Despite offseason criticism, Yankees GM Brian Cashman stuck with his shortstop plan
Yankees GM Brain Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner took a lot of criticism this winter. With a record class of shortstops available on the free-agent market and that spot being an obvious need for the Bombers, fans of expected a big splash. Instead, they got some trades that underwhelmed at the time.
Now, with their team sporting the best record in baseball, Cashman wasn’t exactly taking a victory lap, but he’s very pleased with the plan coming together as they saw it.
“Criticism comes with the territory. ... Our players have to deal with that all the time. The only thing that matters is going out there and winning and these guys are winning their games right now,” the Yankees GM said Wednesday. “And it’s great to see and it makes it easier to sleep at night in April and May right now.
“So hopefully we can keep the healthy side of it going and the good mojo going, but I know we have a good crew. We knew that before the season started but it’s nice to see these guys have come together really well and do what’s necessary‚ which is finding every which way to win on a consistent basis,” Cashman continued. “[Giancarlo] Stanton said something earlier in the year. The games we lost we actually could have won so even the ones that got away from us right to the very end we had a chance to take another W so we’ve been in every situation which is great to see.”
Instead of signing a Carlos Correa or Corey Seager, Cashman made the deal to bring in Isiah Kiner-Falefa, an infielder they had been linked to for a while. Kiner-Falefa has been an upgrade over Gleyber Torres defensively at shortstop.
“He’s done a nice job. Yeah, I mean, it was a while this winter with a lot of discussions of trying to solve that area. It was one of the stated areas of need,” Cashman said. “We failed on getting him directly from Texas. We tried and then he went to Minnesota, that was a disappointing period of time. And then within 24 or 48 hours we were able to spin it around and pull him down from Minnesota. He was one of the many that we were knocking on the door on, but it’s not easy to pull down whether it’s a free agent or make a trade but thankfully, at the end of the day, we’re able to secure somebody that we liked.”