his game after another G.M., he couldn't have made a better choice than Ryan.

Posted by WW Staff at March 6, 2008 09:48 AM

Comments

Posted by: Mike A. at March 6, 2008 10:19 AM

Posted by: Raf at March 6, 2008 12:38 PM

Posted by: Rich at March 6, 2008 01:41 PM